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Rich
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/06/sports/basketball/06knicks.html
October 6, 2004
Houston Watches as Knicks Open Camp
By HOWARD BECK
CHARLESTON, S.C., Oct. 5 - - The Knicks' future, presumed to be a brighter, more enjoyable ride than the recent past, began to take shape Tuesday in a nondescript gymnasium tucked into a modest liberal arts college.
Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford and Mike Sweetney, embodying the hope of a new era and carrying the expectations of a swagger-prone general manager, took the court together for the first time.
The scrimmage at the College of Charleston was closed to the news media, but it is presumed that Isiah Thomas smiled approvingly at his creation.
These are, in relative terms, high times for the franchise, coming off its first playoff appearance in three years, bursting with the intrigue of young talent and emboldened by a realignment that makes the Knicks a threat to win their division. That would make them no worse than a No. 3-seeded team, and there are even murmurs that the Knicks could be - seriously - the fourth-best team in the ever-shaky Eastern Conference of the N.B.A.
None of this is unreasonable, except to the extent that it all depends greatly on the one Knick who spent exactly zero minutes scrimmaging on the first day of training camp. While his teammates ran the court, Allan Houston worked on agility drills with the strength coach Greg Brittenham.
Houston, the Knicks' best shooter, their only proven playoff performer, their longtime go-to scorer and their locker-room leader, is a man with suspect knees and no timetable for returning. He is not expected to scrimmage Wednesday, either, and it seems no one - Houston, Coach Lenny Wilkens, Thomas or anyone else - can say, or is willing to say, when he might be ready for action.
Indeed, nearly everything concerning Houston's health - his training regimen, his schedule for beginning on-court activity, his availability for the Nov. 3 season opener - is a mystery.
"I don't want to think about tomorrow or Nov. 3,'' Houston said after the team's morning session. "I'm thinking about today and making progress every day.''
So goes the official, pointedly ambiguous Houston mantra, which is generally repeated by every member of the Knicks' hierarchy. Caution remains the standing order, lest the Knicks have a repeat of last season, when Houston missed 32 games, or of two seasons ago, when Antonio McDyess returned too quickly from knee surgery and sustained a season-ending injury in a preseason game.
Thomas has said that Houston could play, if needed, right now. The stated goal, however, is to ensure that his troublesome knees can last through an entire season and, the Knicks hope, a long playoff run. That said, it is not clear what Houston has to do to prove his readiness, to himself or to Knicks officials.
"Not only does he have to come to me, but the trainer and the doctors,'' Wilkens said. "Everybody's got to tell me, so that I'm comfortable, too. But he's working real hard in his therapy and stuff like that. He's able to run, he's feeling better all the time. But I think we need to wait. I don't think there's any reason to rush. Not after seeing what happened last year.''
While Houston plays the part of the frustrated spectator, the Knicks are trying to sort out a roster similarly steeped in uncertainty.
At the moment, only Marbury and Tim Thomas, at small forward, appear to be locks for the starting lineup.
Crawford could be the answer at shooting guard if Houston is not ready for opening night, but he is only 24 years old and not yet a consistent performer. Kurt Thomas is the sturdy incumbent at power forward, but his name surfaces in trade rumors almost weekly, and Knicks officials are giddy over the progress of Sweetney, entering his second pro season.
"Sweetney has made a huge jump," Wilkens said. "So I feel real comfortable sticking him in there now.''
Only four Knicks remain from last October, and two of them, Kurt Thomas and Shandon Anderson, are perpetual trade bait, making it ever more difficult to gauge team chemistry, or forecast the team's chances.
"It's definitely different,'' Kurt Thomas said of the new-look Knicks. "But hopefully everything will be for the good.''
REBOUNDS
The Knicks have hired MATT DOHERTY, the former Notre Dame and North Carolina coach, as a part-time scout. ... Four free agents in search of a roster spot have joined the Knicks in camp: center MENGKE BATEER, guard ANDRE BARRETT and forwards TRACY MURRAY and BRENT WRIGHT. ...Knicks Coach LENNY WILKENS said that SHANDON ANDERSON's feud with the front office would not affect their player-coach relationship, and that Anderson would be given every chance to earn a rotation spot.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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10/6/2004 2:26 AM
land!