The day before Donnie Walsh’s hip surgery, coach Mike D’Antoni shared with the Knicks president a piece of news. He was ready to make the move of benching Anthony Randolph.
Walsh, who last night missed his first game at the Garden since his hip-replacement surgery last week, agreed with D’Antoni’s position to yank the 6-foot-11 prospect from the rotation.
Walsh and his scouts had pegged Randolph as a future All-Star coming out of the 2008 draft and Walsh leapt at the opportunity to have Randolph included in the David Lee sign-and-trade last July.
Golden State’s troubled guard Monta Ellis was available straight-up for Lee, but the Knicks didn’t want the long-term contract that would have precluded them to having cap flexibility to sign Carmelo Anthony in 2011 and Chris Paul in 2012.
Ellis is now playing like an All-Star, and Randolph has played his way off the rotation for the foreseeable future.
The Knicks, who are 4-0 since the move, continue the home-and-home with the Bobcats tonight in Charlotte.
“We talked about that and I fully supported it,” Walsh told The Post before the Knicks’ 110-107 victory over the Bobcats last night at the Garden. “It’s good for Anthony. It does him no good to go out there without a game to go to. He needs to work with coaches in defining how he can use his talent in a defined way. That’s what he should be working on every day, so when he goes out there, he has a defined number of things.”
Meanwhile, Danilo Gallinari, whom the Knicks picked at six in the same draft, emerged from his season-long slump during the three consecutive California wins. Last night he scored 15 points.
“I’ve never had any doubts about Danilo,” said Walsh, who expects to return to the Garden in a week or two. “Because if he wasn’t doing something well, it was shooting. I obviously know he’s a good shooter. I know that’s going to happen. He’ll shoot the ball well.”
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Kelenna Azubuike
, after his first full day of practice, said his left knee is feeling good.
“It’s holding up fine, and I’m getting more confident,” he said. “I’m getting excited.”
Azubuike could make his debut next week.
“They want me to get in more practices,” Azubuike said.
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D’Antoni, after just a few questions in his pregame press conference, left the room saying, “If I knew winning would mean less questions, I’d have done it sooner.”
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Eddy Curry
, who left the team for a family emergency out west, rejoined the team yesterday, but was not sitting on the bench. He watched the game from the locker room.