great article on Isaiah/Knicks

[Mark Piotrowski]

featuring this hilarious description:

>Yes, Isiah Thomas has transformed the New York Knicks with a bigger 
>shakeup than the top tiers of Martha Stewart Living OmniMedia.
>
>But have you ever seen one of those scenes in a movie where a little 
>weasly white guy in a confrontational circumstance pulls out a bunch 
>of flailing karate moves that are supposed to intimidate his 
>tormentor but actually do nothing but expose him for a fraud and 
>tire him out all at the same time?
>
>That would be Isiah Thomas revamping the New York Knicks.



http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=hughes_frank&id=1852866

Thursday, August 5, 2004
These moves aren't so smooth


By Frank Hughes
Special to ESPN.com


With all due respect to my esteemed colleague and compadre Chad Ford: 
What the heck is Isiah thinking?

Yes, Isiah Thomas has transformed the New York Knicks with a bigger 
shakeup than the top tiers of Martha Stewart Living OmniMedia.


But have you ever seen one of those scenes in a movie where a little 
weasly white guy in a confrontational circumstance pulls out a bunch 
of flailing karate moves that are supposed to intimidate his 
tormentor but actually do nothing but expose him for a fraud and tire 
him out all at the same time?

That would be Isiah Thomas revamping the New York Knicks.


He's made a bunch of moves, yet he's standing there with little to 
show for it and he's plumb tuckered out -- for many many years to 
come.


If, in fact, Isiah signs Erick Dampier to go with a sign-and-trade 
deal for Jamal Crawford that essentially eliminates any future 
flexibility he may have had, well, in my mind that is figuratively 
putting the cement shoes -- why has Nike not made a pair of those 
yet? -- on the Knicks and throwing them in the East River on a frigid 
January day.


Yes, I agree, some of the Knicks' pieces certainly look good, to go 
with Stephon Marbury and Allan Houston. But now more than ever I am a 
big believer in chemistry, and when you really get right down to it, 
the collection of players Isiah has assembled has really accomplished 
very little in their respective careers, and they have had plenty of 
time to do it.


Let's start at the top: Your first inclination is to say that Marbury 
still is a young player. But guess what? He's been in the league now 
for eight seasons. Ten. You know how many playoff games he has been 
in in that span? Eighteen. And he's never been out of the first round.


You want further evidence? Guess who is one of the key players on the 
Olympic basketball team that is having so much difficulty beating the 
global competition? That's right, the self-proclaimed Starbury.


Speaking of the Olympic team, I found it amusing that coach Larry 
Brown lamented that the team is struggling because it is very young. 
Guess what the combined salaries of the roster totals? Together they 
make $83.33 million, or an average of $7 million a player. I guess if 
they had thrown out their $137.23 million team, they'd be breezing. 
But if nothing else, the Olympic team is the perfect correlation for 
the Knicks, proof positive that you can't just throw a bunch of 
players on the court and expect them to win.


Call me a doubting Thomas -- or just a really poor punster -- but I 
simply don't think that Isiah Thomas' idea of having Kurt Thomas and 
Tim Thomas together is going to work.


Tim Thomas has been in the league nine years, playing a grand total 
of 33 playoff games. He's going to make $13 million this season for 
career averages of 12 points and four rebounds, something that 
prompted Ray Allen to call him out as a quantifiable underachiever, 
for which Tim Thomas threatened to beat up Allen, which to my 
knowledge has yet to occur, apparently another missed opportunity.


Kurt Thomas, signed at sizable dollars through 2008-09, has 48 career 
playoff games in nine years with career postseason averages of 6.5 
points and 5.8 rebounds.


Since he left Orlando in 1999, Penny Hardaway has played in a grand 
total of 18 playoffs games. By comparison, his sophomore season in 
Orlando, he played in 21 postseason games.


Nazr Mohammed is another guy you are tempted to say is young, but he 
has been in the league six seasons, during which he has played seven 
playoff games and has never advanced past the first round. He has 
career averages of 6.7 points and 5.3 rebounds.


Since leaving the sheltered cocoon of Utah, Shandon Anderson has 
averaged seven points and three rebounds, for which he is going to 
make $7.4 million this season. His career has been in a downward 
spiral since the Rockets discovered he wasn't the player they thought 
he would be as soon as he stopped playing alongside Stockton and 
Malone.


Allan Houston is the biggest conundrum because he clearly is 
talented. He also clearly is frustrating, going into long spells of 
quietude during a season and seemingly disappearing at important 
junctures.


All of this averageness and mediocrity has me wondering why Isiah has 
become so enamored with the likes of Dampier and Crawford, two 
players who post halfway decent numbers only because they are on 
really, really bad teams. The only thing I can think of is Isiah 
needs to keep his string going of doing something, even if that 
something is detrimental.

To wit, Dampier has been in the league eight seasons and has never 
been to the playoffs. His career record in Golden State was 172-370, 
and in many ways he reminds me of former Warriors center Joe Barry 
Carroll, better known as Joe Barely Cares, which should endear him to 
Garden fans rather quickly. (This does not even touch on the 
ludicrous idea that he opted out of a two-year contract that would 
have paid him $9 million a year and is going to give up at least $5 
million this season because he thought he was worth more.)

In his four seasons in Chicago, Crawford has compiled an astonishing 
89-239 record while shooting 39 percent from the field, 34 percent 
from 3-point range. He has been so unimpressive that his hometown 
team, the Sonics, once enamored with him enough to discuss trading 
Gary Payton for him, now wouldn't touch him, in part because he plays 
zero defense and in part because he never seems to be playing within 
the system.


It would be one thing if Isiah had compiled a bunch of young players 
with a lot of potential who had the chance to grow together. But he 
has pieced together a litany of career losers, none of whom has the 
experience or wherewithal to lead the Knicks where every New Yorker 
demands they go. Of the nine core players, they are averaging their 
ninth season in the league. That should be plenty of time to 
establish a career path, and in this case, sadly, they have.


On top of that, what is the plan? Who is going to play where? 
Crawford griped for years about coming off the bench in Chicago; now 
ostensibly he will go to New York to come off the bench behind either 
Marbury or Houston. I can just see Crawford and Marbury arguing about 
which player will bring the ball up the court so they can get the 
team into its offense (read: which one of them gets to shoot.)


Where do Tim Thomas and Anderson, who combined to make almost $20 
million while averaging less than 20 points combined, fit in on a 
team that has enough scorers/shooters? If Vin Baker is re-signed -- 
and don't even get me started on the intelligence of that decision -- 
where does that put the development of Mike Sweetney. Is Allan 
Houston done, or still a prime-time player?


All in all, it looks to me like New York fans had better get used to 
a lot of mediocre basketball that includes a lot of first-round exits 
from the playoffs for several years to come. That's all well and good 
for a team that previously was not in the playoffs at all, but that's 
not what I remember Isiah promising.

Frank Hughes, who covers the NBA for the Tacoma (Wash.) News-Tribune, 
is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.