While Jeff Van Gundy will be a playoff analyst for TNT, he is not ready to throw dynamite on the Knicks.
Van Gundy thinks that with Larry Brown coaching the Knicks, they could — get this – have a “tremendous bounce back” season next year.
“One sure thing they have there is coaching,” Van Gundy told The Post. “They have great coaching right now. Everyone wants it really quickly to turn around. Sometimes the process is slow and painful. They have a great, great, great coach. Coaching is the least of their problems.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if New York has a tremendous bounce back year.”
Van Gundy still keeps up with the Knicks. Sometimes – but not obsessively, he emphasized – he will go on the Internet and check out what the New York papers are saying. Despite leaving on poor terms when he resigned in December 2001, Van Gundy said he still roots for the Knicks.
Though he couldn’t recall if he has spoken with Knicks’ owner James Dolan since he left the Knicks, Van Gundy did compliment Dolan.
“I give him a lot of credit in this way – they spend to win,” Van Gundy said.
Of course, Dolans’ millions added up to 59 losses.
The Knick with whom Van Gundy has the most experience is Steve Francis. Under Van Gundy in 2003-04, Francis’ scoring was its lowest of his career to that point, but he did make the playoffs. Houston traded Francis in the Tracy McGrady deal after that season.
Van Gundy said that Francis made some “bonehead” decisions sometimes, but his positives outweighed his negatives. Van Gundy was unsure Francis could co-exist with Stephon Marbury in the same backcourt.
“I don’t know that,” Van Gundy said. “Much was written about my relationship with Steve, but I found Steve basically did whatever I asked. He did like to play the rebel in the paper, but when asked to do something in practice or in games, he tried to do things to the best of his ability.
“I think Steve is a very good competitor. I think sometimes he may have people giving him advice that is not the most sound.”
“When he we had him in Houston, he made the playoffs the only time in his career. He sacrificed a lot to get there. He dialed his game down a notch to include Yao [Ming] more, and I really respected the sacrifices he made. He didn’t always like it, but he did it for the betterment of the team.”
