Whoever usually posts insider articles, please post this one, thankyou.

Knicks in position to compete in East

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By Chad Ford
ESPN Insider

LOS ANGELES -- Maybe Isiah Thomas knows what he's doing, after all.

Sunday's trade that shipped Keith Van Horn to the Bucks and Michael Doleac to the Hawks for Tim Thomas and Nazr Mohammed should put the Knicks in a position to seriously compete in the East.

After taking over what appeared to be one of the worst jumbles of mismatched talent and excessive contracts in the NBA, Isiah has, in the course of two months, made three trades and replaced nine players on the Knicks roster.

The resulting makeover would make the Fab Five proud. Call it hip eye for the queer team.

Chances are he's not done. Rumors swirled here at All-Star weekend that Isiah was considering swapping Shandon Anderson for Ruben Patterson. He also is shopping Othella Harrington, Frank Williams and Michael Sweetney hard.

Scott Layden must be getting tired just keeping up with the transaction reports.

After casting a skeptical eye at Isiah's hire and his first two trades, it's pretty tough not to be impressed.

Thomas and Mohammed aren't the players that Stephon Marbury or even Penny Hardaway are, but they're the perfect complement to a backcourt of Marbury, Hardaway and Allan Houston and the blue-collar front court of Kurt Thomas and Dikembe Mutombo.

After pulling off the Marbury miracle, the main critique was that Isiah had boxed himself in. He used up his expiring contracts and draft picks to land Marbury -- but was it enough?

The answer, of course, was no. But with Thomas and Mohammed, the Knicks suddenly appear to have the pieces they need to compete in the East.

Tim Thomas is far from a superstar, but as a fourth option, he's the perfect fit on the Knicks. He's young (he turns 27 in 10 days), tall and athletic. He can run the floor and has turned himself into a decent defender the past year. He'll never average 20 points or 10 boards a game, but on the squad the Knicks assembled, he doesn't have to. Mohammed is another big body -- something the team needs as Mutombo nears his 80th birthday.

Here's the other thing about the three trades Isiah's made. Each one also has been pretty good for the other team making the trade. Not sure how that's possible given the Knicks' current roster, but it's true.

The Moochie Norris for Clarence Weatherspoon trade was a wash. The Marbury trade gave the Suns the ability to get far enough under the cap to make a run at a top free agent along with two top young international prospects and an extra draft pick. It's tough to argue with the Suns' decision to pull the trigger.

This latest trade also works for the Bucks and the Hawks. Milwaukee is one of the surprise stories of the first half, but it needed another guy to pick up some of the scoring load. Van Horn is having a good season and is capable of averaging 20 and 8 on the Bucks, which is a nice upgrade over the 14 and 5 that Thomas provided on a nightly basis. The move also allows them to reinsert Desmond Mason into the starting five and move Van Horn to the four. The team also shaves roughly $14 million off their cap for the summer of 2005 giving them around $25 million in cap room to play with that season.

While Van Horn isn't the defender that Thomas is, he's a better scorer, and his offensive rebounding should make the Bucks an even tougher match-up in the second half.

The Hawks' interest is in getting cap room. By swapping Mohammed for Doleac and Joel Przybilla, the team will clear another five million in cap room next summer. That should put them second to only the Jazz with roughly $20 million in cap space to make a run at some top free agents. While it's highly doubtful that the Hawks have enough juice to lure Kobe Bryant, don't be surprised to see them make a major run at a guy like Kenyon Martin this summer.



...a damn good article!


[Edited by - HARDCOREKNICKSFAN on 02/16/2004 02:25:19]