By MARC BERMAN
MENTORYING PROGRAM: Clyde Frazier said he would like to work with Mardy Collins (shown) because he sees some of his style of play in the Knicks' rookie.


April 21, 2007 -- Former Knicks great Walt Frazier will ask Isiah Thomas if he can work with rookie guard Marty Collins this offseason, The Post has learned.

Frazier said he wants the chance to work with Collins for a few days this spring because he sees himself in the 6-foot-6 rookie - a tall, tough-defending guard with deceptive quickness and a cool demeanor, but sans a jump shot. Frazier, now a Knicks broadcaster, developed a perimeter game after a few seasons.

"I'm going to ask Isiah because there's a few things I can show him," Frazier told The Post on Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C. "Once you get in the paint, control your body. Things very simple that he's not thinking about."

Frazier's desire to work with Collins is unprecedented. Frazier has stayed away from coaching and never attends practice.

Collins said he remembers two years ago after a Temple-Duke game Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski told the media Collins reminded him of Frazier.

"He's a legend," Collins said of Frazier. "I'd definitely be interested in working with him."

Frazier, who played for the Knicks from 1967-77, said he would like to work with Collins on his offensive play around the basket.

"When he gets in the paint, the move he has to develop is the one I had, the head-and-shoulder fake, he doesn't have," Frazier said. "He makes the move and shoots right way. He needs to give (the defense) a little deception once he stops."

Collins' emergence was a silver lining to the final two weeks of the Knicks' season. Thomas has changed his view on Collins and looks at him as next season's backup point guard, which could force Nate Robinson further down the bench. Collins started the last nine games, averaging 15.0 points. 6.6 rebounds and 6.2 assists.

To have a Knick great such as Clyde show interest to work with a player which he has never done before is unbelievable and it says alot about Mardy. I hope this will help Mardy to progress further.

SCORE!!!!!!!!!

it's funny because just a few weeks ago, some of us were saying "collins should try to get clyde to work with him in the offseason"

Thats whats up. If Clyde see's some himself in the kid then you know Mardy is going to be something special. Here comes that Offseason Hype

i bet francis will be gone. and unless nate has some kind of personal revelation over the summer, I'm predicting Mardy as the backup 1. he's shown he can play with Marbs and Craw, gives us a lot better balance in the backcourt in terms of Defense/Offense instead of having both Craw and Marbury out there and the defense is totally unreliable

Part of what Clyde wants to do is get rid of the hitch in Mardy's shot. Clyde would be good for Mardy, no doubt.

Posted by Allanfan20:

Where the hell has the 3 guard rotation ever taken us, besides waaay back when we had small shifts of Houston/Starks/Childs or Ward and Houston/Sprewell/Childs or Ward. Those rotations worked because it worked well defensively. Only 1 of those 3 players play defense, that you mentioned, plus with Curry who doesn't play defense. It will only be more of the same if we're doing the 3 guard rotations.

I'm telling you now, we need to look into trading Crawford or Marbury or both.

Actually you're wrong! Steph DOES play D. He made a MAJOR commitment to it this year and was a good defender for this team. Jamal is weak, but he tried to defend better this year. Nate and Francis are the really bad defenders of our guards. We don't need to move Steph or Craw, we just need to make sure to have Mardy on the floor as much as possible to balance things. If you have Steph, Mardy and Balk or Steph, Mardy and Q those guys will defend on the perimeter quite well. I think you're overstating the problem. We're not going to turn into the Pistons, but as long as we improve in that area and especially in the TO dept. This team will improve next year.

Posted by Allanfan20:

Nixluva, Stephon tried very hard on defense, but is he that reliable, especially with his shaky knees/ankles and such and such? I don't think so. To top it off, that's not a 3 guard rotation that compliments eachother. It contains 2 guards that need to play 1 on 1, in Crawford and Marbury, and while Collins can do fine without the ball, he's better with it, because he can distribute better. He's a better post feeder than Jamal, and I feel that we'll be leaning on Jamal to feed the post, even though he's quite overrated at that.

Nixluva, maybe it can work for 2 minute spurts, but that's really all. Marbury and Crawford don't complement eachother. 1 or both of them need to go.

I think that you're still overstating the problem. Steph and Craw don't really have a problem playing with each other. Mardy can play with anyone, cuz he's so fundamental. Where is the problem exactly. The notion that Steph is only a one on one player is nuts. The guy wasn't playing like that for most of the year. While he's very capable of getting his own offense, he hasn't really looked to do that in the last couple of years. He's taken fewer shots since he's come here. Jamal isn't a perfect player, but what he was starting to do, was penetrate OFTEN and it was having success.

One thing you have to allow for is this team needs more time to really develop chemistry. This was the 1st year under Isiah and we hadn't come into the season with very much already established. By no means am I saying our guards are perfect, but it's not as bad as you make it seem. With Mardy having such a good showing late in the year, I feel much better about our guard situation. He was the guard we were missing. A big PG who can guard all 3 backcourt positions. Even Steph is able to do that effectively, which is something that goes unsaid. Steph's strength and quickness is effective against bigger guards. Jamal is the weak link defensively and he's not particularly efficient on offense, but he does give us a guy that can create his own shot and late in games he's a guy that can be tough for a defensee to deal with.

Posted by Allanfan20:

I think that you're still overstating the problem. Steph and Craw don't really have a problem playing with each other. Mardy can play with anyone, cuz he's so fundamental. Where is the problem exactly. The notion that Steph is only a one on one player is nuts.

Guy, if he were SO fundamental, then Clyde wouldn't need to be teaching him fakes and he'd have a jumpshot.

Nixluva, this is the problem with the backcourt of Marbury and Craw. 33 wins, 23 wins, 33 wins. It's been 3 years since we got Crawford, and it hasn't taken us anywhere. He's very erratic, not a good decision maker, and Marbury doesn't run an offense great either. And while Isiah was saying that our free throws cost us so many games, you don't look at aspects like HOW all these turnovers are made. Yes, Isiah ackowledges turnovers, but he also contiues to have extremely high praise for Crawbury, who get the majority of those turnovers, along with Francis and Nate. And most of these turnovers from Crawford, specifically, come from what everyone says he's so good at, and that's feeding Curry in the post.

This is why, if we're building around Curry, it's so important to have players who can shoot consistently AND pass consistently AND be smart players AND play defense. Those are a lot of things that's hard to look for in many players, hence, it's not a good idea to build around Curry. Yet we are, so Marbury and/or Craw NEED to go.

And yes, Collins is good to have, but I still see him as a Charlie Ward type player, which is good, but it's nothing to create the hype he's got going right now.

I don't think there is any hype with Collins, just excitement that he may pan out to be better than just a 15MPG backup. IMHO he is a solid defender, can take care of the ball, can get to the rim with a deceptive burst of speed, is big enough to grab rebounds, big enough to make an entry pass over smaller defenders, makes steals.

I think there is potential to be better than Ward.

We don't have to "Unload" nate, we can cut him if he is that bad(he isn't).



Marbury takes up superstar space and produces like a sixth man. I'll take nothing for him.

Posted by franco12:

could we trade isiah for clyde & put isiah up in the booth?

You want to listen to Zeke giggle constantly?