Dolan Brain-dead??

[sanman53]

http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/64532.htm

DOLAN: SOME THINK
I'M BRAIN-DEAD, BUT...

By MARC BERMAN

March 2, 2006 -- MEMPHIS - Knicks owner James Dolan admitted he may be viewed as "brain-dead" for his views, but claimed Isiah Thomas' rebuilding job is working and predicted the team president would eventually be "lauded" for his work.
During a 40-minute private brunch with writers in a ballroom at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis before the Knicks' 101-99 loss, Dolan said the 15-42 mess is not "a mistake," just part of the strategy - a word he used repeatedly.

With an outcry Thomas should be fired, Dolan put to bed an ESPN report Thomas would be axed in Memphis. Dolan said he, too, showed "faith" in Rangers president Glen Sather and it led to a Ranger renaissance.

"I can't say it as plainer than I've already said it," Dolan said. "I'm not making a change, guys. We're going to continue on with the strategy. I believe in the plan. I believe in the strategy. I believe in the guys who are executing it. I fully expect you to kill me in the papers tomorrow with this, but I'm going to stick with it. I'm going to stick with it until we stop making progress. I think the course is to stay the course, not knee-jerk.

"Maybe some people think I'm brain-dead because of that, but time will tell," Dolan added. "I understand people will be unhappy when you're going through this process."

Dolan said the club is on a "three-to-four-year plan" to become a contender - this being Year 1. Thomas has already been here two years and two months. But why let facts get in the way of Dolan's latest spin job.

"You're characterizing [this season] as making a big mistake. It's not a mistake. It's an underestimation what it would take to start off this strategy. So we're 15-41 now," Dolan said beofre last night's loss. "You have to look at how you're doing on your 3-4 year plan. It's still early. I know it's hard to take when it's 15-41, but the mistake would be to say the strategy is wrong. The strategy is right. It's just more painful to execute than we thought. It is harsh. There is no doubt. I think [the fans] are already upset."

Dolan gave no concrete steps on how the Knicks will become a le contender, saying he expects more trades this summer but perhaps no major blockbuster.

With the worst record in the NBA, the Knicks right now have the inside track for the top pick in the draft, but, embarrassingly, Chicago owns it from the Eddy Curry trade.

"If in fact we end up [with the first pick] we'll have some regrets," Dolan said. "But then again, that would be tempered by the fact we got Eddy Curry. And I think there's great hope Eddy is going to develop into a league-leading center. If you watch the second quarter of the San Antonio game, he looked pretty good. That's Larry [Brown's] job to get him from one quarter to four quarters."

While Dolan said the strategy was working, he couldn't name a building block.

"I would tell you there is no untouchable player," Dolan said.

Asked who's the face of the franchise, Dolan said, "I don't know yet. It's too early. If we knew that, we'd have a better record."

And a better future. Dolan left open the possibility of buying out a player or two in the summer.

Dolan felt the February trades for Jalen Rose and Steve Francis that added $134 million in extra payroll/luxury tax fit the plan.

"As long as Steve [Mills] and Isiah can articulate why this fits in what our plans were, I'm pretty much OK," Dolan said. "Sometimes I have to gulp a little hard over the money."

Asked if the Knicks are a repository for overpaid guys no longer worth the money, Dolan said, "I'd have to agree with you on that characterization."

[boutons_]

March 2, 2006

Grizzlies 101, Knicks 99

It's Official: Knicks at Bottom of N.B.A.

By LIZ ROBBINS

MEMPHIS, March 1 — A day after giving his beleaguered players a locker-room pep talk, James L. Dolan sat in the crowd Wednesday night with his arms crossed, waiting to see signs of life return from his significant investment.

For nearly four quarters Dolan, the chairman of Madison Square Garden, watched his invigorated team straining to snap its losing trend. But that optimism evaporated with less than three seconds remaining.

The Grizzlies' Pau Gasol hit a leaning jump shot over Stephon Marbury with 2.7 seconds left to break a tie. Steve Francis, in an attempt to send the game into overtime, clanged a jumper off the back of the rim and the Knicks fell, 101-99, as streamers cascaded from the ceiling upon Dolan and other Knicks' executives as they walked out of the arena.

Marbury had his best game since returning from a bruised shoulder — 25 points and 13 assists — but the Knicks lost their 12th consecutive game on the road and their 21st game of the last 23, tumbling their record to 15-42. With the victory by Charlotte (16-43), the Knicks have the worst record in the league. The defeat also guaranteed a losing season with 25 games remaining.

"It's tough when you lose a game like this at the end, and hopefully we can benefit from the effort we demonstrated," said Francis, who finished with 19 points.

The Knicks seemed to respond to Dolan — to a point.

"I think everybody was conscious of him being here yesterday," Francis said. "Of course, we want to win one for him and we also want to win for the fans and for ourselves."

But on the Grizzlies' final play, Marbury was caught in a mismatch defending Gasol on a switch and watched as Gasol's winning shot dropped. "The way our luck is going, I'm not surprised," Marbury said. "It just wasn't our day today."

( yep, the Knicks problem is bad luck )
On a day when Dolan talked about the Knicks' long-range strategy, Coach Larry Brown made a change that seemed to contradict one of Isiah Thomas's most recent moves.

Brown did not play Jalen Rose and instead started the Memphis native Qyntel Woods to give the Knicks their 35th starting lineup of the season. It was only one month ago that the Knicks acquired Rose and his $15.7 million salary, and Brown said that Rose's veteran presence would help the young players.

Brown never talked to Rose about benching him, and Rose seemed miffed. "I had a good practice yesterday," he said. "I just didn't get the call."

( Larry has tradition of starting a local boy on his team on road trip to the local boy's town. He did last week with Malik in SA. )

Brown said that Rose was fine, but would not elaborate.

Rose said this was the first time in nine seasons that he had not played as a result of a coach's decision. The last time was in Indiana, with Brown as his coach.

"Coach Brown gave me 15 of the 16," a smiling Rose said of his career total of not playing in a game.

Without Rose, the Knicks played aggressively. They shot 55.7 percent from the field and held their first halftime lead in three weeks. "I loved our effort tonight," Brown said. "Stephon was phenomenal. He went to the basket three or four times at the end and didn't get rewarded."

Marbury drove the lane with 44.2 seconds left and missed a layup that would have given the Knicks the lead. When Malik Rose scuffled for the rebound, he was called for a loose-ball foul. Gasol made both free throws to give the Grizzlies a 99-97 advantage.

On the next play, Francis drove and found David Lee for an open dunk under the basket with 25.9 seconds left, tying the score at 99-99. The Grizzlies worked the clock nearly to the end to set up Gasol's game-winner. He finished with 23 points.

"I feel bad," Brown said. "I'm being paid a lot of money. I've been asked to do something here, make changes, make us better, and I feel bad that it's going like this.

"I'm in this for the long haul. I'm not giving up, I know we're going to get better. It hasn't happened as quickly as we all hoped for. I'm going to help Isiah. I'm going to help Mr. Dolan. I'm going to help these players."

Brown sounded grateful for his owner's support. "It's sometimes amazing to me that you see our record and you see how positive he is," Brown said.

* Copyright 2006The New York Times Company

[Darrin]

When the Denver Nuggets traded the team's leading scorer in Nick Van Exel, the best center the team had seen in years in Raef LaFrentz, the injured defensive star Tariq Abdul-Wahad, and the veteran leader Avery Johnson to the Dallas Mavericks for Mr. 25-mil-a-season Juwan Howard, Donyell Harvey, and Tim Hardaway, everyone snickered.

Indeed, the PR got worse as NVE and LaFrentz helped the Mavs to 60 wins the next season and their first trip to the Conference Finals in 15 years. Tim Hardaway's highlight moment in Denver came as he threw a TV monitor on the scorers table across the court on his way to the lockeroom after being ejected from a game in Orlando.

But this fan said "great trade." And you know what? It was. It allowed them to draft Carmelo Anthony, re-sign Marcus Camby, and sign Andre Miller, Earl Boykins, and Kenyon Martin to long-term contracts. They had 20-30 win teams for too long. The Nuggets had a hard time hiring someone to replace Interim Head Coach Mike D'Antoni. It was the last vacancy filled in the NBA in the summer of 2002, and three people withdrew their names from consideration before they settled on an untried Pat Riley disciple named Jeff Bzdelik. Look who's on their sidelines now.

The nucleus they have today was built with the cap space they found in that trade. They have made the playoffs since 2003-04, and are no further away from an NBA Championship than Dallas.

This fan watched Orlando kick Penny Hardaway to the curb, the Pacers trade Dale Davis for Jermaine O'Neal while they let Mark Jackson and Rik Smits leave, and Joe Dumars trade Jerry Stackhouse, Lindsey Hunter, Christian Laettner, and Grant Hill for Ben Wallace, Chucky Atkins, Richard Hamilton, Hubert Davis, Billy Owens, and John Wallace. I understand the concept of rebuilding and can usually see what someone is trying to do. For instance, one of my favorite teams right now is Atlanta. Much like the Knicks, they weren't compe ive and didn't have the assets to change that. So they cleared out their roster and are now building a roster full of young talent that is growing with their coach. Josh Smith, Zaza Pachuila, Joe Johnson, Josh Childress, Salim Stoudamire - not all of them will be there when this is complete, but I'm pretty sure the first three will be. I see a lot of similarites to what Billy Knight did in Memphis before Jerry West took all his credit.

I see no plan. I don't see draft picks that the Knicks are stock-piling. I don't see a Lebron James or Carmelo Anthony they could get in this draft. And the sign of a team that thinks the future is far in the future is a team that trades picks. They not only do not have their pick this season, but Chicago has the right to trade picks with them in 2007. Does this sound like a team that is 'building for the future?'

Eddy Curry has heart problems. Eddy Curry can't rebound, and he has conditioning issues. He doesn't seem to have a passion for the game. He's not a center for the future if the goal is to make the playoffs and build a Championship team. He's softer than the Charmin I just used to wipe myself. Larry Brown can teach him the game, he can't teach him to love the game - it's that simple.

I see long-term salaries added to the roster when they had Penny Hardaway (Steve Francis) and Antonio Davis (Jalen Rose) set to expire this coming offseason.

If they are in re-building mode, they discovered this in the past two weeks. They aren't building in the draft because they don't have any picks, they aren't building in free agency because they have no money to spend, and the roster they have right now has maybe one building block right now - Channing Frye.

And look at thier moves:

Jerome James is 30.
The afore-mentioned Zaza Pachulia is 21.

Any team that will take a chance on their veterans - Maurice Taylor, Malik Rose, Steve Francis, Eddy Curry, and Stephon Marbury - are scared away by the price tag. None of them are tradeable in terms of getting something immediate for them, and the current roster was built to win now, but isn't.

He's actually made this worse for Thomas. Because if the goal is to re-build, and has been all season (dating back to last offseason), he's gotten rid of high draft picks (there is this thing called a conditional draft pick where the team can't receive it for 2-3 years, when the re-building is supposed to be over) and he can't move guys who aren't producing because of their contracts. The situation the Knicks are in right now - they are very close to being 15-20 win bad for the next 10 years. That's how dire this situation looks for a mild-mannered observer like myself.

That's the sign of bad management. That's why Billy Knight has a job and Rob Bab doesn't.

Just own up. "We signal with this trade that the team needed to rebuild. Isiah tried to improve our team on the fly, and it didn't work. We are trying a different approach now, and we ask you are patient while we do everything in our power to make the Knicks World Championship contenders again, even if that means taking a step back in the short-term. Isiah Thomas will be here to oversee this re-building."

But by claiming it's been going on longer than it has, this looks like the kiss of death. The type of story where Dolan is picking a fight that isn't there to get the rumor mill going.