Let's All Take A Deep Breath

Everyone is predicting, if not real improvement, at least a better record for the Knicks this year. The reasoning is solid: Isiah Thomas, for all his faults as a GM and limitations as a head coach, won't actively try to sabotage the team to prove a point. I'm on board with the Knicks winning more than 23 games, but refuse to go overboard and pick them to be more than 10 games better in the win column. This is still a poorly assembled team whose overpaid veterans don't have much interest in doing anything that's asked of them.

To wit, Frank Isola in today's New York Daily News:

"Isiah Thomas mailed letters to his players in August suggesting that they arrive in New York after Labor Day for informal workouts, which is common for NBA teams. Thomas' plan was to encourage his team to begin building camaraderie while removing the ugly memory of last season as soon as possible.

In theory, it seemed like a great idea. But on the day following the holiday, only four players, including Channing Frye and David Lee, bothered to show up for work, according to a team source."

Frye and Lee certainly weren't part of the problem last year. I'd like to know who the other two players were. If they were Eddy Curry and Jamal Crawford, that'd be reason for optimism (though not irrational optimism in the spirit of Bench Renaldo's Knicks preview). I think the team source would have mentioned Curry and Crawford prominently had they been there. I'm guessing it was more along the lines of Mardy Collins and Elton Brown hanging out with Frye and Lee.