Newsday’s Greg Logan was in Vegas yesterday as the Knicks’ summer league team prepared….for more off-season criticizing of former coach Larry Brown.
Channing Frye (above), who made the NBA all-rookie team in limited playing time, pulled no punches when asked to compare Brown and Thomas.
“It’s not even comparable,” Frye said. “It’s just a positive environment every day. I’m happy Isiah is here and very excited about what we can do with the guys we have.
“I was excited for a change. It’s going to bring some ‘positivity’ to the team.”
“If I told you to do something different every day at the newspaper or the TV station, how would it work out?” Frye said of Brown’s roster roulette. “But that was his coaching style and he made the decisions he made, and our record showed it.”
“Thank God, we have Isiah right now and there’s not as much media attention on what’s happening between the coach and Steph,” said Frye, who is fully recovered from a sprained left knee suffered near the end of the season.
“It was a weird year between the media and what was going on with the team. Everything was just a giant circus.”
Nate Robinson said he felt he was in a “tug of war” with Brown, who described him as “a highlight reel, not a point guard.” While Thomas has given Robinson a simple blueprint to follow, the 5-9 point guard claimed Brown gave him conflicting instructions from day to day.
“It was like, ‘I’m trying to do everything you ask me, and it seems like it’s not good enough,’ ” Robinson said. “It’s like, ‘We’re butting heads here because, Coach, you told me to do this yesterday, but today, you told me not to do it.’ … At first, it was like he was trying to take my joy.”
“We won six in a row there, and I was a little surprised when, all of a sudden, I’m not only not starting, I’m not playing at all,” David Lee said. “It was a little strange, and toward the end of the season [playing time] was so up and down. I really didn’t understand what was going on.”
T-Wolves coach Dwane Casey described Eddie Griffin as “a great kid” yesterday, and claimed “I’ve had no incidents with him whatsoever.” That’s because you’re not carpooling with him, Dwane.