NBA Insider with Ken Berger

You poor Fixers are going to have to slum with me today while Alan takes a breather for the weekend …

The Roderick Wilmont era is over. The Knicks released him today after practice, which explains why he was walking around the court shaking hands with everybody. That leaves 19 on the roster. Still bloated, but Isiah said he’s needed the bodies because of all the injuries.

After the media were treated to a lengthy scrimmage viewing on Friday, no such luck today. Only a live play or two followed by the usual free-throw shooting. This way, we were not able to detect whether Allan Houston was still running with a limp.

After Day 2 of his comeback, Houston said he feels good moving around but is still getting used to the pace after two years out of basketball. Though he said he feels “a lot better than I felt two years ago,” it can’t be a good sign that Houston is “happy to get through the day.” This after only two days!

Isiah had some interesting comments about Houston’s chances, but I have no idea what he was talking about. Asked if two weeks would be enough time to evaluate him, Thomas said, “Yeah, I think we’ll know.” The tone of the question suggested that the organization was putting Thomas in a tough spot by giving him limited time to make a judgment on a player of Houston’s stature and popularity, a notion that Thomas rejected.

Then he was asked if he has an opinion of Houston right now, to which Thomas said, “Uhhh, I have a pretty good idea. It’s a good idea.”

“What’s the idea?” I asked (kicking myself for not asking, “What’s the big idea?”)

“It’s good. It’s good,” he said. “He looks good. I have no issues, complaints or concerns at this time.”

You can draw your own conclusions on that one, but Thomas continues to seem less than enthused about Houston’s tryout. Solicited by another reporter obviously working on a Fred Jones story, Thomas continued to say nice things about Jones.

Other tidbits:
· Isiah continued to sidestep questions about Kobe Bryant, saying as far as he knows, Kobe is in camp and happy to be there. He wasn’t touching questions about Jerry Buss’ recent comments about his continued willingness to trade Kobe.
· Jerome James still isn’t scrimmaging and has yet to be medically cleared to play. (No surprise there.)
· Demetris Nichols missed practice for personal reasons, but his absence isn’t expected to be lengthy.
· Thomas praised Wilson Chandler, especially for his work on the defensive end. A pleasant surprise, Thomas said, has been Chandler’s knack for blocking and altering shots.

The Knicks will work again tomorrow at the MSG Training Center, as will yours truly, so stop by for more updates …