Thomas Discusses Crawford, Williams Trade

"Jamal Crawford, of course, was the key piece to the trade," continued Thomas. "He's only 24 years old and already has the tremendous ability to create, score, and make plays for others. What we now need to coach and teach him is to keep on reading different parts of the game better and better." Crawford has expressed his desire to wear the Knicks president's old uniform number. "I'm honored that he'll wear No. 11," Thomas said.

Before completing the big trade, Thomas has discussed different lineup possibilities with Crawford. "If Allan Houston is healthy, Jamal has told us he has no problem whatsoever with coming off the bench," said Thomas. "And Allan Houston appears to us to be healthy right now." "Last year, during the playoffs, we were saying 'if only Allan was healthy we could go further,’" added Thomas. "Now we have insurance for that situation as well. Jamal is just what we needed. He was the leading scorer of the Chicago Bulls and he's a tremendous talent."

Thomas appeared to be almost equally elated over the acquisition of Williams. "He's a rebounding machine, a tremendous energy player," he said. "With all the talk about scoring these days, we tend to forget about the basketball basics of defense and rebounding. And Jerome, who has had his best years under Lenny Wilkens, is a great defender as well."

As enormous as this trade could turn out to be, the Knicks have not stopped working on improving the team. "(Warriors free agent center) Erick Dampier is still in town," smiled Thomas. "He wanted to stay another day. He's really enjoying himself in New York. He's very impressed with the situation. We'll continue to work on a sign-and-trade and, if that doesn't happen, we'll be looking at other eventualities as well."

"Erick Dampier is our number one priority at this point."

Thomas, while calling Stephon Marbury "untouchable", was also impressed with Vince Carter's expressed desire to play for New York. "Six-seven months ago, Eddie Griffin was turning us down," he said. "Now we're in a situation where some of the best players in the NBA want to play for us. We'll continue to get younger, and we'll continue to get better. I'm very happy with the direction we are going in."