Larry Brown Plays Rookies:http://www.basketball-reference.com/coa ... la01c.html --find a player in the last two decades that had talent and didn't play, much less a rookie. If you don’t want to do that, here's the list of guys that probably didn't get as many minutes as rookies compared to the success they had over their careers: Tony Massenberg, Elliot Perry, Mark Strickland, Travis Best, Fred Hoiberg, a slew of 76ers and Darko. That’s it. Outside of some of the 76ers, Travis Best is the best player there that was in a situation where he maybe should’ve gotten more minutes than he did... and he still averaged 10mpg. Let’s begin...
SpursMassenberg arguably should've played over Sidney Green and Dave Greenwood (in the final year of his career), but I'm thinking he wasn't very good since a year later he played 18 games for 4 different teams. I think it's fair to give LB a pass here, since a year earlier, rookies David Robinson and Sean Elliott both got 37+ mpg and the year before that (LBs first year back in the NBA) rookie Willie Anderson lead the team in minutes played while sophomore Greg Anderson finished second and another rookie, Vernon Maxwell, finished 4th.
ClippersI'll admit to not being familiar with Elliot Perry, but statistically he had good years in his mid 20s and a last hurrah at 30. LB played guards Ron Harper, Charles Grant, Doc Rivers, Bo Kimble and Danny Young more minutes than him. Of those, I can only say that I've seen Doc and Harper play before for certain. Elliot Perry was a 6’0 pg and seems to have been a pretty average player unless his career was derailed by injuries or something.
PacersMark Strickland had a nice career but didn't get many opportunities as a rookie in Indiana. He had Derrick McKey, Dale Davis and Antonio Davis all logging heavy minutes at his position. Maybe he should've played over LaSalle Thompson, John Williams and Greg Kite... maybe he wasn't ready yet. It’s worth noting that LB had Antonio Davis as a rookie and gave him the 5th most minutes on the team (behind Miller, McKey, Dale Davis and Rik Smits).
Hoiberg had to pick up minutes behind Miller, Johnson and Pierce, who were all good. Duane Ferrell also got minutes and was not good, but maybe he brought something on defense that Hoiberg wasn't ready for. Also, this is “the Mayor” Fred Hoiberg we’re talking about.
I remember Travis Best being good, but looking over his career, maybe I overrated him because I was only 10 when he was a rookie. Haywoode Workman got the backup PG minutes behind Mark Jackson. I remember him being a game manager type, probably good at defense, but statistically, he doesn’t look very good. Best still got close to 10 minutes a game, but had a huge problem turning the ball over at the time. Maybe he plays better with more minutes? Before Philadelphia, this is the best example of a young player not playing over a veteran when maybe he should’ve been.
Final Pacer of note is Erick Dampier. As a rookie in Indiana and managed to get over 1000 mp/14.6mpg, on a team that still had the Davis’ and Smits ahead of him. Smits did miss 30 games that season, so maybe things are different if that doesn’t happen.
SixersLB’s Philly era isn’t as cut and dry as the near decade before it. There were many rookies brought in (excluding the scrubs that were quickly out of the league or never in it) we have: Anthony Parker, Tim Thomas, Nazr Mohammed, Larry Hughes, Jumaine Jones, Todd MacCulloch, Raja Bell, Speedy Claxton, Samuel Dalembert, and John Salmons. Of those, Parker, Mohammed, McCulloch, Jones, Bell, Dalembert and Salmons got less than 10 mpg as rookies (9.4 for McCulloch). Thomas, Hughes and Claxton all played more than 20mpg, but the guys getting less than 10mpg are pretty good, so what gives?
Anthony Parker’s career was jump started in Tel Aviv, where he became one of the best Euroleague players of all time. Since then, he’s been a consistent player who’s noted for his defense. I’m not sure why he fell out of the NBA, wiki mentions that he was “largely plagued by injury”. Since he seems like an LB type player, I think it’s safe to assume that the injury excuse is probably valid. LB played Jim Jackson and Aaron McKie at his position a lot, but neither had very good seasons. Without knowing more details, I’ll concede that this is a good example of a time when LB probably should’ve played a rookie, but thought veterans would be the key to making the playoffs. They missed the playoffs and let AP slip away. Whoops.
Nazr Mohammed has, until this most recent season, never played well for Larry Brown. I don’t know if it’s personal or what, but he played him a combined 507 minutes in the first 3 seasons of his career. Last season, when everyone was shocked at how few minutes Naz was getting, he still got more minutes than his first two seasons in the league. The best explanation I can offer is that Theo Ratliff was in his prime and this was the last above average year of Geiger’s career and both of those guys were getting more than 30mpg. I’d suggest that the 50 game lockout season had something to do with it, but his minutes didn’t really increase a year later and the roster was largely the same. (In fact, he only appeared in 2 more games in year two despite his team having an additional 32. OUCH!!) Best explanation I can come up with is that something about Mohammed’s playing style rubs LB the wrong way.
Todd MacCulloch got just under 10 mpg in his rookie year. He was efficient in his limited minutes and filled in nicely for the declining Geiger. Stole minutes at the 5 from sophomore Naz.
Jumaine Jones would have the most efficient year of his career as a sophomore, but his rookie year was not so great. He had Lynch, McKie, Kukoc, Hughes, Billy Owens and Bruce Bowen ahead of him on the roster. Billy Owens wasn’t very good at this point though, so maybe Jones should’ve had some of his 20mpg. Not sure if Owens was known for his defense or not.
Raja Bell provides the knee jerk reaction that would support a comment like “SEE! LB doesn’t like to play rookies that will go on to be good players!”, but remember, he was an undrafted FA out of Florida Int’l. I think LB really saw a lot of potential in Raja and made him his pet project, since a year later Bell would start 12 games and log 12mpg for the season.
John Salmons was on a team that made it to the EC Semifinals and had Iverson, Snow, McKie, Van Horn, Coleman and Bucker ahead of him. He had his first above average season in 08-09. Maybe he develops quicker if he gets minutes, but does he deserve to play over those guys?
Dalembert didn’t play very much as a rookie (5.2 mpg in 34 games) and didn’t play at all the following season. As a rook he missed 28 games due to injury and had arthroscopic knee surgery in his second year. In his first year of full health, he got 27mpg, but Randy Ayers and Chris Ford had taken over the coaching duties by then. Which leads me to:
LB’S DETROIT PISTON STINT AKA THE DARKO MILICIC FIASCOOnly three rookies would appear on the roster during LB’s tenure in Motown: Darko, Carlos Delfino, and Horace Jenkins. Delfino logged 15.3 mpg in 30 games as a rookie. Darko? Only 4.7 in 34. Despite the fact that Milicic is not very good and one of the worst #2 picks of all-time, he is fully responsible for creating a negative stigma that surrounds Larry Brown to this day--that he is unwilling to play capable rookies. A rep that he didn’t shake in NY while playing Channing Frye 24.2mpg, Nate Robinson 21.4mpg and David Lee 16.9mpg. What is even more frustrating is that too many Bobcat fans hold on to this reputation despite DJ Augustin logging 26.5mpg a year ago.
I know this was long, so I realize that the primary propagators of this fictional assessment are unlikely to read it, but it was long in order to make a strong point. Larry Brown, for almost two decades, has a strong history of playing his best, most game ready players--experience be damned. It's actually more damning if you didn't play much, because in almost every circumstance you were awful or a Mark Strickland/Fred Hoiberg type guy. There is an example of a good player not playing as much as he should have that doesn’t have a pretty good explanation as to why that’s the case (David Lee- 16.9mpg), but that’s really it. FWIW, I’ve heard it excused that LB used crazy lineups and rotations in NY in an attempt to get Isiah fired, but that seems pretty weak. There are no examples of great players not playing. You had to have some really good players ahead of you, struggle with injuries or be Nazr Mohammed to not get significant playing time under LB. Let’s hope that Henderson and Brown are instances of having better players ahead of them and Ajinça is one of the guys that gets better years after LB isn’t playing him and has a pretty average career. Otherwise, history shows that the reason they aren’t playing is because they shouldn’t be.
