Article: Larry Brown in NY...Good for Marbury?
http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_13478.shtml

By Lawrence E. Buirse
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Jul 21, 2005, 14:10

Larry Brown has officially been given his walking papers from Detroit,
and Flip Saunders received his official “Welcome To Motown” news
conference earlier this afternoon. The opportunity for Brown to take
on his “dream job” is exclusively his for the taking. Reports indicate
that the Knicks are preparing a package with a salary range of $50-$60
million over three to five years. Mix and match those figures however
you might like, and it still should make Brown the highest paid coach
in professional sports, surpassing even Phil Jackson.

There is hardly a team in the league that would turn down the
opportunity to have Brown as its coach, just as long as the asking
price is within reason. However, in New York, where winning carries no
price, the end will hopefully justify the means. As long as Brown can
bring his winning formula to Madison Square Garden and sprinkle it in
the locker room, the millions of dollars spent on his services will be
considered money well invested. Although Brown has never really been a
coach to stay put in one town for very long, you cannot deny the fact
that he improves every franchise that he visits along the way. Point
and example, the Detroit Pistons. Even though this team was already
assembled and ready to ascend into NBA greatness, Brown was the one
who managed to put them over the top and completely shock and dominate
a highly-favored Lakers team for the NBA championship. As a note,
there was one key acquisition (Rasheed) made along the way that helped
to make this possible. If that wasn’t proof enough, he took the
Pistons back to the NBA Finals and went to battle against a very
tough, very talented San Antonio Spurs team that didn’t have the
championship completely in its sight until the last quarter of game 7.

If Larry Brown can produce similar results in New York, he would be
the most revered man in the Tri-State area. However, there is one big,
potential road block that Brown must endure: Stephon Marbury. The
reports of the two not mixing very well in Athens last summer are
about as accurate as the internal conflict that existed for years
while Larry Brown was coaching Allen Iverson. In Marbury’s defense, he
wasn’t the only player to clash with Brown last summer, which is one
reason why USA brought home a bronze medal instead of gold. With that
being said, how does Larry get Starbury to buy into his system?
Marbury is the heart and soul of the Knicks and is the player for whom
Isiah Thomas selected to build this franchise around. It makes perfect
sense for Isiah to like Marbury considering Isiah was a two guard who
played point guard throughout his NBA career. His numbers as a point
guard were solid, but still Isiah was not your traditional point
guard. The same holds true for Marbury. Stephon is to the Knicks what
Iverson is to the Sixers. When Brown decides to accept the Knicks head
coaching job, Marbury will be sharing the game’s biggest and brightest
stage with him. This will be the biggest news for Knicks fans since……
well, the acquisition of Stephon Marbury.

Here’s the problem. Larry Brown is a coach who is very demanding of
his point guards, especially when it comes to doing what Brown feels
is part of playing “the right way”. Distributing the ball and making
sure the ball and the players are in motion as well as reading and
recognizing what the defense gives you defines a point guard’s role on
offense. Defensively, Brown expects all five guys to defend with
intensity and hustle on every play. His defense doesn’t allow a player
to “take a rest” or “reserve his energy for offense” because in his
system, all players share the responsibility of scoring and defending.
In Brown’s system, Marbury will be expected to lead this team in such
a way without allowing it to affect his production. In other words,
Marbury would be the catalyst of the team. He would have to apply
pressure on the other team’s point guard while still being able to
come down on offense and score or create a scoring opportunity. I
don’t think the excuse of “taking a play off on defense to have
something left in the tank for offense” will work with Larry Brown. I
can see the rookie, Nate Robinson logging heavy minutes at PG if this
is the case, and the most pine time Marbury has seen while playing in
the NBA was last summer in Athens.

If you’re a Knick fan, you can only hope Marbury decides to become
Brown’s apprentice similar to how Iverson and Billups did. Both
players can agree that Brown’s tutelage has made them better players,
even if they didn’t always appreciate the method or agree with the
philosophy. For instance, Billups was a better than average point
guard who had respectable defensive skills. Under Brown’s system, he
became a member of the NBA All Defensive Team. Iverson, who was
already recognized as a solid defensive guard upon entering the
league, became a more complete defender under Brown who taught him how
to become a smarter defender rather than rely solely on his quickness
and athleticism. Just like Billups, Iverson is also one of the best
defensive guards in the league today. If Brown was able to finally
break down the walls and get through to Iverson, I think he’ll feel
confident that he can do the same with Marbury, but similar to
Iverson, it will not be easy, and it will take some time.

Marbury is not known for giving 110% in practice, and I think everyone
remembers how Iverson felt about “practice”. However, I do believe
this will be addressed once Brown is in charge. I also believe
Robinson, the Knicks’ 5-9 rookie and star of the Vegas Summer League,
will make practices a lot more intense. Robinson will turn out to be
Larry’s younger, faster, more talented version of Lindsey Hunter. This
Knicks team is not filled with shutdown defenders, but returning
players like Trevor Ariza have room for improvement. Ariza, the
surprise of last year’s summer league, has been working hard to
improve on the defensive end while also improving his body and
offensive game. He has added roughly ten pounds of muscle to a thin
frame to help. Combo guard Jamal Crawford has all the tools to become
an All Star except discipline at both ends. Brown will give him that.
The presence of Malik Rose will help with the team’s defensive woes on
the frontline. He’s a seasoned veteran and proven winner who will fit
perfectly in Brown’s system. The acquisition of Jerome James, rookies
Channing Frye, & David Lee will all be “wait and see” projects, but
each player has talent and can improve the Knicks' frontline defensive
problems by adding some shot blocking, rebounding, and toughness.

Overall, Larry Brown will not be inheriting a team like he did in
Detroit. Getting this team back in the playoffs with consistency will
be the first assignment. That will start to happen when team captain,
Stephon Marbury, and others buy into his system. It is proven to work,
and if Marbury and company want to win badly enough, they will catch
on.

This is interesting. no one has brought up the fact that marbury repeatedly did not practice with the team because of knee problems and ankle injuries this past season. I wonder what Brown is gonna have to say about that... we all know how he felt about AI not practicing - "Practice, you're talking about Practice? Not the game, but Practice?! Practice... Practice."

Marb didn't practice because he was asked not too...We all know that Marb goes at it hard...One thing is for sure, LB will not have the same issues he had with AI in Marb....Not with Zeke around as president.

Brown and Ivo survived 6 years together.

Marbury will be fine

very nice article. thanks for sharing.