Ariza isn't being a good teammate BECAUSE he's complaining that Brown thinks Lee and Q2 outplayed him. This isn't that complicated.

I never said Ariza said he outplayed Lee and Q. I said he complained, which I posted

Posted by crzymdups:

Brown never called Ariza a bad teammate. Man you guys like to overreact. Ariza is obviously showing some immaturity here. Clearly he wasn't playing well at all this season, I said in several game threads he looked awful.

He has to be a good teammate and work to get back in the rotation and not expect anyone to hand anything to him. this is how good teams operate. This shouldn't be a controversy in any way shape or form.

Posted by crzymdups:

Posted by SlimPack:

Posted by crzymdups:

Posted by SlimPack:

also I disagree with the author of this article, I still dont like the way curry plays. I think he is a Power Forward and not a center.

are you kidding me?

of course not, do you really think that curry is a good center? becuase I think he's a pretty bad one. his post up moves are worse than david lee's, its good that he has been cutting down on his offensive fouls but he's still utterly incapable of passing out of double teams for some wierd reason. He's alot more useful when he can use his nimbleness and athletism to charge to the hoop. A center in my opinion should be responsible for passing sometimes, whereas it PF's dont, so it would be easier for him there. thats what i think anyay.

Eddy Curry is unstoppable in the post. The Suns were triple-teaming him in the overtime. He doesn't pass out well yet, but that is a skill that can be learned. That doesn't make him any less dominant in the post.

If you think David Lee is better in the post than Eddy Curry...I'm sorry.

Boy, crzymdups, you and I are on the same wavelength today.

Of course Curry is a center! Who cares if he does not have polished moves? He is a dominant low-post presence and is unstoppable at times. Feed him the ball down low, and get out of the way. OK, we'd love for him to hit his foul shots more often, and he obviously has to learn to pass better and defend better. But give him time to mature and improve, because I think he will. I think we have seen nothing from this guy yet, though we have seen that he is a dominant presence when not plagued by injuries or foul problems. Once he gets his act together, look out.

Right now, that trade is looking bad because we gave up what will likley be a very high draft pick. Isiah can't really be faulted for that. When he made the deal, just about everyone liked it, despite giving up the pick. And, for the record, I still like it. Lee is proving to be legit (and who knows If Isiah really had the option of throwing in Lee or a first-rounder anyway), and we need to be more patient with Curry. I think he is finally rounding into form.

Posted by oohah:

Amen, crzymdups.

What is the problem here? Ariza is 20 years old, has proven very little in his brief career and has played very, very poorly for the entire season, despite being given every opportunity. Brown would be negligent if he did not sit Ariza. Who cares how Ariza found out? Brown has enough to worry about without worrying about "offending" a 20-year-old nobody. If Ariza can't handle it, too bad. Maybe if he'd taken better advantage of his playing time, he'd still be playing. And I read Brown was not thrilled that Ariza turned down a starting spot at LA recently.

There really is no problem that I can see, it is all media fabricated.

As far as whether LB should worry about offending a 20 year old nobody, that isn't the point. This is outside of basketball. It is about treating people with respect. LB is famous for treating people like sh!t. A player, no matter how good or bad, should not find out about his demotion from the press, if that in fact did happen.

For the record, I have no problem with Ariza's benching, unless Malik Rose keeps playing.

oohah

Yeah, but the thing is, Ariza -- as a 20-year-old who came into the NBA with few press clippings and has not done a whole lot yeat -- needs to adjust to his coach. Yes, LB has a huge ego and is known to treat players poorly. But Ariza should realize the deal, that he will not win any battles with LB. And he does himself no favors by acting hurt by the way he was told he was being benched (if it's even true).

That said, I agree that this is just about all media-fabricated. It's such a non-story. I bet Ariza and Brown don't even care. Knick beat writers just need something to write about, because this ain't the most compelling team in the world. A good beat writer is able to take a small, nothing story and run with it. A starter being demoted to third-string, and apparently finding out about it from a media relations guy (I think it was a Knicks employee rather than a reporter), is an obvious juicy item, and any reporter worth his laptop will make it into a headline item.