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Isaiah to coach Knicks. Adios Larry

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by The Big Ragu, Jun 22, 2006.

  1. spnited

    spnited Active Member

    With tons of space left over, sam.
     
  2. zimbabwe

    zimbabwe Active Member

    It's Nate Robinson.
     
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Wow. Just went back and reread and can't believe I kept calling him Nate Robertson. I must have baseball on the brain.
     
  4. zimbabwe

    zimbabwe Active Member

    Oh well.

    I just like Nate's game, and he's a good guy, so I decided to come back from vacation and have my first post be a whiny correction.

    Carry on...
     
  5. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    Re: Knicks fire Brown; Zeke named coach

    "Face it, Isaiah, you threw up on Dean Wormer".
     
  6. this_guy

    this_guy Guest

    A half-empty MSG is pretty embarassing. Pretty sure that's what will happen for most of next season's home games.
     
  7. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Even as the announcement about the game being a sellout echos off of all the empty seats.
     
  8. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    I agree ... to an extent. Maybe Brown shouldn't have taken the job with that roster and that little control over personnel, but I don't think there are many of us who, given that much cash incentive, who would have turned down the job over the issue. The team he was given was horrid. Unbelievably, the team is now positioned to do something I had previously considered impossible: Get worse.
     
  9. broadway joe

    broadway joe Guest

    Everybody seems to have bought into the idea that Brown had such awful material to work with. I just don't buy it. The Knicks' roster isn't well-balanced, but it's not without talent. They have lots of veterans who have been at least moderately successful in this league, individually and team-wise. A team with Marbury and Crawford in the backcourt, Jalen Rose and Maurice Taylor at forward and Eddy Curry at center isn't awful, with Steve Francis, Malik Rose, Channing Frye and Q Richardson coming off the bench as matchups warrant. It's not a good defensive team, but you can't tell me that's only 23-59 talent. With a coach who decides on a set rotation and accentuates his players' strengths instead of bitching about their weaknesses and trying to turn them into another version of the Pistons, the Knicks could have been a 35-40 win team. That's what makes Brown's psycho coaching job such a shame. He could easily have made the Knicks a competitive team if he hadn't been so full of himself.
     
  10. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Joe, That is the Isaiah way of thinking. Get the "best" players from every move you make and assemble a team that looks great on paper. That works fine in fantasy basketball, but it doesn't work in the real NBA. Unless it is a perfectly formulated team like the Pistons, which really plays a team game (and look what happened when they started believing their press), the formula that works best is one superstar scorer/passer who everyone knows is the man, a good or great big man and a bunch of role players who know and accept their roles. The Knicks have 6 or 7 guys who think they're the man. It is absolutely no surprise that the sum is way worse than the parts. And when one of those guys is named Stephon Marbury, it is always a disaster. It is the one incontrovertible fact of the NBA. When he was with the Suns, they had Shawn Marion, Joe Johnson and Amare Stoudamire, too. On paper, I'm guessing you would have looked at them and said that is a very good team. But they were crap that year they traded him to the Knicks and it was primarily because Marbury brings negative energy to every place he goes. Remove Marbury and add Nash and it's a different team. If you're the Nets, remove Marbury and add Jason Kidd, and it's la completely different team--one that goes to the NBA finals. The Knicks have talent on paper, but it's a mess that can not win games.
     
  11. crusoes

    crusoes Active Member

    And to think he could have been running the Pistons after he retired. I shudder thinking about it.
     
  12. broadway joe

    broadway joe Guest

    I guess I agree and disagree, Ragu. You're right, Marbury is a problem. He thinks he's better than he is. But the general perception of him now is that he's worse than he is. There's still a place in this league for a player who can put up 20-25 a night and break people down off the dribble. Marbury can do those things. Yes, the Knicks look better on paper than they are on the floor. But I don't think it's true that they have 6 or 7 guys who think they're the man, with no role players. Marbury, Francis and maybe Curry are the only ones who have ever been considered No. 1 options. Guys like Malik Rose, Quentin Richardson and Maurice Taylor have never been anything but role players. How are those guys appreciably different than Antoine Walker, Jason Williams and James Posey, who just won rings?

    Here's how I would work with this roster. Marbury's the No. 1 option on offense, with freedom to push the ball and attack the basket. Put Q Richardson in the backcourt with Marbury, to shoot 3s when Stephon penetrates or when Curry draws the double-team. Q is not a great defender, but he's a willing one. Crawford's the third guard, instant offense off the bench and also showing signs of at least trying to defend. Frontcourt -- Curry's my low-post scorer. Start Frye at power forward, because he's athletic and he can provide some of the shot-blocking that Curry doesn't. You've also got Malik Rose to come off the bench and do a lot of the dirty work that Curry can't or won't do. Put in Jalen Rose at small forward, with either Richardson or David Lee getting minutes there as well, and there's your rotation. It has low-post scoring, outside shooting, penetrating ability and athleticism. Defensively it's weak, but that's why it's only a 35-40 win team. Maybe it wouldn't work, but it's at least a plan. Larry Brown never had one.
     
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