Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 at 9:00 am  |  61 responses

Isiah Thomas Working to Help Knicks Acquire Chris Paul?


by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

To the endless chagrin of New York Knicks fans (and some of the team’s employees), Isiah Thomas’ influence within MSG doesn’t appear to be shrinking.

If anything — even though he’s not allowed to officially work for the Knicks while he coaches college kids — Isiah appears to have more power within the organization than before.

Amar’e Stoudemire is one of several NBA players currently working out at FIU, and according to the NY Daily News, Isiah Thomas (and Knicks owner James Dolan) are hoping to use this opportunity and others to help lure Chris Paul to New York:

ESPN reported that Stoudemire was working out at FIU which happens to be the school Isiah coaches when he isn’t serving as a de facto GM of the Knicks. There were several NBA players working out at FIU, including Atlanta’s Joe Johnson. None of this is surprising since FIU is located in a favored city among NBA players: Miami. Plus, Isiah continues to share a close relationship with some of the league’s top players. That would including Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e and more importantly, Chris Paul.

This is the reason James Dolan continues to lean on Isiah for advice, even though Isiah doesn’t have an official position with the Knicks. (If he did, Isiah would be in violation of NBA bylaws for having contact with players during the lockout). Isiah played a role in the Knicks signing Amar’e two summer’s ago and he played a role in the Melo trade. He’s now working behind the scenes to help the Knicks land Chris Paul.

Knicks fans may rightfully hate that Zeke continues to be involved with their team in any capacity, but if his endless behind-the-scenes machinations help land Chris Paul, one gets the feeling that they’ll quickly forgive and forget his past sins.

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  • Paul

    @ nbk–Wrong again. The owners are seeking a hard cap and a rollback of current contracts. Now that may not come to be, but if there is a hard cap, the players will probably concede to some rollbacks for the good of the union. Also, a luxury tax would defeat the purpose of a hard cap because wealthy teams could just spend what they can afford. Do your homework before telling people they are wrong. Look it up

    AS for Amare–Phoenix not wanting to take on the risk of Amare’s knee going in a few years doesn’t negate what I said. The indisputable fact is that Amare has been relatively durable and is showing no signs of a downward trend in his health. He was a beast last season and looked like he couldn’t have been in better shape. I’ll believe he’s doomed to deteriorate when I see some signs and evidence. There is none yet.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Actually Amar’e has been hurt all summer, with a “back strain” and would be questionable for the start of the season (i believe there is even a Slam article from last week about it) Also, the owners original proposal was contingent on a cut of player % of the BRI to 42% from the current 58%. This included a $43M Hard Cap. Which was basically laughed at, denied and restructured. No “financial expert” or salary cap expert or nba analyst has ever entertained current salary cutbacks as a real possibility. Taking every single little thing you read as an inevitable truth is a great way to look ignorant. If you want good NBA salary information check out Sheridanhoops, Larry Coon, insidehoops, truehoop, any of those should give you better information then the original proposal. I’m being realistic, I’m sorry your a fan of NY and your owner forced your team into such a bleak situation (Unless CP3/DH/DW can force a trade-which will prolly happen). I’m done with my homework

  • http://slamonline.com Neitel

    Iman Shumpert, Iman Shumpert, Iman Shumpert, Iman Shumpert, Iman Shumpert, Iman Shumpert, Iman Shumpert, Iman Shumpert, Iman Shumpert

  • Paul

    I’m being realistic as well, and I was working on the scenario you originally used to demonstrate that the knicks are screwed. If there is a drastically lower salary cap, as you say, the union itself would also probably concede to some sort of rollback on current contracts–perhaps limited to only certain contracts–because otherwise many players would be left out in the cold because of high and max contract players salaries. I’m not making anything up–as I said, the league is seeking rollbacks and a hard cap. Of course they might not get that, but to say that there is no possibility of it is ignorant at this point. The owners are apparently taking a hard line right now. And again about Amare–his back has nothing to do with what you were referring to–his knee and eye, and the Suns not giving him guaranteed money.

  • Paul

    … and its naive of you to think the league will back off of their desire for a hard cap and rollbacks just because the players “laughed at” it. This is a highly fluid situation with these negotiations, and no one can tell exactly what will come out at the end.

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Oh, a hard cap is gonna happen, unless they create some new kind of cap rule it will be a hard cap, no doubt about it. The hard cap will more then likely have a clause to “grandfather in” current deals which will still count against the cap, but players will still be eligable for trades and will receive all of their contracted salary (unless their is a required % payback at the end of the season to make up for a difference in the BRI split). Eventually the average “max0 salary in the new deal will be somewhere around $11-13M a year. Eventually

  • http://Slamonline.com nbk

    Oh and Amar’e was not medically insured for “structural” reasons. More or less he is prone to injury. His knees were just evidence. His eye is not really something thats a concern with the goggles.

  • GoBulls

    CP3 & D WILL….. ummmm NO!? GTFOH and wheres Melo n Stat fittn in that??? Idiot Knick fans!? smh

  • 8off

    opinion of Roy Hibbert on the Knicks as true center 7’3 10 pts 6 rbds a game ?

  • sdsmith

    I am outraged! Before I throw a Thrashing Dolan party, I’ll preface my statements of rage and disappointed by saying, I am living proof that people can change for the better, but what has Dolan heard or seen to make him think that Zeek won’t zeek the Knicks again. Isiah’s had his chance to bring in the big names and was successful in doing so. We had Coach Larry Brown, Starbury, Crawford, Z-bo, Q-Rich, Big Eddie Curry, Wilson chandler, Trevor Ariza, D. Lee, Nate The Great, Channing Frye, and others that I’m too angry to care to remember right now, and it equalled a totally drama-filled, litigated-filled, poor-attitudinal, nasty-spirited finger-pointing losing mess. Ok,Dolan hired Walsh which said that he needed to change the culture of the franchise, which he did, along with miraculously getting us under the salary cap. How does Dolan reward Walsh? “Thanks for everything, but no thanks; I’m going to go take advise from the person that’s played a huge part of putting the franchise in the mess that you just got us out of.”

  • jason kimbrough

    First of all, once an NBA contract is signed, its locked in for the duration of the contract unless a team cuts a player or the said player takes a buy-out to leave. Point is, Amare and Melo cannot take pay cuts. Chris Paul however could be willing to take less money from the Knicks in order to join them and have a chance at challenging for a title. Now its not totally crazy to think he would do that because he is already one of the more marketable players in the NBA. He has endoresments with Right Guard as well as Brand Jordan and Madison Avenue would mean huge attention and publicity for him especially with the Knicks so what he gives up in Salary he could more than make up for in endorsement dollars. Also keep in mind that there are plenty of big guys that would flock to NY to play with a guard like CP.

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