KNICK NOTES
Knicks president and GM Ernie Grunfeld looked over the practice floor at Purchase College yesterday and smiled.
Over the last week, things had fallen into place for Grunfeld. He had landed Latrell Sprewell and forward Kurt Thomas and was poised to sign veteran shooting guard Dennis Scott last night.
With a 50-game season sandwiched in such a short time, depth is more vital than ever.
“He’s an excellent outside shooter who can spread the defense for you,” Grunfeld said of Scott.
Each addition has baggage. Sprewell’s has been well-documented, Thomas has been a walking broken bone, and Scott has the potential to balloon out of shape. And don’t forget his bizarre incident in 1997 when he gave an X-rated speech to frightened kids and ripped the Magic at a basketball camp. He never played for the Magic again and was shipped to Dallas, which is basketball’s no-man’s land. Like Sprewell’s antics, the Knicks are looking ahead, not back, though.
“We understand he’s in very good shape,” Grunfeld said of Scott. “He’s had some problems in the past with his weight, but that’s behind him. Any time you have low-post players like Patrick [Ewing] and Larry Johnson, you could always use another perimeter player to stretch the defense.”
Grunfeld said Scott has “been a proven playoff performer. He’s averaged 15 points over his career and he’ll give us depth, but he’s a specialist. He understands the game. He knows how to play.
“We have to have a lot of depth this year because of the amount of games we have to play in a very, very short period of time, three games in three nights, you have to have fresh bodies in there and you want to have veteran experience as your depth,” Grunfeld added. *Jeff Van Gundy made it clear that Marcus Camby is struggling and the Knicks are still learning to live without Charles Oakley, who was their best rebounder and a solid frontline shooter. “We lost our best team defender in Charles,” Van Gundy said. “We have to make sure we can protect the basket.
“The problem is that Charles could shoot the ball. Now when Pat posts, Larry [Johnson] is going to spot up and shoot,” Van Gundy said. “He’s got to take and make the 18-footer. He can do it. He just doesn’t like to shoot it. He doesn’t believe it to be as good a shot for him as I know it can be. Charles knew that was his shot.”
