A Message From Scott Layden

First of all, I would like to thank all of you who sent in questions for me about the upcoming draft, the Chicago pre-draft camp and about some of our current players. This is certainly a very exciting time of year, and I look forward to answering many of those questions in the coming days. As a way to get started, I'd like to offer up some general thoughts:

Our goal now, as it always is, is to use the resources we have to find ways to improve the team that we have. We currently have three picks in the upcoming draft, number nine, number 30 and number 39, which we feel will be used in any number of ways to improve our team for the future. At this point, we are looking at many scenarios, from trades to using the picks themeselves, which will give us the best opportunity come draft day.

Last week we attended the annual pre-draft workouts at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. The pre-draft camp is the annual unofficial kickoff to draft season, and always serves as a good base to see players and coaches and get a feel for who and what we may be able to do with the draft. This year's workouts were very helpful and several players used it as an opportunity to improve their stand in the draft. Additionally, we as a staff got to interview a good deal of players, including some of those who will be selcted early in the first round, as well as set up our workout schedules for the coming weeks and exchange medical records on all of the players. All this will go a long way in helping determine our path on draft day.

With regard to the draft, we feel that this year's draft, although lacking a great number of players that are major names now, will be a very strong one. There are a a great number of superb athletes who will be available when we pick, and many of them will develop into impact players as their careers evolve. Keep in mind that this year's Rookie of the Year, Amare Stoudemire, was selected with the ninth pick, and we think that there will be players of similar ability available with the ninth spot.

In Chicago, even though most of the top players do not participate in the workouts, it was still very, very productive for our staff. Some of the players who did participate and really improved their potential position in the draft were Troy Bell of Boston College, Marcus Hatten of St. John's and Dontae Jones, who started his career at Rutgers and finished at Duke. All three of them showed that they have great athletic ability and can make the adjustment to playing not only with players of similar ability, but with players who are bigger and more experienced than they are. We worked out Marcus on Thursday again, along with Reece Gaines of Louisville and Leandrinho Barbosa, another great athlete from Brazil, and came away very impressed with the ability of all three. However the player who many felt was the most impressive in Chicago was Pavel Podkolzine, a 7-4 260 lb. center from Russia. Despite not having a great amount of game experience, he has shown some very strong individual skills, and we are looking forward to getting a better look when he works out for us on Friday.

I hope that gives you a bit of a preview of our activity to this point. A great deal of work will be going into the next few weeks as we get closer to the draft, and we look forward to updating you from time to time as well as answering the questions that have come in.

Regards,

Scott Layden

i use to think scott layden was a master of "disguise" until i realized that it wasn't a disguise...

but i don't understand why he is getting all worked up about pavel? a guy whom he apparantly has no chance of getting. who knows.

and as if to insult knick fans he "points out" that amare was rookie of the year as if he doesn't think we can't figure out that he had a chance of getting amare and didn't. as if he thinks knicks fans believe that he had any idea of who amare was last year.


reece gaines would be a decent later pick i imagine.

... except lousy basketball decisions.

I wonder if Scotty is driving Pavel's value up to knock someone else down into Knick range?

Posted by knixphan:

I wonder if Scotty is driving Pavel's value up to knock someone else down into Knick range?

... Scotty doesn't possess the mental wherewithal to be that clever.

... laughing stock of the league... I love when Barkley rips the Knicks... can't wait until the next chapter of... "Why Can't I Wake Up From This Nightmare" ... inspired by Scott Layden and Jimmy Dolan.

When Layden finally gets off the snide and makes the right decision on draft night, some will still say we could have done this and we could have done that and some will be mad when he makes the right choice! Next thursday you will be glued to the idiot box just to see what Layden does ...AND FOR THAT I WILL LAUGH AT YOU!

Current & Future Draft Picks: THE KNICKS WILL GET BACK TO THE FINALS BEFORE 2008
2003
Has own first round pick
Acquired conditional first round pick from Seattle Supersonics (lottery protected through 2006). If New York does not receive a first round pick from Seattle prior to the 2007 Draft, the Knicks will receive Seattle's 2007 first round pick unconditionally. However, once New York receives that pick, they must trade it to Toronto as part of the February 22, 2001 trade.
Has Denver Nuggets’ second round pick
Has own second round pick


2004-2007
Has own first round pick
Has own second round pick