Things similar to our team now:
Are the 02-03 Grizz. They started 0-8. West fired Sidney Lowe and hired Hubie Brown. Things didnt get better.
They finished 28-54.
They were constantly blown out.
They never had a month of .500 ball
They had talented players in Jason Williams, Gasol (ROY the year before), Gooden (later traded for Mike Miller), Lorenzen Wright, Giricek, Wesley Person, Shane Battier, Stro Swift, Earl Watson and Brevin Knight.
Everyone played. Most nights all 12 guys would play. There were lots of different line ups.
They were 20-21 at home
They were 8-33 on the road
They moved up to 2 in the lottery only to lose that pick to the Pistons (Otis Thorpe) trade.

Things I pray like hell happen to us:
The next year they were 50-32
The main thing they did was strengthen the perimeter w/ Posey and Bonzi Wells. Bo Outlaw was nice off the bench as a JYD type player.
They made the playoffs and got crushed by the Spurs in 4, but they established a style of play and were very successfull in perhaps the league's toughest division.
Started 03-04 season 18-18, finished 32-14

It literally took a year and a half for Hubie to turn that team around. And they didnt add Shaq to do it. Same core group, plus a couple better perimeter guys in Posey and Wells. Remember Bonzi was damaged good cast off from Portland (Person trade) and Posey was a MLE signing.

there's our 2 year pipe dream

did he do anything for that team aside from hire good coaches?

http://www.nj.com/knicks/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/113557626061120.xml&coll=1

He has had a worse beginning to a new job, heard worse booing, endured real insubordination from a guard, and been the subject of far greater scrutiny from ownership. Certainly, this 7-18 start with the Knicks hurts, but it's the very portrait of tranquillity compared to his first year with the Nets in 1981-82.

The Nets had won just three of their first 15 games and Brown was convinced he wouldn't make it to Christmas.

The biggest controversy Brown has had to deal with this season came when his point guard requested a move to shooting guard. In 1981, point guard Foots Walker refused to re-enter a game after being benched. He had another guard, Ray Williams, who was so stunned by the trade from the Knicks that he would shoot 0-for-15 in one game.

The Nets started 0-4 and were the last team to win a game that season. The fans blamed Brown, who soon heard vicious booing and catcalls. And when the team dropped to 3-12 on Nov. 29 -- allowing the Mavericks to end a 12-game losing streak -- Brown had to face an ownership group that wanted answers.

"What he kept saying to the owners was, 'We made a lot of changes. We've got three rookies on the team. I don't think we should judge Larry right now. Just give him a chance.' I would have been gone if it wasn't for Mr. Taub. But in the last half of the season we had one of the best records in the league."

Indeed, Brown rewarded Taub's faith with the single-best turnaround in the NBA that year as the Nets would go 41-26 the rest of the way -- a 20-game improvement from the year before -- and made the playoffs for the first time since they joined the NBA in 1976

There was no single trade, no incident, no lucky shot that turned things around for the '81-82 Nets. Brown just kept hammering home his usual themes -- hard work, defense, rebounding and ball movement -- in one lengthy practice after another until it eventually clicked.

"I think we started even worse (than the Knicks)," said O'Koren, now an assistant coach with the Wizards. "I don't know of any one thing that turned us around. It was just that Larry kept stressing certain things, like sharing the ball and playing good defense. We were pretty young and it was just a matter of time. As long as you work hard at it, things will turn around. I think that will happen for Larry now."


as far fetched as it sounds theres still a chance we can do what the nets did and still make the playoffs, and avoid giving chi-town a lottery pick.




[Edited by - slimpack on 12-28-2005 3:28 PM]

In 1997, Brown's first year in Philadelphia, the 76ers were 6-19 after 25 games - one game worse than his Knicks are now. His 1993-94 Pacers started 10-16. His 1988-89 Spurs started 7-20. And, as Brown often reminds people, he was nearly fired when his 1981-82 Nets started the season 6-16

Wow; that's shocking. I didn't know this type of start was the norm for Brown's teams.

Posted by Bonn1997:

In 1997, Brown's first year in Philadelphia, the 76ers were 6-19 after 25 games - one game worse than his Knicks are now. His 1993-94 Pacers started 10-16. His 1988-89 Spurs started 7-20. And, as Brown often reminds people, he was nearly fired when his 1981-82 Nets started the season 6-16

Wow; that's shocking. I didn't know this type of start was the norm for Brown's teams.

This stuff has been written before. This is why you bring in Larry, he don't care about winning right away, he cares about the team playing right. Wins are a symptom of a team playing good ball. We are getting better in some areas, you just have to look at the game and see it. The final score does not dictate EVERYTHING. Don't get me wrong, at some point Wins are the scorecard.

Larry is an established coach with a track record of success and a long term contract. He is gonna do it his way!