Knicks define themselves as a .500 team
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-11 09:16

Perhaps it's time for the New York Knicks to come up with a new marketing slogan.

They can borrow the phrase coach Lenny Wilkens uttered Monday, which happened to be the exact same quote team president Isiah Thomas came up with the night before: "We're not fooling ourselves."

New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury watches from the bench late in the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis in this April 6, 2004 file photo. [AP]

By declaring the roster he assembled a .500 outfit, Thomas seemed to be making a concerted effort to lower expectations for the league's highest-paid team as he moves into his second year at the helm.

The Knicks' record (17-17) says they're a .500 team, and they freely admit that the prospect of finishing in first place with a 41-41 record doesn't sound all that bad.

"Let's get everybody healthy and see," Wilkens said after practice Monday. "Are we just .500, or what? Maybe we're worse."

After a whirlwind 12 1/2 months since Thomas replaced Scott Layden, the Knicks are coming to grips with the reality of who they are despite a league-high payroll of $103 million and a star player who has proclaimed himself the NBA's best point guard — a declaration that was immediately followed by a four-game losing streak.

"I don't think we're a great team right now, I never said so," Wilkens said. "Certainly we can have a say in a lot of things, but I don't think we've found out who we are. We haven't had everybody here to do that yet. When we do, we'll get a better handle, but if you look at our club now, yeah, we're not more than (.500)."

The feeling around the locker room seemed much more positive just a couple weeks ago, before Jamal Crawford went down with a toe injury expected to keep him sidelined for at least two more weeks.

New York strung together consecutive wins against Charlotte, Orlando and Minnesota to move three games over .500 at 16-13, but followed with a stretch of four consecutive lopsided losses to New Jersey, Sacramento, Miami and Cleveland.

"I thought that the Cleveland game, the dam broke. But tonight they put it back together again and we move forward," Thomas said after New York ended its skid with a 113-105 victory over Portland. "Right now, (compared to) where we were last year and where we're trying to get to, progress here is being made."

Sunday night's victory quieted the speculation over Wilkens' job security, but Thomas' statements can be taken to mean that someone will take a fall if the Knicks dip too far below their new break-even barometer.

Injuries to Crawford, Penny Hardaway, Michael Sweetney and Tim Thomas have taken away much of the Knicks' depth, although they are entering a stretch of schedule in which none of their next six opponents — beginning with Tuesday night's game against the 3-29 New Orleans Hornets — has a winning record.

The timing couldn't be better with the Knicks' lead over their underachieving Atlantic Division pursuers having shrunk to one game, but only if they're able to capitalize on the stretch of winnable games and raise the bar of expectations to a level more befitting the team's payroll.

Stephon Marbury, with a salary of $14.6 million, still carries the tag of never having gotten out of the first round of the playoffs. Tim Thomas, with a salary of $12.9 million, is grabbing just 3.5 rebounds and handing out 1.1 assists per game.

Crawford, making $6 million, has yet to play for an NBA team that's won more than 30 games. Hardaway, earning $14.6 million, has been supplanted in the rotation by rookie second-round draft pick Trevor Ariza, and Allan Houston, making $17.5 million, is still trying to rediscover his shooting stroke after missing the first month of the season with a knee injury.

The team-wide effort level has been lacking in many of their losses, and the club's acceptance of its mediocrity is, at the very least, puzzling.

"There's no reason why, as a team, we shouldn't play hard. Period. There's no reason," Marbury said. "My thing is, you've got to ask yourself if you're playing to win a championship, or are you playing to make money. I know I'm playing for the championship, and I think we all have to ask ourselves that as individuals."

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