MINNEAPOLIS – Brooklyn products Lenny Wilkens and Stephon Marbury have experienced their first training camp as Knicks. Club president Isiah Thomas celebrates his first Knicks anniversary next month. Owner James Dolan can again claim the NBA’s highest payroll.
There are no excuses. Not anymore. No crying about roster fluctuations, coaching on the fly with an old playbook, dealing with a lack of chemistry and cohesion.
The honeymoon’s over. The Thomas/Marbury/Wilkens Era truly begins tonight with expectations of winning the Atlantic Division when they face Kevin Garnett and Western power Minnesota at Target Center.
“I’m ready to play,” Marbury said. “We’ve have had time with each other. It makes it a lot easier. Everyone’s on the same page from the beginning. We have a really talented team. If we play defense as a team, we’re going to win a lot of games. The goal is to go to the championship. Those are things you have to do to win a championship.”
Wilkens called last season “The Twilight Zone.” Now the winningest (and losingest) coach in NBA history feels in the zone.
“I don’t think I was a bad coach last year,” Wilkens said. “[But] I feel more comfortable. There’s no surprises.”
Thomas said he enters the season “with a nervous stomach.” Perhaps because now the $100 million Knicks are expected to win, unlike 2003-04, when on Dec. 23 he began resuscitating a dead franchise after former GM Scott Layden put Dolan’s team in disrepair.
Thomas has built the club around Marbury, who plays tonight in the arena where he got his NBA start, then abandoned it, seeking greener pastures that never materialized until now, when he’s the franchise player for a team he grew up loving.
It’s Marbury’s team now, from day one, from the first day of camp when he went into Wilkens’ office and said he was ready to be captain.
“From a point-guard situation, it’s a great situation,” Thomas said. “Because he’s had a training camp and, more importantly, he understands the emotions of his teammates, their habits, their running patterns, understands their game sensitivity.
“All those things . . . go into play when trying to run an offense. Some nights some guys don’t run as fast; don’t shoot as well. Now he has a good understanding what his teammates are capable of doing, as well as himself.”
Allan Houston is weeks away from returning as he rehabs a left leg that got badly worn from overcompensating last season. It’s no assurance he’ll ever be himself again. That’s OK, because Thomas’ summer pickups – starting shooting guard Jamal Crawford and rookie swingman Trevor Ariza – make the club more athletic. Even when Houston feels his body is right, he may only be a jump-shooting sixth man.
“I definitely think we got more than lucky on that one,” Thomas said. “If Jamal wasn’t here now, we’d be in a very tough situation. I don’t think we’d be able to last the whole season without Allan. With Jamal here, it gives Allan enough time to get his breath.”
The Knicks’ weakness is at center, with starter Nazr Mohammed a suspect defender who is not expected to guard Garnett. Power forward Kurt Thomas, their best team defender, will get the assignment.
But the Knicks can score, with dynamic slashers Marbury, Crawford and small forward Tim Thomas. And when Kurt Thomas is making his mid-range jumper, the Knicks have a nice attack.
“I’m looking forward to a long, productive, winning season,” Tim Thomas said. “We’re so talented and so deep. We should produce.”
Or else Isiah Thomas will make changes.
“The ship’s getting ready to set sail,” he said. “We’ll evaluate to see how well it’s doing. I hope it stays afloat; I hope it sails smoothly. But you know that’s not the case in the NBA. There’s always a few holes to patch up, and we’ll evaluate it.”
