KNICK NOTES
AUBURN HILLS – Larry Brown said discount the Knicks’ 3-8 record and the gloom-and-doom prospects. The Hall-of-Fame Pistons coach thinks fortunes can turn very quickly in New York.
“Nobody can judge the Knicks until that kid Antonio [McDyess] plays,” Brown said. “If Antonio comes back, with Keith [Van Horn], Dikembe Mutombo and Kurt [Thomas], the East has the potential to get better.”
Brown, who coached Van Horn last season, sees a new role for him as a Knick. Van Horn was out last night with a sprained ankle and stayed home.
“We never ran a play for Keith [in Philly],” said Brown. “I’ve watched him a lot. He has the ball in his hands a lot more, is much more aggressive.”
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Pistons rookie center Darko Milicic, the second overall pick in the draft, has remained close with fellow Serbian Slavko Vranes, the Knicks’ 7-5 second-round pick.
Milicic, Vranes and Zoran Planicic, now with the Nets, shared an apartment for the six weeks leading up to the draft on the upper East Side. Vranes, who’s been inactive all season, didn’t make the trip, as he recently sprained an ankle.
“I spoke to him last night,” Milicic said. “We stay in touch. Every week we talk. He’s a little bit upset. I told him to be patient. He wants to play.”
Milicic also must stay patient, as he failed to crack the rotation. He’s played 12 minutes this season.
“It’s not easy to sit on the bench,” said Milicic, who’s 18 and bought his first car yesterday, actually two, an Audi and a BMW. “But he’s one of the best coaches in the game.”
Said Brown, “He just turned 18. He didn’t have any summer like all the other rookies. He gets better everyday. He’s going to be a terrific player one day. I’m not going to rush him into it.”
His agent, Marc Cornstein, who also has Vranes, thinks this could be a blessing in disguise.
“He’s in a real enviable position – on an excellent team with Hall of Fame coach,” Cornstein said. “Rather than being thrown into the fray immediately, he gets to be brought along slowly and mature. It can be viewed as an negative. We look at it as a positive.”