As Isiah has said, there is a greater urgency to rebuild the cap structure than there is the personnel. That will enable the talent to be upgraded in the future. The best time to start that process is now, when the team is playing well.

Posted by playa2:

So why didn't you just say we need discipline instead of wholesale roster changes if you knew this teams potential. I say this team can stay as is and still beat up the east. All this team ever needed was a leader at the point who knew how to run and lead a team.

I love the faith playa2 and I would like to believe they are gonna win too but the truth is that we need a true post presence! We need a franchise player that we can build around. this team cannot beat up any of the top eastern teams under Chaney! The 3 wins are nice but dont forget that Chaney is a bad coach and he will make the knicks take a nose dive.

like isiah said, 4 prominent NBA associates advised him to blow this up. there have been valid reasonings to blow this up, or atleast alter things significantly.

i mean we have been blown out numerous times this year and sit with a TON of undertainty with FAs

Mcdyess Ward Thomas Doleac---Deke is old H2O had been hurt PG play from eisley had been mediocre

We lack and still do lack a great deal of team speed+athletiscm


all of a sudden KVH FW are playing like all stars KT finds his game and the subtle changes in personell has worked. like KVH said--everything balances out--i dont think FW will continue at this pace, the knicks arent going to be shooting 50% every game and the isiah high will wear down.

is this team good enough to make noise in the east---well if KVH and FW play like they have the last 3-4 games sure--but ive seen it with andersen and while this has been an impressive 3 game run, let me see 10-15 games or so. Any comments on rebuilding this team at 10-19 were very reasonable since we had so many ?

I hope we keep it up.

I dont know if we necisarily need to blow everything up... what is most important is that we get rid of the players that are soft and dont want to play and get players that are tuff and can ball in ny talent is important but to make NY happy wat u gotta do is have a tuff team that fights hard we have no problem rooting for a underdog that fights hard john starks mason h0lla if u wit me gony go ny go

Isiah stays hard at work:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/30/sports/basketball/30KNIC.html
. . .

At the morning shoot-around, Thomas's closest friend, Mark Aguirre, a former teammate and bench coach in Indiana, joined the Knicks as a developmental coach.

"We're kind of just hooked at the hip, we think the same way," said Aguirre, who has been friends with Thomas since they grew up together in Chicago. Aguirre won two championships with Thomas in Detroit.

Aguirre, selected No. 1 over all in the 1981 draft, went to Indiana two years ago to work with the young frontcourt players Jermaine O'Neal and Al Harrington for two seasons.

"What I see here is we had good post people but right now they've kind of lost a little bit of their fundamentals," Thomas said.

Aguirre could have a new project soon.

Having lost out on Eddie Griffin, Thomas has turned his attention to another player with a troubled history, Leon Smith, according to an Eastern Conference official.

A former first-round pick in the 1999 draft, Smith came out of high school and proved ill-prepared, emotionally, for the N.B.A. The Spurs took him with the last pick of the first round and traded him to Dallas, where he clashed nearly instantly with Coach Don Nelson.

Smith was arrested twice, spent 31 days in psychological therapy, and was accused of threatening his girlfriend. He tried to commit suicide in 1999 by taking 250 aspirin and played just 14 games for the Atlanta Hawks in 2001.

But Smith, a 6-foot-10 power forward/center, appears to be showing signs of turning his life around, playing for the Gary Steelheads of the resurrected C.B.A., where he was named player of the week.

Thomas will likely work him out at the Knicks' facility as early as Tuesday.

Thomas said he was upset that Griffin, who has two criminal trials pending, signed with the Nets and did not first consider the Knicks.




[Edited by - Rich on 12/30/2003 00:07:16]

Upons some inspection, Smith is getting 14-15 points,10 boards and 2 blocks (leading the league in blocks) playing center at 6-10 250 lbs. in the CBA. That's not bad and might be worth a shot if they are moving Doleac and want someone to play a few mins at center. There's also a SG named Fields scoring 26 a game that they should look at.

I think a buyout is more likely, who is gonna take on spoons contract? Oh unless some one wants Doleac for 2nd rd pick.

Now that we have 4 back-to-back victories, any predictions on a win streak