INDIANAPOLIS – Pacerspresident Donnie Walsh defended Isiah Thomas’ work and believes the Knicks’ situation is not as bad as Jason Kidd thinks. The Brooklyn-born Walsh, who fired Thomas as Indy coach in 2003, believes adding a low-post center will make all the difference.
“I think he has accumulated a lot of good players who will occupy three or four positions for the future,” Walsh told The Post. “I think he needs the position that will galvanize his team, which is a starting center and not easy to get. That would make sense of the other players he has on the team. If New York could come up with a low-post player, it changes things in a hurry. That’s his remaining duty.”
League officials believe Hornets center Jamaal Magloire, who experienced an injury-wracked season, will be available in a trade this summer.
The top free-agent center is Zydrunas Ilgauskas and, with new ownership, everything is in flux in Cleveland, including LeBron James’ status. The Knicks would need to acquire Ilgauskas in a sign-and-trade.
Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry and Stromile Swift, all of whom Thomas has a passion for, are also free agents. With the Knicks’ slide at nine, their lottery ping-pong balls keep growing. At 29-46, they are tied for the lottery’s sixth seed, in the hunt for expected No. 1 pick Utah 7-foot center Andrew Bogut. The other center with lottery potential is 7-3 Lithiuanian Martynas Andriuskevicius.
Thomas was criticized for giving up his only center, Nazr Mohammed, but Walsh said, “He looked at the present team, knew it wasn’t good enough to get to the next level so he broke it down, got rid of Mohammed and tried to reform the team.”
The Knicks, amid their longest losing streak in 20 years at nine, visit Walsh’s playoff-bound Pacers today. Seven games remain to this humiliating season that began with promise, preseason favorites to win the Atlantic Division.
“Sixteen months is not enough to rebuild a team,” said the respected Walsh. “I do like the pickups he’s made. He’s getting quality players at the 1-2-3 and could move [Tim] Thomas to 4. He needs that one remaining position. Those are hard to come by. But he made great strides in breaking up the team he got, bringing in good players like [Stephon] Marbury, [Jamal] Crawford, [Trevor] Ariza.”
Ariza’s selection at No. 43 stands as Isiah’s best move. Marbury, statistically, has had terrific season but did not make enough big plays in the final two minutes of games. And Crawford was erratic offensively, a bust on defense.
However, Walsh says the Knicks should not give up on Crawford. One confidant of Phil Jackson says the Zen Master likes Crawford, believes he’d work well in the triangle, giving his game more structure.
“I think Jamal’s going to be a terrific player, I really do,” Walsh said. “He’s figuring it out now. It looks to me he’s trying to play the right way. He’s not racing down the court and firing shots up. He’s trying to play within the offense. It takes a player a year to adjust unless they walk into a ready-made team and it’s not.”
Of Marbury, Walsh said, “Until you win, there’s going to be a knock on you, but he’s got the talent. I haven’t seen him on a team that’s fit for him and it always helps when you have a low-post guy.”
