im real excited, reading all these articals it looks like we have so many bright spots and players to be excited about

GO KNICKS!!! i cant wait till preseason game 1 does anyone know when the first game will be on tv?

in 4 days, we started keeping count for that too in the countdown thread.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/sports/basketball/11knicks.html

The New York Times

October 11, 2004

Knicks End Training Camp With a Few Good Questions

By HOWARD BECK

CHARLESTON, S.C., Oct. 10 - The Knicks left here much as they arrived - with their lineup unsettled, their mix of talent questionable and their star shooting guard spending more time polishing his rhetoric than his game.

And to hear them tell it, the Knicks have never felt better about their potential.

Six days after arriving, and after a final team breakfast and late-morning practice on Sunday, the Knicks broke training camp, feeling uncommonly upbeat about their progress.

"I like what we have, and it has been a positive camp," Isiah Thomas, the team president, said. "It was the way a camp should be. Our guys are committed to doing it right; they're committed to winning."

Little was clarified in six days, least of all who will be Coach Lenny Wilkens's starting five on opening night, Nov. 3. There is plenty of time, yet, to set a rotation, and perhaps that will begin to sort itself out over the eight preseason games.

Wilkens's thoughts on a starting lineup are more closely guarded than a presidential motorcade, but it is a given that Allan Houston will not be in it when the Knicks play the Nets on Thursday in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Houston, their former go-to scorer, was still more spectator than participant Sunday, and he was as reluctant as ever to predict when he would be ready for full-speed activities. Houston has spent much of the past seven months rehabilitating his knees.

"Making progress, and it feels good," he said. "But right now I'm still at the point where I just don't want to go all out."

That means the newcomer Jamal Crawford will probably get the nod at shooting guard as the preseason schedule begins, and Penny Hardaway will get ample opportunity to show he has recaptured his old form.

The least enviable contest - for the right to wrestle Shaquille O'Neal four times this season - is continuing, though based on early returns, Nazr Mohammed has the edge over Vin Baker to start at center.

Both returned to the Knicks in better shape - Baker lighter and healthier after a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat, Mohammed stronger and quicker - but it could come down to whose skills are more valued.

Mohammed is a better rebounder and defender, and he is stronger around the basket, in Wilkens's view. Baker is a better shooter and more versatile scorer, and he is vastly more experienced. Mohammed has not been an everyday starter since the 2001-2 season, when he started 73 times for Atlanta.

That could mean an unseasoned frontcourt, if the blooming prospect Mike Sweetney overtakes the incumbent Kurt Thomas at power forward. By all accounts, Sweetney is pushing Thomas hard.

And by Kurt Thomas's assessment, this was not his best six days of work. Only a week ago, he scoffed at the suggestion that his job was up for grabs with a declaration, "Bring it on." He left sounding slightly less confident.