D'Antoni to stay with Hughes in Knicks' rotation
Photo credit: AP | New York Knicks' Larry Hughes (0) blocks a shot by Maccabi Tel Aviv's Doron Perkins (8) while Knicks' Danilo Gallinari (8) watches during a preseason charity basketball game. (Oct. 18, 2009)
There are certain things you learn after playing in the NBA for 12 seasons. One of them is that the players in the rotation at the beginning of the season aren't always the ones in the rotation at the end.
This is the biggest reason that Larry Hughes decided not to say anything last week after Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni did not give him a minute of playing time in the Knicks' first two games. Hughes figured that he was going to get a shot sooner or later.
"I've always felt if given the minutes I will produce," said Hughes, who has produced 18 and 20 points in the two games since D'Antoni decided to pull him out of cold storage.
Hughes got his first start Monday night against New Orleans, and his 20 points and six rebounds helped produce the Knicks' first win of the season. That was good enough for D'Antoni to declare Tuesday that Hughes is sticking in the lineup for awhile, adding that it was a mistake that he hadn't gone to the veteran sooner.
"You sit around all summer and you look at different combos and get things in your mind and he didn't have a stellar preseason," D'Antoni said of his reason to start the season without Hughes in the rotation. "He didn't do anything to dispel what I was thinking.
"This year coming out of the gate, I almost didn't get him started and I should've. But thank goodness that I went to him two nights ago and he continues to perform well."
Hughes also struggled when he came to the Knicks last year in a trade with Chicago. In his first three games, the 30-year-old forward was 4-for-22 and was booed in his first appearance at the Garden. Hughes, who has played for six teams in 12 NBA seasons, said it was hard to be dropped into the thick of things last year after not playing for two months in Chicago.
When he struggled in the preseason and it became increasingly clear that the Knicks - who are owned by Cablevision, which also owns Newsday - were not going to make him a part of their plans, Hughes decided not to make an issue of it. Last season in Chicago, he had a falling out over playing time that led to the team giving up on him. He didn't want the same thing to happen here.
"I went through a similar thing last season in Chicago where I didn't handle it the best way I could have," Hughes said. "But I learned from it and I just applied it to this situation."
Hughes said he has one goal for this season.
"I'd like to stay with one team all year," he said. "It would be nice to have some continuity. It's just about being comfortable, having your teammates be comfortable and your coach be comfortable. I'd like to have that."
