That's just ESPN trying to justify people paying for their stupid Insider, when all it is about is stories and rumors from other Newspaper and stuff ESPN creates on their own. THEY SUCK!.

^ wanna fill us in?

Oops, sorry about that. Here's the piece:


NEW YORK -- Act II of Larry Brown vs. Stephon Marbury has begun, not with a haymaker but with an exchange of jabs.

The Knicks dropped to 0-3 Sunday with an 83-81 home loss to the Golden State Warriors as Brown made like a mad professor with his rotation experiments, giving extensive minutes to rookies David Lee, Nate Robinson and Channing Frye while benching Eddy Curry for the entire fourth quarter.

"This is kind of an audition, trying to define a mentality of how I think we should play," Brown said afterward. "When you don't have to coach effort, it's a big step."

But as Brown tries to separate the lemmings from the laggards, he's running the risk of leading the team too far off a cliff while sacrificing a huge segment of the schedule. Brown said it could "very easily" be at least 20 games before he settles on a set rotation, which doesn't bode well for a roster about to start pressing for that elusive first victory.

Marbury couldn't help himself from knocking the willy-nilly nature of Brown's substitution patterns, which haven't really been patterns at all, in losses to Boston, Washington and Golden State.

"Consistency is always the best teacher," Marbury said. "I guess coach does stuff differently."

On Sunday, Brown had used 11 of his 12 players by the midpoint of the fourth quarter, getting an especially strong performance from Lee in his NBA debut as the three rookies kept the Knicks in the game. But when Lee was winded and needed to go to the bench with 5:46 remaining and the Knicks ahead 74-71, Brown replaced him with the only member of the team who hadn't yet played, Malik Rose. (Maurice Taylor wasn't an option. After taking four charges in the Knicks' first two games, Taylor was placed on the inactive list prior to Sunday's tipoff.)

Golden State went on a 7-0 run before Brown reinserted Lee for Rose, and the Warriors led 80-75 with 53 seconds remaining when Robinson returned.

Seconds later, the 5-foot-7 rookie had the ball swiped from him near midcourt by Baron Davis (Robinson claimed Davis fouled him), ending the Knicks' final chance.

"I felt bad for Nate," Brown said. "That last turnover, he shouldn't have been in that position. We pick up the dribble and throw it to him ..."

Let the record show that it was Marbury, who did not get along with Brown when the two were paired on the 2004 Olympic team, who picked up his dribble and passed the ball to the Robinson.

Which means that fateful turnover was actually Marbury's fault, Brown seemed to be saying.

After falling behind 74-73 with 4:35 remaining, the Knicks' next six shots were jumpers, all of which missed. Through it all, Curry sat and watched. If he was simmering afterward, he wouldn't let it show. Curry refused to take the reporters' bait, striving not to say anything negative despite being benched for the final 15:16.

"With coach Brown things are liable to change at any moment. You never really know," Curry said. "If you're not playing hard or he feels you're not doing the right thing, he's going to get you out. It's ultimately up to him to decide who he wants in the game."

Said Marbury: "Whenever you've got an inside presence, it makes the game extremely easy."

Golden State coach Mike Montgomery also was surprised that Curry sat. Curry had been nearly impossible for the Warriors to contain in the early going, and Montgomery held Adonal Foyle out for much of the second half awaiting the return that never came.

"Larry knows his team and he knows where he has to go and what he has to do, and I'm sure he's got all the right reasons for doing what he did," Montgomery said diplomatically.

Maybe Brown does know what he has to do, but whatever he's doing now is not producing positive results. Three games into the Brown era, Quentin Richardson is shooting 34 percent; Jamal Crawford is at 29 percent; Jerome James has 10 fouls, two points and four rebounds; and Marbury is averaging just 15 points while shooting 41 percent.

The Knicks now head out on a grueling six-game Western Conference road trip that could leave them 0-9 by the time they return to Madison Square Garden in two weeks.

Surely that wasn't what owner James Dolan had in mind when he brought Brown aboard.

But with Brown, no matter where he's coaching, there's always the likelihood that things will get worse before they get better. In New York, they're learning that now the hard way.

"Whenever you've got an inside presence, it makes the game extremely easy." -Marbury

In other words, why the **** didn't larry put Curry back into the game?!?!??

I actually feel putting Nate into the game at that point was a mistake, but maybe LB wants him to learn.

I'm sure he has a plan to all of this, but damn its kinda hard to see it from here.

I disagree with the writer that LB's remark about Nate was a jab at Steph, it just sounds like he's reading into things too deeply.

No matter how many articles about Larry Brown's infamous slow starts, no matter how many articles about LB torturing his guards, no matter how many articles about not reading into Brown's plan too soon - people will continue to talk about these things like they are some big surprise. If you read all the offseason talk, the current state of the Knicks should not surprise you. They even tried their best to brace us for a slow start. It's like no one pays attention.

Marbury is a good person, but as someone else said before--he is jaded a bit--he's always had a ton of harsh critics and it's no surprise he doesn't handle criticism very well. If he feels under attack or threatended his instinct is to assert himself right back.

Posted by eViL:

I'm the one who said Marbury is jaded. He is. The dude has been dogged his whole career, but in his eyes he's the best. It must drive him nuts that he gets no credit. That's why I think LB will work. Marbs might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knows that if he butts heads with LB and finds himself on the way out of town, his reputation as a loser will be cemented for the rest of his career.

Great post Evil. I think that is exactly on target. Everyone knew/knows there was going to be some bumps in the road with the relationship of Larry Brown and just not Stephon but every Knick. When you look at the roster, Larry Brown has just "one of his guys" on the roster in Antonio Davis and it must be driving him nuts that he has no extension of himself on the court with these guys. This is only a bump in the road between Steph and Larry and it won't be the last. 0-3 is going to drive up stories from every media outlet but I honestly think this 0-3 start is going to make the Knicks into a better team and a team that listens and hinges on every word Larry says.

i do see Marbury bussing his ass out there, as long as he keeps at it, it will work itslef out and yes marbury wants to succeed so he will do what is asked and expected of him out there

I don't think Steph is being difficult or anything. He's been trying to do just what LB wants. He's stayed within the game plan and has not tried to play like he used to. He's hustled on D and makes an effort to get others involved. A lot of his good passes end up in missed shots. No PG looks good if the guys he passes to don't score the ball. He'll i'd look good passing to Amare Stoudemire, Duncan or Shaq. Its more than just Steph. What has Q done or JC. We have almost no scoring for the SF spot unless they slash and dunk. We don't have a Jason Richardson or Antawn Jamison. Heck we've only had half a Curry, with his only playing 16 mins a game. AD can't hit from 2 feet. I love the guy but AD misses a LOT of close shots. To me Steph is NOT the problem at all. Without Curry at the end of games, teams just key on Steph and won't let him get an open look or any room. In fact all game teams try to force the ball out of his hands, cuz they know we don't have anyone else. To run the offense.