Isiah Thomas Reflects on Thursday Night’s Draft - 紐約尼克 New York Knicks

http://www.nba.com/knicks/news/isiah_interview_070628.html

On Wilson Chandler…

Thomas: The first time he caught my eye I was actually watching a game against
Kansas. I turned on the game to watch Brandon Rush and Julian Wright.
DePaul upset Kansas and I noticed this guy Chandler. The more I watched
him play, the more I did the background checks and the more I liked
what I kept finding out. He went to DePaul, and we are very well
connected there and have a great connection with the coach that he
played for. He was probably the guy in the draft that we did the most
work on and understood the best. Being from Benton Harbor, Mich., and
playing in Chicago, I know him pretty well and I like what we’re
getting.


On Demetris Nichols, the 2007 second-round pick obtained on Thursday…

Thomas: Nichols actually just impressed us all season long with the way he
shoots the basketball. Syracuse is a team that definitely should have
been in the tournament, and when he came down to Orlando and worked
out, I just was extremely impressed by his defensive abilities, and
his shooting caught my eye. The way we want to play inside out, he is
a guy that can definitely spot up outside the three-point line and
knock id down.


On Randolph Morris, Chandler and Nichols comparing to Channing Frye,
David Lee and Nate Robinson of two years ago:

Thomas: I hope they can play as well as those three can, because Nate,
Channing and David were pretty special. But Randolph Morris and
Wilson and Nichols will hold their own. They are good players and we
are very happy to have him.


On Zach Randolph playing with Eddy Curry…

Thomas: We are a team that pounds the ball inside. We win by going to the
foul line and outscoring teams in the paint and we are a big power
team. Those two guys on the block will be tough to handle and will
have the ball in their hands a lot.


On Randolph coming to the Eastern Conference …

Thomas: Well, I think the style of basketball will be different and he will
have to make the adjustment from the Western Conference which is kind
of open down and more wide open than the Eastern Conference which is
more of a halfcourt game, but I am sure he will play well.


On how Thursday night's deal came into place …

Thomas: There were a couple of guys we’d been pursuing since the season ended,
and Zach was a Portland had talked about moving on and we had interest
in. He has what we are looking for in a power forward playing
alongside Eddy and taking some of the scoring load off him. He was a
guy that when you look at his body of work, his numbers are very
impressive, and when you combine that with his age, he is definitely
a guy who is on the upswing compared to the downswing.


On giving up Frye and Steve Francis …

Thomas: It was definitely tough moving Channing, because he is one of my
favorite players and one of my favorite people. But it is a going to
be a great situation for him in Portland alongside Greg Oden.
Channing and Greg will be a nice frontcourt, and people will
definitely have to deal with them out West. But I like what we did.

And Steve I felt was great when he was here. We have a very crowded
backcourt, but I thought he was very professional and that he handled
it like a gentleman with class. He is an A player in this league when
playing 35 plus minutes a day. He is a great player, but a lot of
nights he only played for 10-15 minutes a night, and he accepted that
with a lot of class. And I appreciated that.

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