KNICK NOTES
Fourteen times in this bizarre 50-game season the Knicks will play games on back-to-back nights. Three times the Knicks will play three games in three nights. There is one stretch in March where the Knicks play nine games in 12 days.
With that kind of schedule facing them, Patrick Ewing’s knees are much more of a concern than his right wrist, which suffered torn ligaments last season, knocking him out of the lineup on Dec. 20.
What will be Jeff Van Gundy’s game plan concerning Ewing’s tender knees?
“We’re going to take all that one game at a time,” Van Gundy said on the Knicks’ second day of practice. “He knows his body well. He’ll tell me if he needs extra time, and if I see he needs extra time I’ll give it to him. What I’m not going to do is cut him down from 35 to 28 minutes, I’m going to play him normally and if he needs a rest, I’m going to have him take an entire game off. When you play every night, that’s what grinds you down. The schedule is so compact, we’ve never been down this road before. We’re just going to have to wait and see. We have enough depth. We played all last year without him. If there is a game that he needs off, that’s fine.”
So you can expect Ewing to take a break when he needs one. As for Ewing’s thoughts on the matter, during the brief window of opportunity the media has to talk with the Knicks’ center, he left the court to go downstairs to the locker room to receive treatment from trainer Mike Saunders so he was not available for comment.
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The Knicks got lucky that their former coach Don Nelson tried to lowball forward Kurt Thomas. That decision by Nelson cost the Mavericks the power forward, who has a terrible history of broken bones.
As expected, Thomas agreed to a two-year deal for $3.65 million with the Knicks yesterday and will take serious playing time away from Marcus Camby, who already is beginning to look like a fifth wheel in the Knicks’ plans. With Thomas and the new lighter, quicker and stronger Larry Johnson around to play power forward, Camby’s time could be slashed. There is also the possibility that the Knicks will run out a lineup that includes Ewing at center and Chris Dudley at power forward.
Thomas has broken each ankle and his wrist. He said all that rehab has made him a better player, if not a better dresser. He once broke his ankle in New York when he was at a restaurant and tripped. He was wearing dress shoes and slipped on wet pavement. Now he says he has a pair of hiking boots that will keep him healthy.
“I’ve had a little bad luck,” he said.
*John Starks, Terry Cummings and Chris Mills have until today to take their Golden State physicals to complete the trade for Latrell Sprewell. Starks was rumored to be going to Miami from Golden State earlier in the week. Those rumors weren’t true but the Heat may turn up their efforts to trade for Starks in light of Voshon Lenard showing up at camp with a stress fracture in his leg. Lenard could miss 8-10 weeks.
Johnson is in tremendous shape, having gone on a strict diet and workout regimen to lose about 25 pounds. Johnson cut meat out of his diet. Johnson said he lost the weight to help overcome ankle injuries and to make “my back feel better,” he said.
As for playing power forward at the lighter weight, he said, “It’s going to be rough, but I’ve gotten stronger, too.”