Top > Sport > 2005 > December > 2005-12-15

Rookies Getting Big Minutes in Big Apple

Everyone is stunned by the amounts of minutes Brown is giving to his young rookies? Brown has the reputation of not giving a lot of minutes to rookies. If you recall, Brown didn?t give playing time to Darko Millicic in Detroit and hardly play LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony in the Olympics after the two finished their rookie season. So what makes this New York team any different? First of all, the Knicks aren?t going anywhere. Second, he has no one better.

So far this season, Channing Frye has been phenomenal and has exceeded even the loftiest expectations. Frye, who was named the Eastern Conference`s Rookie of the Month, is out-playing all rookies not named Chris Paul. Frye is ranked in the top four among all rookies in scoring, rebounding, blocks, field goal percentage and free throw percentage. At this point, it looks like Frye was a steal at the eighth pick in the draft.

Nate Robinson is another rookie who has Knicks fans excited about the future. The 5-9 spark-plug has been earning playing time with his defensive tenacity and constant energy. While there are clearly flaws in Nate`s game, the fact that Larry Brown trusts him enough to start him, speaks volumes. Another bright spot of late has been the play of unheralded second-year big man Jackie Butler. Butler played crunch time minutes on the recent West Coast swing and has shown immense improvement in a short period of time.