The Knicks Fix

I don't think there's confusion. It's pretty simple. You play well, you stay out on the floor longer. If you don't play well, then somebody else gets in . . . When he's played well, he's played a lot of minutes." - Isiah Thomas

It's a battle of wills and Isiah will prove to Steve Francis, as he did to Stephon Marbury early in the season, that he'll win the battle every time. Especially with a contract extension in his pocket.

“I haven’t done anything to Francis what I haven’t done to Marbury," Thomas said after this morning's shoot-around. "Marbury had the same complaints and issues earlier in the season. The hardest player I’ve been on this season is Marbury. He didn’t have a bad week, he had a bad month, for me. He had a bad month-and-a-half. But I thought it was the right thing to do and I thought it was worth it. I think it helped him. Nobody’s had it tougher than him.”

Say what you want about Francis being made out to be the easy scapegoat headed for a buyout and being the outsider who never wanted to be here and never has been able to find a niche with Marbury in the backcourt. Conjure up as many theories and conspiracies you can. I've done it all season. But this is one situation where there's no issue here, no conflict, no controversy. No favoritism. No ulterior motive.

In fact, it's as simple as this: Isiah is not going down with Steve Francis dribbling the ball into a crowd of defenders or playing matador defense or clowning around (mistakenly identified at this time of the season as "keeping the team loose") or lounging on the floor at the end of the bench. (I know what you're thinking, then what's his excuse for playing Nate Robinson?)

"Hey, I just want to win," Thomas said. "Whoever can help me win the game on that night, on that particular night, that’s who I play.”

* * *

* Allan Houston was a surprise guest at the shoot-around this morning. "That's our new free throw shooting coach," Thomas said, probably half-joking.

* First impressions of rookie Randolph Morris after watching him in a few post-up drills with post-up guru Mark Aguirre: nice soft shooting touch. He was dropping shot-after-shot off the glass on some very smooth inside-pivot (i.e.: Jack Sikma) moves.

* David Lee was at the shoot-around. Quentin Richardson was not, but has, Thomas said, done some shooting "on the side." No word on either for tonight.