The Knicks Fix

What you want is a big name, a headliner, a savior. A Kevin Garnett deal to suddenly appear like a thunderstorm to bring cool air to your humid summer. You'd take Jermaine O'Neal, but if you got him, you'd have to wonder if his balky knee is why Larry Bird would be willing to trade his franchise player to the hated Knicks.

Then you see a headline for Vince Carter. If I were Isiah, I'd make Rod Thorn throw in a time machine so you could get the Vince Carter from 2000-01. The guy who could rise up and dunk on you, draw foul-after-foul and finish plays, not to mention games. Not the guy who appears to be looking for a small-market town where he could live off his name and feel little pressure to actually produce wins and championships.

Then you see Rashard Lewis. Seattle will likely draft Kevin Durant, who plays the same position. Whom do you think wins in that battle, the sensational rookie who was taken second overall and has a capped salary or the veteran who opted out of his contract for a bigger paycheck? But then you realize Lenny Wilkens is now calling the shots there in Seattle. Yeah, the guy Isiah Thomas canned midway through the 2004-05 season.

Put on your reality glasses for a second....

The Knicks, as they are, do not necessarily need a headliner. They don't need just any piece, they need the right one. They could jump all over something major this summer just to grab your attention and to, perhaps, get a few more season ticket holders to come back. But that doesn't mean it's the right move. The Rangers learned that lesson in the early part of this millennium. The Garden should know better than that.

More than anything else - more than a shooter, as it is being suggested elsewhere - the Knicks need a bona fide power forward. They need a Udonis Haslem or a Paul Millsap or, at a lesser scale, a Mikki Moore. Don't blow the bank now if it's not necessary. Remember, Kobe, LeBrom, D-Wade, etc. are all up for contracts in a few years....

For me, right now, if I'm building my team on the broad shoulders of Eddy Curry, then I need a guy with broader shoulders to help him carry the load. Patrick Ewing needed Charles Oakley. Eddy Curry needs the same. Mr. Dirty Work. Doesn't need the ball. Can hit the jumper. Will hit opponents who venture into the paint.

Perhaps it's someone who right now is hiding on someone else's bench. Someone like Jason Maxiell, who had been relatively under the radar in Detroit until the playoffs. He can block shots, he rebounds. Dunks the spit out of the ball any chance he gets. Great hustle around the paint and great size. Doesn't cost a lot, either. His deal, which extends to 2009-10, maxes out at 2.7 million. Chump change on the Knicks payroll.

But, because he's young and inexpensive, why would Joe Dumars want to remove him from a potential championship roster and toss him to his buddy Isiah? Perhaps with McDyess and Sheed and C-Webb already clogging up the minutes in the paint, Dumars sees Channing Frye as a better fit off the bench with the drive-and-kick style the Pistons play. Or Nate Robinson as a backup point guard who can replace the aging Lindsay Hunter and learn some maturity and control from Chauncey Billups.

Anyhow.....there's my attempt to throw something on the wall and see if it sticks. Tell me what you think.

By the way, I'll be at the Orlando Pre-Draft camp this week offering thoughts and observations.

* - Thanks to a couple of online classes and another course he took after the regular season ended, Randolph Morris was able to maintain a suitable grade point average to keep the Kentucky basketball program from academic sanctions. Not to mention credits toward Morris' degree in Secondary Education.

* - A recent NBA.com interview with Bill Bradley revealed that his favorite current Knick is Jamal Crawford. Hard to believe that a player who was known for his old-school fundamental approach to the game would appreciate a freewheeling, improvisationalist such as Crawford. But Bradley says he sees control within the chaos. "I like the way he moves on the court," Bradley told NBA.com. "He is a shooter – I always like shooters. But he also seems to know how to move. He can move a little bit without the ball."

* - A little history...Howard "Geezer" Porter, the former Villanova star from the 1970s, died this weekend after being severely beaten and left in a Minneapolis alley. His pro career was hampered by injuries and he later fell into drug and alcohol abuse. More recently he turned his life around and served as a probation officer in St. Paul, Minn. Porter played for three NBA teams, including the Knicks. His time in New York was brief, however. He played 17 games during the 1974-75 season and averaged 1.9 points and 2.2 rebounds in 7.8 minutes per game as a Knick.

But it doesn't mean Porter didn't have any impact on Knicks history. He was traded on Christmas Eve 1974 to Detroit for a 1975 first-round draft pick, which was used to select Eugene Short out of Jackson State.

Short was then traded a few months later, with cash, to Seattle for Spencer Haywood.