July 28, 2005
What Can Brown Do For You?
This afternoon, the Knicks will announce the hiring of NBA vagabond Larry Brown as the new coach of the Knicks. The contract pays Brown around $10 million per season. Brown is 64 and is already a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. He has coached teams to both an NCAA title and an NBA championship, and is widely regarded (along with Phil Jackson) as the NBA's top coach.
While the move was sudden, nothing is too surprising about Brown's switching jobs. In the past 15 years, he has coached the Spurs, Clippers, Pacers, Sixers, and Pistons. In each case, Brown arrives, whips a team into improvement and contention, then gets restless and departs. This was never more clear than last week, when he negotiated a buyout of his contract with the Pistons...a team that has been in the NBA Finals for the past two years!
Brown also has a reputation for over-tinkering with his player roster, which will be interesting considering that (a) the Knicks are so free spending; and (b) that they're so bogged down in long-term contracts that trades are going to be tough. It has already been rumored that Stephon Marbury may be the first to go. The good news for fans is that there is no doubt that Brown will improve the team in 2006.
Image via CNNSI/AP
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No doubt that he will improve the team? Really? Is he going to play center, point guard, pull down 15 rebounds a night, drive the lane, and maybe play some D?
Also, how is Brown going to make roster moves? Is he the GM? Is Isiah packing his bags? The only thing that is going to make this team better is better management, and that doesn't include trading an undersized forward, which the Knicks have in bushels, for another undersized forward.
I think Mr. Brown has just found the one team he can't fix.
www.forgotten-ny.com
Tim - Larry Brown made the LA Clippers a playoff team, and led the Iverson and Mutumbo Sixers to the NBA Finals. If that doesn't convince you, nothing will. In addition, with Brown's stature, he will have a lot of say regarding personnel moves. He always has.
*haha*
The Heat will still spank the Knicks next year.
AHH the Knicks! the retirement home for champions on the decline. It's where superstars who have just started their journey on the downward arc of the bellcurve of their peak go to play after signing big fat long term contracts. It's a stall tactic buy cablevision. This is not a championship move. this is a move to get people in the seats. the knicks stunk for 5 years and were mediocre for 30 and the knicks still had like a 85% rate of tickets sold. They don't care about winning cause the garden is in high demand if they don't make the playoffs. Brooklyn Nets please be good so I can switch teams!
What we really need is a GM like George W. Bush. Someone who can really handle a salary cap.
Five cents of every dollar I spend in this town goes to Allan Houston.
Anyone else hear Sue Simmons call them "The Dicks" on the Channel 4 11 o'clock News, last night?
I think the only person that could turn this team around is "The Logo", Jerry West.
Tom, the problem is, the Knicks are nowhere near as good as those Clippers and Sixers teams you are talking about. The point is especially dubious when it comes to the Sixers -- who on the Knicks is in the same class as AI? There isn't a single player on their roster capable of putting a team on his back like Iverson did. Maybe you should have brought up Larry taking the Nets to the playoffs. But, oh wait, Larry QUIT before the playoffs that year. How about that for stature?
I remain entirely unconvinced.
What can Brown do for me? Coach Sacramento to a championship. Wrong team, Larry. You went with the wrong team.
Making the playoffs in the East is easy. Just finish the year with five healthy bodies and you're in. The Knicks might actually get out of the first round, which would be a huge accomplishment given their roster. But they'll be looking up in the standings at Miami, Indiana and Detroit at the very least.
Yes, Brown took the lowly Clippers to the playoffs. That team had Danny Manning and Ron Harper if memory serves. The Knicks have Marbury (who would rather be "the best point guard in the league" rather than a point guard on a winning team) and who else to get them to the top four in the East?
That said, Brown can get a team to overachieve...and the Knicks could really use some overachievement for a change.
As a Sixers fan, I grew to hate LArry Brown. He traded away a lot of good players just to find his type of player, so that he would get the credit for winning, not the players. The sixers had Bruce Bowen, Matt Harpring, Raja Bell, Ratliff, etc., but Larry kept trading and trading and complaining. It makes rooting against the Knicks all the more sweeter now.
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