http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/sports/3608741.htm


NBA: Knicks, Warriors winners in draft
BY SEAN DEVENEY
The Sporting News


Pondering the biggest deal of NBA draft night, the one that sent Denver Nuggets power forward Antonio McDyess and rookie point guard Frank Williams to the New York Knicks for Marcus Camby, Mark Jackson and draftee Maybyner "Nene" Hilario, there seemed to be only one reasonable conclusion: Bizarre, yes, but the Knicks did pretty well for themselves. You might even call them draft night winners. Imagine that.

Of course, how the trade rates depends on what the goal is. Is it to get to the NBA Finals or to lift the team out of last season's misery and back into the excitement of mediocrity and the Eastern Conference playoff scrum that comes with it? With McDyess, who is coming off knee surgery, the Knicks probably can get back to winning 43 to 48 games. But McDyess never has been the kind of player who can impose his will on a team — he never led the Nuggets to the postseason — and there is some question about how he will handle playing in New York.

Still, the Knicks improved. They might have been better off trying to rebuild, but the organization lacks the patience for that, so it is back to the middle of the postseason pack they go. Call them a semi-winner.