The Knicks have finally fired Scott Layden as team president and will announce the hiring of Isiah Thomas as his replacement. Layden is responsible for trading Marcus Camby and Latrell Sprewell and acquiring Keith Van Horn and Antonio McDyess.

I wonder if this is going to lead to Thomas becoming coach?

Layden Gets Knixed

Any kind of change in Knicks management is acceptable to me. I cannot believe how quickly things have gone badly for this former annual playoff team. I have not seen things this bad since the early, early eighties (pre-Sir Patrick). With the exception of the Yankees, New York sports is a mess!

I know PP had to be grinning ear to ear, to see the Knicks hire Issiah. Sad part is, the Pacers-Knicks rivalry will never return during this decade, as sir Thomas will make the franchise even worse.

Toronto is still a mess from "mister me's" stint there. He buried the CBA. He gets credit for devoloping talent in Indiana...how about how he destroyed Tinsley so badly, he's 4th string PG from ROY candidate?

The postive spin from this story will be that with Mister Me in the limelight in NY...that once he screws this job up, he'll be washed up forever.

How the hell does this guy keep getting jobs in the NBA?? He's definately living off his reputation as a player because his track record consists of failure and more failure.

First he made a joke of the Raptors initial years in the league and then took a team with NBA Finals talent in the Pacers, absolutely nowhere. I guess anyone is an improvement over Scott Layden but, jeez, you think there'd be better candidates out there, (Donnie Walsh anyone?)

I want to believe that Thomas will only be in New York for a short period of time. Just long enough to fire Don Cheney and get rid of some bloated contracts. Then he will go buh-bye to coach somewhere like Charlotte.

I am glad they finally gave Layden the heave-ho! He made some awful decisions... Weatherspoon, Eisley. Can't blame Layden for trading Spree tho' that was Dolan's doing.

Thomas' track record isn't much better. Seems like a lateral move to me. Thomas did however draft Stoudamire, Camby and McGrady - so at least he seems to know talent!

I was sure smiling when I heard Thomas hired as president of the Knicks...I think I actually laughed first!!!! eek!

I couldn't agree more!....not to mention the fact that he bought the CBA (a moderately successful, albeit "minor", league that had been in operation for decades) and "led" them into bankruptcy within 24 months....any Knick fan (which I am not) has got to be cringing over this hire because the once-proud NY franchise is clearly in store for a LOT more AWFUL seasons in the years to come as long as Isiah is in charge.

[ December 24, 2003, 01:26 AM: Message edited by: gamecock ]

The Knicks have now lost 4 straight after being crushed by the Rockets last night. Stephon as Saviour is not exactly working out as planned. He has a total of something like 14 points in 2 games since joining the Knicks. Don Chaney must be fired. It's not as if they have no talent. Marbury, Van Horn, Hardaway, Thomas-they should certainly be better than 10th in the Eastern Conference. They're behind Miami for chrissake!

George I respectfully disagree with you. There is no way you can expect instant results right after trading away half your team. Basketball is all about chemistry. The Knicks may have been a bad to average team before the trades but at least there was a chemistry between the star players and the role players.

Just think. In the middle of the season the team undergoes a major facelift. It's a bit much. Even if the Knicks had gotten 3 Michael Jordans in return for half their team it won't work. Not for awhile. Chemistry, chemistry, chemistry! That's what it's all about.

Remember prior to the trade the Knicks were blowing teams out. Even without a solid low post game they were still an exciting jump shooting team. But it was that one home loss to the Bulls that probably angered Isiah Thomas so much, it made him hit the phones to look for a deal. I think he should have waited a while longer, like late in the season, before making such huge moves like the ones he has made.

The way this team is right now, they would have to start the season over with a pre-season in order to develop chemistry again.

I've been a Mets fan for a long time. And as a fan I am used to acquiring big stars that produce little results because the reality is it's all about chemistry.

One of the reasons the Marlins won the World Series last year was because their entire infield had been playing together for over 5 years. That's chemistry.

I'll tell you one thing. If this trade does not work out for the short term, the Knicks are screwed for the long term. They traded away a lot of youth and a lot of draft picks to get Marbury.

[ January 09, 2004, 10:21 AM: Message edited by: amazin12 ]

Here here amazin12!! I gotta agree with you. Chemestry is important to any team.

Thomas' moves have been knee-jerk reactions, but they have cleared salary cap room for the future. Now Thomas just needs to find a nice place to coach and get a real President/GM in there to create a winning team.

I think Indiana Univ may be calling soon!

I agree chemistry is important, but these guys are suppossedly professional. No way they should lose to the Rockets by such a lopsided score as they did. And chemistry has nothing to do with Marbury scoring a measly 6 points last night on something like 3-18 shooting.

The Knicks have been floundering for a couple of years now. If chemistry is the issue now since Thomas made all these changes, what was the issue before Thomas came on board? Chaney hasn't proven himself capable of coaching a pro team.

Who exactly were the Knicks blowing out? They had a 4 game win streak that included wins over such powerhouses as Orlando and Miami. Hardly something to crow about.

I think this is a really bad move by the Knicks. I think he's a terrible coach... the Pacers really should have been much better than they were under him. There were many games where my friends and I seemed to wonder what his strategy was... or was he just making things up as he went along. But even more than being a bad coach, he's an even worse executive. He didn't do much with the Raptors, and look what he did to the CBA...

I think not. While a lot of people here in Indiana still revere him, his tenure with the Pacers has lost him a lot of support among Hoosiers. And I hope not. I'd hate to see him single handedly destroy a great basketball program like IU has...

Anyone care to lay some odds on how much more time will elapse before Isiah fires Chaney and names HIMSELF to be the Knicks next head coach?....as much of a dismal failure as that will be (I wholeheartedly agree with the points WhiteSoxFan brought up in his last post) I think that even Pete Rose would win if he placed that bet.

The NY Daily News has some new info regarding Chaney. This from ESPN.com:

This is good... Very, very good... Don Chaney hadn't a clue what he was doing. This team definitely needed to be completely overhauled, and Isaiah Thomas is making sure that this is being done. I hope in a few years, I may finally be able to return to saying LET'S GO KNICKS! during playoff time.

Chaney has been fired, no surprise. But Thomas didn't hire Fratello as reported earlier. Rather, he's hired Lenny Wilkins as the new Knicks coach.

Wilkins is the the NBA's all time winningest coach.

[ January 14, 2004, 03:06 PM: Message edited by: George_vikingfan ]

At least Thomas didn't decide that he was better than Wilkens as a coach. Thomas said in an interview I heard on the radio that he did consider himself for the job.

I would have been happy with Mike Fratello or Lenny Wilkens. They are both great coaches and class acts. Lenny Wilkens is an NBA legend.

But Lenny Wilkins is 66 years old!! I mean we're talking grandpa here. Will someone have to help him up out of his chair when it's time for him to stand up and call out a play?

Amazin12, I don't think age will be an issue. Given what Paul Silas has been able to do in Cleveland, I think Lenny Wilkens will have some success with the Knicks. At least they will be competitive.

I agree Wilkens may not relate to his players the same way a younger coach would, but I believe that the Knick players respect his knowledge of the game, and will become a better team from his leadership.

Hubie Brown seems to be doing fairly well in Memphis. When he first started coaching, they were still shooting into peach baskets.

Plus look at other sports-Old is In! Jack McKeon just won the World Series and he's so old he was Teddy Roosevelt's paperboy. Dick Vermeil just finished a pretty successful season with the Kansas City Chiefs. Missouri wasn't even a state when he was born. Joe Gibbs just got rehired to coach the Washington Redskins. When he was born, New York City was the nation's capitol, not DC.

Everyone in Toronto is laughing over the Lenny Wilkins hiring. He's a nice guy, but the game has passed him by.

In the meantime, the Knicks have won 3 straight since Lenny Wilkens took over and have moved into the number 08 seed--just percentage points over the 76ers.

The Knicks have signed Vin Baker. This cut-and-paste method of putting together a team rarely works and I think Isiah is making too many moves. The Heat, Raptors and Sixers are right on the Knicks' and Celtics' heels and the Knicks have been slumping lately, losing 7 of their last 10. Not sure that adding the troubled Baker is the answer.

HAHAHA, the Answer for what?! What in the world are they thinking?

Oh hell. If the Knicks can tame Latrell Sprewell, they should have no problem controlling Vin Baker. Vin, just shut up and score! We only need to be about 7 games under .500 to make the playoffs anyway.

Controlling and taming Sprewell is one thing, it's another to light a fire underneath Vin's lazy ass, to get some production out of him when he's not injured.

If the Knicks do indeed make the playoffs (they currently are the #08 seed in the East), I sure hope none of their games go into overtime. After the double-overtime loss to the Sixers on Friday night, they fell to 0-5 in overtime. It seems like any team could accidentally win a game in overtime.

Clutch second half performance by the Knicks as they came back from 26 down to the Bucks to defeat them in Milwaukee. I questioned the Tim Thomas/Keith Van Horn trade with the Bucks. But, Thomas looked so solid in that second half, and Van Horn was so-so at best.

DONE! :cool:
So it was only against the Wizards. The Knicks last second tip-in put the game into overtime. The Knicks finally got that overtime problem solved with a solid 5 minute effort. It would have been majorly embarassing to lose to the Wizards at MSG.

...and the Knicks clinch a playoff spot last night with a victory over the Bulls, and a Cavaliers loss. Yeah, I know this is the Eastern Conference, and they don't have a .500 record, and they probably will get clobbered by New Jersey in the first round. But it is still nice to see them back in the playoffs after a two-year absence. :cool:
...and remember, most Knicks fans are also Rangers fans, and once again there is no hockey going on at the Garden for the seventh straight year. We need some kind of playoff action!