Results tagged “kurtthomas”

However they try and spin it, this trade makes no sense. Rose is a terrible defender; not exactly the type of player Larry Brown is going to embrace. The draft pick belongs to the Nuggets, which means it won’t be in the lottery and probably will be in the bottom third of the draft. Lastly, by making this move, the Knicks are essentially giving up on Quentin Richardson, who they brought in at the cost of Kurt Thomas.

With pre-season basketball upon us, we decided to look at a few moves by the Knicks this past off-season.

Isiah Thomas knew who he wanted with the eighth pick, the only question was whether or not he would get him. Luckily for Thomas, he was there and the Knicks selected Channing Frye, a move that immediately upgrades their non-existent frontcourt. Frye has a reputation of being a soft player, but Gothamist thinks he can be a Marcus Camby type player, hopefully without all the injuries.

Almost twenty years to the day that the Knicks selected Patrick Ewing they will attempt to find their next franchise center. With Kurt Thomas reportedly on his way out of town, the Knicks will have Michael Sweetney and not much else in the front court next year and will be keeping their fingers crossed that Channing Frye falls to them at the eighth pick. If Frye is gone, the Knicks may turn to Fran Vazquez, a 6’11” center from Spain or defy expectations and take prep star, Gerald Green. The Knicks also hold the 30th pick in the first round.

A marquee matchup? Not so much. That said, the Knicks will take it. Stephon Marbury had 31 points and Malik Rose added 18 against his old team as the Knicks beat the Spurs 88-75 last night at the Garden. The game was rather messy, as 2-time MVP Tim Duncan, Kurt Thomas, and Penny Hardaway all missed the game due to injury. A gimpy Manu Ginobili (who has a groin injury) played, but rarely contributed in the contest.

Forget for a second that Isiah just added another $20 million in salaries after this year with the addition of Taylor and Rose. By trading away his only true center, and helping the Spurs beef up their frontline, the Knicks roster now consists of one point guard (two if you count Jamal Crawford), three shooting guards, two small forwards, five power forwards and Bruno Sundov. In fact, the little used Sundov is the only player on the roster taller than Tim Thomas. As Peter Vescey rightfully opined today, remember when Isiah said that getting Mohammed was they key to the three way trade that sent Keith Van Horn out and also brought in Tim Thomas. And how does this affect the playing time of Mike Sweetney?

Despite a truly determined and aggressive double-digit comeback in last night’s 4th quarter, the Knicks dropped their 17th game in 20 contests by a score of 116-110. How, you ask? With the score tied at 95 and the clock at under 10 seconds, Marbury drove into the paint, froze, and then lobbed the ball to Kurt Thomas, who perhaps had one second to throw up an awful, off-balance shot. This isn’t Thomas’ fault – Marbury did the exact same thing to Jamal Crawford last time we visited. While Stephon can certainly score (36 points), his decision-making leaves much to be desired.

The Heat started well and never really let the Knicks into the game, capitalizing on the Knicks' lack of an actual center by, as Bill Walton might say, throwing the ball to the big fella and getting out of the way. Shaq had 33 along with 18 rebounds to lead Miami, while Dwayne Wade added 21 as he continues his ascent to stardom (having Shaq on his team seems to have helped a lot). As for the Knicks, they shot almost 51% for the game but were outrebounded handily and didn't get enough shot attempts to climb back in the second half.

Despite the stinker, the Knicks are still atop the Atlantic Division, which is a testament as to how bad the division is, not how good the Knicks are. Not to be lost in the horrible game last night is the performance of Bruno Sundov, the backup to the backup center, who entered the game and scored his first points of the season. Sundov's 7 points was more than Kurt Thomas (0 points) and tied with Allan Houston and Stephon Marbury (7 points).

Some clutch jumpers by Kurt Thomas and a banked in three pointer at the buzzer by Jamal Crawford helped the Knicks beat the Houston Rockets and former coach Jeff Van Gundy 93-92 last night in Texas. Crawford finished the night with 19 points and Thomas added an impressive 23 points and 14 rebounds. They both carried the Knicks to their first road win of the season, while Houston has lost four out of their last five games.

The Sports Guy has said it many, many times, but we�re gonna repeat it here. It�s hard being an NBA fan these days. I�m not even talking about stye of play, tattoos and cornrows, the flood of high school kids in the league, etc. I�m talking about NBA starts demanding top dollar contracts and then asking to be traded when their team suffers because of it. Case in point, Jason Kidd of the New Jersey Nets.

The Knicks may be closer to adding some of the key free agents that they have pursuing all summer. According to various press reports, the Knicks and Bulls have agreed in principle to a deal that would send a newly resigned Jamal Crawford and Jerome Williams to the Big Apple for Dikembe Mutombo, Othella Harrington, Cezary Trybanski and Frank Williams. All four of the Knicks in the deal have contracts that expire at the end of the season. Knicks GM Isiah Thomas had wanted to include Shandon Anderson in the deal, but not even Bulls GM John Paxson is crazy enough to take on the rest of his contract.

It is clear Isiah Thomas is not one to rest on his laurels. Despite being about $40 million over the salary cap, the Knicks GM is determined to add more talent to his roster. His current targets? Bulls two guard Jamal Crawford and Cleveland big man Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Unlike the Nets, this figures to be a relatively slow offseason for the Knicks. New GM Isiah Thomas already spent much of the season turning over the roster and trading away anyone associated with deposed GM Scott Layden. Only Allan Houston, Shandon Anderson, Frank Williams, Kurt Thomas, Mike Sweetney and Othella Harrington remain from opening day.