Van Horn -- The truth is in the numbers

Willis Reed, the New York Knicks new special basketball advisor, explained that he was "puzzled" as to why the Knicks new acquisition, Keith Van Horn, has been labeled as a playoff choker.

It's not surprising for Reed to be "puzzled" concerning player evaluations, as this is the same man who drafted Rex Walters, Yinka Dare and Ed O'Bannon among the Top 16 picks in three successive NBA drafts.

In the 2002 NBA Finals against the Lakers, Van Horn shot a putrid 17-44(.386) for the series. This included nine points in Game 2 and seven points in Game 4. He never once reached his regular season average of over 14 points per game in the series. In three of the four games, he never attempted a single free throw!

Van Horn, though, seemed unfazed by his alarming drop in production.

"If you look at the playoffs, my stats throughout the (2002) playoffs were just as good as they were in the regular season", he claims in the Newark Star-Ledger.

Really?

During the 2002 regular season, Van Horn averaged 14.8 points on .433 shooting. In the playoffs, his averages dropped to 13.3 points on .402 shooting.

Apparently, he was using Baghdad Bob as his personal statistician.

It would be ridiculous to suggest that the Nets could have beaten the Lakers in the NBA Finals. However, the argument could be made that New Jersey could have won a game or two had Van Horn showed just a fraction of the intensity and desire of someone like Kenyon Martin.

Martin, despite having nowhere near the pure scoring ability of Van Horn, upped his scoring average from 14.9 in the regular season to 16.8 in the playoffs and averaged 22.0 points per game in the Finals.

Martin, for one, had seen enough of Van Horn. "I can deal with losing," Martin said. "But guys who don't bring it every day, that's something I can't deal with."

Nets coach Byron Scott and GM Rod Thorn had seen enough as well and shipped Van Horn to Philadelphia in the off-season. It got much worse for Van Horn when the playoff lights got bright in Philadelphia this past spring. He was simply horrendous. In Philadelphia's six game Eastern Conference Semi-Finals series defeat at the hands of Detroit, Van Horn scored in single-digits five times. This included Game 6 in Philly, when he shot only four times in 45 minutes, scoring just two points. In Games three, four and five of the series, Van Horn scored a total of 15 points on 5-21(.238).

An exasperated Sixers coach Larry Brown would tell the Philadelphia Inquirer during the playoffs, "I'm trying to call plays for guys who don't want to shoot it."

I wonder which "guys" Brown was referring to? Would it be the same "guys" that Kenyon Martin was referring to just a year earlier?

In the final three games of the Detroit series, Van Horn's scoring total did not reach his season average. His scoring average for the series was 7.8 points per game, less than half of his regular season total. And, for the entire 2003 playoffs, he shot just 38%, compared to 48% for the regular season.

For his career, Van Horn averages 17.7 points on .442 shooting in the regular season and 12.3 points on .400 shooting in the playoffs. The 5.4 points per game drop ranks him third among active NBA players in largest career postseason scoring decline.

In additin, the guys ahead of him on that list Walt Williams and Lindsey Hunter, are not even close to the salary stratosphere of $13,000,000 that Van Horn will pick from the Knicks' pocket this season.

And, we haven't even mentioned his unmentionable defense, which is so poor that we might as well not mention it.

So, Van Horn will now try and rebuild his reputation on the biggest stage of all, New York City, where Knick fans are hoping that Spike Lee will trade in his No. 8 Sprewell jersey for a pair of knee-high ankle socks.

Don't count on it.