http://www.nysun.com/article/22694

Fear Not, Brown Is on the Case
The Knicks

By JOHN HOLLINGER
November 8, 2005


We tried to warn you.

Larry Brown never gets off to a good start in his first year in a new city, Just check the track record. In Brown's inaugural year in Indiana, the Pacers began 0-3, just like this year's Knicks. Even at midseason, they were just 18-23. But a few months later, they ended up within a whisker of winning the Eastern Conference championship, falling to the Knicks in the final minute of Game 7.

Or check out Brown's first year in Detroit, when the Pistons started a disappointing 16-13 and columnists like yours truly wondered if canning Rick Carlisle to hire Brown was a shortsighted maneuver.Turns out we were the myopic ones, as Detroit ended that season by dusting the Lakers in five games to win the NBA championship.

So if teams with so much talent started the year slowly under Brown, why should the less endowed New Yorkers be any different? Thus, Knicks fans shouldn't despair despite the 0-3 start.Yes, the Knicks just lost a pair of home games to two mediocre teams in Golden State and Washington. Yes, Golden State won on an off night even by its own modest standards. And yes, the Knicks look like a mess right now.But in a weird way, this is part of the plan.

Not that Brown intended to go 0-3, mind you. I'm sure he'd love to have stolen that opener in Boston in particular, a winnable game against a team even younger than his own. It's just that Brown has never focused on quick starts - he's more concerned with having the best possible team in March and April than he is about staying above .500 in November.

Brown's focus on the endgame has been fully evident in the season's first week.The playing rotation is about as well defined as Eddy Curry's abs, as Brown continues to experiment with different lineups and players. Nowhere was that more obvious than against Golden State, when Brown inexplicably inserted Malik Rose into a close game with five minutes left after Rose had been riding the pine the entire contest.

Rose had no chance - players coming in cold after two hours in the economy-class seating of an NBA bench rarely perform up to par - but in Brown's world this was merely a process of elimination. Rookies David Lee and Channing Frye were exhausted and had to come out. Curry and Jerome James had already deemed themselves unworthy of further playing time with earlier mistakes. And Antonio Davis was already on the court. So Rose was the only choice, and Brown rode him right down the tubes.

From the perspective of winning this single game, Brown's decision was curious. Though Curry had made earlier transgressions, the Warriors couldn't handle him in the paint. Yet somehow, by the middle of January, it will all start making sense.Curry will begin figuring out what he needs to do to merit staying in the game (like rebounding, for instance), incidents like Malik-gate will consequently become fewer and farther between, and Brown will emerge with a more productive version of Curry to ride down the stretch in the fourth quarter.

A more important example might be at the offensive end.The Knicks have at times seemed more focused on playing the "right way" than just, well, playing. The tentative approach is most embodied by Jamal Crawford, who has looked flummoxed since losing his starting shooting guard spot, but it applies to the rest of the Knicks as well.

New York's halfcourt offense failed to find a groove against either Washington or Golden State, which is mystifying since neither opponent can be confused with the Pistons in terms of defensive talent.This is par for the course in Brown's world, however - it took half a year for Chauncey Billups to get comfortable running Brown's sets in Detroit, but once he did, the Pistons were hell on wheels.

With all that said, it does appear a few changes are in order before the Knicks finds their mojo. While players like Curry and Stephon Marbury will come around, New York isn't going to turn this ship until Brown makes a few adjustments to his rotation.

First, Trevor Ariza has to replace Matt Barnes as the starting small forward.While Barnes is a better on-ball defender, he is just killing them offensively by shooting 40% and averaging a meager 6.7 points per game. Opponents don't even bother guarding him, because he's so ineffective from outside, and he lacks Ariza's energy around the rim. Besides, Ariza is no defensive slouch; he's averaging over two steals a game. (Barnes does, however, hold an unequivocal advantage in hairgel consumption. His 'do has more lard than the fry station at Wendy's.)

Second, the Jerome James experiment has to end. Sorry Isiah, I know he's your prize free agent, but he can't play. Get over it. The Knicks have seven quality big men and keeping a player like Maurice Taylor inactive just so James can commit three fouls in a seven-minute "effort" is inexcusable. The team should put James on the inactive list or, better yet, trade him. Hey, the Warriors gave Adonal Foyle $41 million - perhaps Zeke can convince them that James's $30 million deal is a bargain.

Finally, the kids need to play. Brown loves to lean on veterans like Antonio Davis, but on a team that already starts a non-scorer at small forward, Davis's lack of production has been glaring. Despite playing 32 minutes a game, Davis averages just 5.3 points a night on 30% shooting, putting a tremendous burden on the other Knicks to provide offense.

Much of Davis's playing time needs to be redirected toward Frye and Lee, who got the Knicks back into the game Sunday with their interior activity and should only get better with time. There's an easy way to do this while eliminating James from the rotation at the same time - make Davis the backup center and alternate Frye and Lee at power forward.

Of course, none of these changes will be a panacea, but cumulatively they could be quite helpful. Barnes, James, and Davis have been among New York's three least productive players in the 0-3 start, while the young legs of Ariza, Frye, and Lee have figured prominently in the few positive moments. It only makes sense that Brown will adjust his rotation to accommodate that reality.

That said, keep in mind that it could get worse before it gets better, especially given the daunting six-game road trip ahead. But when the Knicks drop four or five of the next six and sink to the bottom of the Atlantic Division, just take a deep breath and remember that this is part of the drill. Brown's teams always start slowly before heating up at the end of the year. Apparently, this year will be no exception.

ever since we lost game three to the warriors people have been overreacting like crazy, and saying that brown don't know what he's doing, etc.. I know hollinger hasn't always been the most EDIT objective writer when it comes to the knicks, but he has a point here, ny fans need to just be patient and give brown time to work his magic.

[Edited by - slimpack on 11-09-2005 9:21 PM]

I know hollinger hasn't always been the most reliable writer but he has a point here, ny fans need to just be patient and give brown time to work his magic.

By "reliable" I assume you mean pro-Knick as opposed to being objective.

lol, islesfan is right though, when I re-read my post I planned to change to "reliable" to "objective with the knicks", but I got sidetracked and forgot. anyway, you guys find hollinger's usual articles about the knicks to be objective? I've always found them to be overly cynical but that just my opinion.




[Edited by - slimpack on 11-09-2005 9:28 PM]