Knicks – Page 3 – Hank Kalet

Optimism at the Garden: The Knicks turn a corner

A 43-point win for the Knicks is unfathomable. I caught a few minutes of the game, while cleaning up and cooking, and it is clear that a) the Pacers are an awful team and b) the Knicks have turned some sort of corner. After 1-9 and 3-14 starts, the team has gone 11-6 and has positioned itself to be in the playoff hunt (it is ninth in the conference at the moment).

Part of it appears to be a willingness to play defense, and the sudden coming together of a new core — Wilson Chandler, Dano Gallinari and David Lee, along with veterans Chris Duhan and Al Harrington. Today, for instance, each member of the new core dropped 20-plus, Duhon had 18 and seven assists and Harrington, who played just 17 minutes, popped for 15.

If they can keep this up, can drive into the playoffs and make a showing there — stretching the first round to the limit — the team might be able to lure one or two of the prime free agents out there. They have the cash and if they can show that Gallo and Chandler are for real and they can wrap up Lee at a reasonable price, anything is possible. This team remains far from real contention, lacking a real center or a point guard who can take them deep into the playoffs. Duhon is a solid playmaker, but would be better suited to coming off the bench or playing BJ Armstrong’s old role with the Bulls.

For the first time since the end of the Patrick Ewing era, Knick fans have a right to be modestly optimistic.

Knicks and good in the same paragraph? Now, that’s something to write home about

The Knicks took a rugged power forward — 6-10 Jordan Hill from Arizona — with the eighth pick in today’s draft. Here’s what ESPN’s Chad Ford had to say about it:

The Knicks are relieved. They were praying that Flynn went in the top seven so that they could get either Curry or Hill. They wish that Curry had been there, but they liked Hill a lot, too. Mike D’Antoni compared him to a young Amare Stoudemire. I think that’s a little much, but he’ll be good in D’Antoni’s up-tempo system and he’s insurance if David Lee leaves via free agency. If Lee re-signs, Hill can play some center the same way Stoudemire did in Phoenix. Good pick.

I hope he’s right. If he is — and they can resign Lee — it gives the Knicks an interesting core with the big guns (LeBron James, Dewayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony) coming on the free-agent market next year.

They also grabbed Toney Douglas with the Lakers’ 29th pick, a guard that Ford calls “a bit of a poor man’s Ben Gordon, a combo guard who can really light it up.”

He lets the 3s fly, and unlike Gordon, he’s a terrific defender. This is a really good pick for New York this late.

Kudos to the new regime.

RIP, Gondo

Glen Gondrezick was not the greatest Knick to ever play the game, or even the best sub on the team when he played in New York (1977-78 and 1978-79, after being picked in the second round). But the small forward hustled. He was a Knick, a part of my teen love of the team, and I’m left saddened by his death.

Is this a promise?

Mike D’Antoni, Knicks coach, is not happy about the manner in which the Knicks’ season is coming to a close. After coaching a perrenial playoff contender in Phoenix for several years, he was forced to watch an underachieving group of mediocre playoffs fail to get to the playoffs — the fifth year in a row that the Knicks are forced to watch the festivities from home while on an early vacation.

D’Antoni’s team so far has managed 30 wins with five to go, an improvement to be sure, but still a rather sorry excuse for professional basketball.

Not that much more should have been expected. Donnie Walsh made several early-season trades that altered the look of the squad, sending two of their better players away for expiring contracts in an attempt to create cap room for a run at what promises to be the best free agent class in the league’s history in the summer of 2010. That class could include LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade — a fearsome group.

That said, the team still has to find some competent ballplayers to keep the fans from revolting. The problem is that aside from David Lee and Wilson Chandler, there’s no one worth keeping around. And Lee is probably their most tradeable commodity.

That’s why D’Antoni is threatening a housecleaning.

“I would think we won 29 games [before last night], I don’t envision anyone anywhere,” D’Antoni said. “We’re going to try to get better everywhere. Having said that, there’s no reason he couldn’t be. Anytime you win 29 games and don’t make the playoffs, everything is open for discussion, everything is thrown against the wall.”

And everyone is on the chopping blcok.

Starburied

What started with such promise ended in a level of failure that I doubt anyone could have foreseen. But the Stephon Marbury era officially closes in Knicksland and the citizens rejoice.