Knicks Going Young in New Year
by Tom Kertes


GREENBURGH, NY, January 1, 2006 -- Larry Brown’s New Year’s message to his struggling Knick team? “I told them we were Bowl eligible,” smiled the coach. “We’ve won seven games.”

Naturally, there were other thoughts telegraphed by master motivator Brown as well, starting with the holding of a 10 a. m. practice on New Year’s Day. (“Whatever that message was, I got it,” center Eddy Curry flashed a knowing smile.) A new beginning in a New Year, the feeling of acquiring a clean slate, kind of “starting everything from 0-0 all over again from this point,” was one of them, according to point guard Stephon Marbury. Another message will have a more on-the-floor practical impact. “We are going to shorten the rotation, going basically with 8-9 guys from this point on,” said Brown. “It’s the best workable number -- I’ve always been comfortable doing that. Plus, given our situation -- who is playing well and who isn’t -- and our record, the best thing is to go with our young players. We will be starting Eddy, starting David (Lee), starting Nate (Robinson) . I’ve talked to (President, Basketball Operations) Isiah (Thomas) about this. We’ve been giving a lot of people lots of chances to see where we are so far. But we are 7-21, so we might as well play some of the younger kids, get down to a shorter rotation, and give those kids some experience.”

“I like Jamal (Crawford) coming off the bench,” added Brown. “The more Nate plays the better he will be. David has got to learn to play the ‘three’, which is not going be easy for him. But I like his energy -- he had 12 rebounds (in Milwaukee) the other day. We’ve got to get him to improve offensively, but…Eddy’s got to get minutes. Playing these young guys, that is our future.”

Somewhat ironically, the best (so far) of those young guys -- Channing Frye -- will continue to play off the pine -- for now. “We are struggling real badly defensively as a team,” said Brown. ”And he really has a long way to go in that area. But he’s going to play.”

Sounds like significant summer acquisition Quentin Richardson -- who hasn’t been one hundred percent healthy all season and likely won’t play against the Suns tomorrow due to recurring back spasms -- might lose playing time. “We will just see what happens,” said Brown. “But I like Nate with Stephon -- sure, it puts Stephon in a little difficult position defensively but he actually plays a lot of ‘two-s’ pretty good. Then he doesn’t have to pressure all the way up the floor, which takes a lot out of him on the offensive end. I want him to be the point on offense. When Jamal comes in, then we can adjust. Get Stephon off the ball a little bit. But for the time being, this is going to be the way we’ll try to approach things.’’

The biggest surprise of all is installing the hardworking 6-9 rookie Lee -- who was on the inactive list 10 times and was “Did Not Play, Coaches Decision” once during the first 28 games -- as the starting small forward. “I’ve been watching him in practice,” said Brown. “It was hard in training camp because we had so many guys out. We didn’t have the chance to play him at the ‘three’. So we settled on Matt Barnes and Trevor (Ariza). When guys started to come back, David was a kid who we thought long range might have to play there if he was going to get the minutes he deserved. And he just never played there before – he didn’t have the summer to do it, he didn’t have the exhibition season to do it, so I didn’t want to stick him right out there. But I see him doing it every day in practice and he’s gotten more and more comfortable there. He’s worked at it, and worked at it hard.”

“David is not an outside shooter,” added Brown. “And he’s not going to put the ball on the floor against ‘three’ men all that effectively, at least not yet. Against “four-s”, he has. That area he’s going to have to improve on. But in this league you can be effective playing big “three-s” – Isiah keeps bringing up (Dennis) Rodman. Maybe that’s not a fair comparison right now, but David can do it. He is a very bright player. He can really rebound the ball, and he can get out on the break and run.”

“And remember, David will get better, too,” said Brown. “Look, he’s a rookie. I never expected David, Nate and Channing Frye to be in our top six, seven, eight guys. But that’s the way it’s going to be.”

What will the paring of the rotation mean for Jerome James? “We’ll have to see,” said Brown. “He’s going to have to play better. He’ll have to show me that in practice. He’ll have to get healthy and he’ll have to get back in shape. But I don’t want to play Channing at backup center. I really don’t think that would be fair for him -- so that will be Jackie (Butler) or Jerome.”

Settling on a shortened, steady rotation. Playing the young guys, who have often been the best guys. Could be promising -- but how much will it all mean as long as there is an ongoing tension between Marbury and Brown?

When the topic was touched upon, the star player and the classic coach both appeared remarkably relaxed and loose. “I talked to him again today,” Brown said. “Not as a special sit-down, during film. I told him he was great against Milwaukee. I told him we need him to take shots -- but they’ve got be good shots. By doing that, he’ll open things up for everybody else. Fact is, the more good shots he takes, the better he’s going to be -- and the better this team is going to be.”