Ahh.

http://www.nba.com/knicks/news/mutombo_031009.html

being reported on espn too

Posted by OasisBU:

Here is a ? for everyone....if we have Deke now, and another move can be made to upgrade the point - basically we will have Houston back in the starting lineup and thats it - aside from that, how loud do you think the garden cheers will be if a REAL squad with a TRUE center will be on opening night? I think Deke, KVH and whoever else comes along she be welcomed with the full garden roar.

It would be nice to see this team win, but I am happy just knowing that they finally signed a center who can play ball after Ewing left.

whether deke has anything left remains to be seen. deke was slow and had hands of lead before he tore ligaments in his hand last year.

Even if the kninks dont make anymore moves they should make the playoffs. Lampe and sweetney seem like they can contribute and play and effective 14-20 minutes a game off the bench. Dice is the real wildcard if he comes back they can make a run at any team in the east. If you look at Deke's numbers from 2001 with philly he had a great year 11.5 pts, 10.9 rbs and 2.5 blks. I dont expect that much but i think he can play about 30 minutes with 9/9/2. Deke makes everyone else on the team better defenders. The guards can be more agressive knowing they have someone behind them to back them up. Also cheaney saying they will be playing zone this year lets deke just stand in the middle and control the paint. Van Horn will be helped out the most because he had his best years with the nets when they had a big man behind him (J. Williams) he can play SF and take advantage of his hieght and spot up on three's. I'm just very excited for the season to start. And im going to spree's game back at the garden on dec 23 so i hope dice will be back by then.

I think with the addition of Mutombo, the Knicks have elevated themselves to middle of the pack in the eastern conference playoff race, regardless of whether McDyess comes back.

Will Mutombo affect our offense? Tough to say. While he'll provide immediate help defensively, he is somewhat of a liability on offense, where he's slow to race up the court. His even harder-than-Ewing's stone hands aren't really built to distribute the ball in the post. To begin with, I'd imagine we're going to see a completely overhauled offensive plan, especially since Sprewell is gone. In an ideal situation, we're talking about an offense that will have KT (12-14ppg), McDyess (15-18ppg), Houston (20-22ppg), and KVH (14-17ppg) as double-figure scorers. Anderson, as the primary swingman backup, should come close to 10ppg as well.

It looks like Lampe's got a scorer's mindset, noting the rate at which he launches shots. Sweetney has been effective as a rebounder and drawing contact, so it looks like we'll be carrying some scoring power off the bench. Overall, I like the potential of the team.

As far as opening the door to trade Thomas:
I don't necessarily like the idea of trading Thomas for NVE - NVE is getting older and has never played much D so he's not really a long term solution--- he's more like another big contract. Then again, we're sort of looking for a stopgap to bridge the way to Vujanic.
I also wonder if we'd be doing too much of an overhaul and bringing in too many new players, leading to poor chemistry.

Also, we have waaaaay too many players under contract. It remains to be seen whether Layden bites the bullet and waives someone earning real dough. Knight and Ward are prime trade bait, both with expiring deals, with Ward having extra value with his 2 million buyout.

I don't know what the rules are, but if the Knicks were able to re-sign Ward, I reckon they could save luxury tax money if they bought him out and re-signed him. However, as the case may be, we're trying to unload Knight to Utah-- though who on their roster we'd be interested in, I don't know (Stevenson as a backup wing?). Besides, we're still wondering whether Frank Williams has what it takes (yet or ever) to run this NBA team. It would be a risk letting go the proven Ward in this case, especially since the addition of Mutombo already puts us in playoff contention.

The knicks can play up on their man on the perimitter now with the addition of Mutumbo, we haven't had that luxury since Ewing left. Ward can now play his old style of aggresiveness up in the opposing point guards grill like he use too. We have to understand with a bonifide shot blocker our defensive style can change to funnel penetrators to Mutumbo. I love how this squad has evolved. Layden goofed some things up ,but now he's fixing them. Gotta give him some credit now if you're gonna be unbias.

Now that we have a decent center, this team will change drastically. We definitely need to eat up some of our bad contracts. We should at least eat up weatherspoon, and knights.... Nobody wants these guys at their price, and their a waste now that we have 7 other forwards that can do the same things weathersponn and doleac do... sweetney is a young weatherspoon.. probabbly a little better. We pay Knight 5Mil a year to sit on the bench wearing his GAP clothes.... Maybe we can work out a deal with these players and their agents and pay them less......

how many power forwards do you want? we need a point guard. i doubt we can get van exel. here is a question. where is kenny anderson playing? yeah, i know he is not as good as circa 93 but he is still a solid point guard who is better than eisley and ward.

It's too bad Atlanta matched up the Jason Terry deal. It was a bit too late. If he was still a restricted free agent and we got Mutombo, we would 've package Ward/Thomas for jason Terry.

All that is irrelevant right now. Nick VE is good but i think picking him up would be risky based on his recent various injuries he's been sustaining lately. He's also over 30 years of age. That trade might come back to haunt us. I say we give Frank Williams a chance to blossom.

It so funny how few weeks ago, fake ass knicks fans talking alot of junk about the knicks being a lottery team after the season. These fake ass knicks fans don't know anything about patience or realizing the knicks were just waiting for the right move @ the right time. Soon as knicks trade Sprewell, fake-ass knicks fans assumed the season is Done!! Well now, take a good look @ the knicks now!!! From the most undersized team to one of the biggest team/lineup in the goddamn league. So far, Chaney and LAyden addressed their important needs: Size, Rebounding, Length and Youth.