Posted by diderotn:

Again, this is just a question about a decision that we will have to make soon or later. I want all of our Knicks to succeed, that includes TT. If he does well, especially well enough to take us over the top, I will say offer him a 4 year contract starting at $7 million per.

Posted by diderotn:

Again, this is just a question about a decision that we will have to make soon or later. I want all of our Knicks to succeed, that includes TT. If he does well, especially well enough to take us over the top, I will say offer him a 4 year contract starting at $7 million per.

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by gunsnewing:

Posted by diderotn:

Again, this is just a question about a decision that we will have to make soon or later. I want all of our Knicks to succeed, that includes TT. If he does well, especially well enough to take us over the top, I will say offer him a 4 year contract starting at $7 million per.

I will say one thing...if he does have the year of his life I will credit Brown for that and not because it is his expiring year and he's pulling a Dampier...I don't think he's smart or talented enough for that.

Not talented enough? He's one of the most talented athletes in the league. He's just lazy. If he has a great year, the problem is that the cause would be ambiguous--is it because it's a contract year, because Larry changed his game, or because he simply changed on his own? I don't believe someone who's lazy like he is will change after this many years. I'd trade him as soon as his trade value reached a higher level. I'd trade him now if I could get a decent player for him, but I think we'd get a better player about a month into the season.

Thomas and Marbury are the only Knicks to have played for Brown, and both sounded eager to have him on the bench.

Marbury, who clashed with Brown during last year's Olympics, said Friday that hiring Brown was "a no-brainer."

Thomas said: "In coaching, there's a lot of teaching. But he's like the professor. He's going to constantly tell you what's right and what's wrong, and he's going to constantly keep teaching. You don't have that in a lot of coaches these days. And he's going to push you to work harder. That's No. 1."

Brown is known, too, for falling in and out of love with players - his own, and those on rival teams. He had Thomas traded to Milwaukee in March 1999. "I was young and I didn't really know what Larry was trying to do for myself, on and off the court," said Thomas, who was 20 when he entered the league, and perhaps not ready for Brown's perfectionism. "As you get older, you really appreciate that. He's a great coach."

So what will the Brown-led Knicks do that recent Knicks teams did not? Presumably, they will play better defense. Brown's teams have ranked eighth or better in opponents' field-goal percentage in each of the last seven seasons. The Knicks ranked 28th last season.

"Defense: that's big with Larry," Thomas said. "He knows nowadays that pretty much everybody is offensive-minded. And to win games you've got to play defense."

Brown has taken seven N.B.A. teams to the playoffs, a record. Making the Knicks the eighth could require every ounce of his coaching acumen.

"He's the professor, and he's going to definitely be the general," Thomas said. "So the show is going to run through him."

Posted by fishmike: