Walsh Comments On Trades

[Pugz]

The Knicks made two separate trades on Thursday ahead of the NBA deadline, acquiring Chris Wilcox and Larry Hughes.

"I think Wilcox gives us strength up front," Knicks' president Donnie Walsh said about one of his two acquisitions on trade day. "The way Mike [D'Antoni] plays, he can play center or power forward. He has a body which, we don’t have a lot of that on our team. Larry Hughes is a guy that can score points and create his own shot, and I think that’s also very good in Mike’s system."

Walsh thinks the moves boost the Knicks' chances of making the playoffs this season, while not affecting their 2010 plan.

"We want to be competitive, but we don’t want to interfere with being in the free-agent market the summer after next," Walsh said. "I hope this will make us more competitive. I feel like it can."

Walsh said the ESPN rumor that had the Knicks about to part with Nate Robinson, shipping him to Sacramento and dumping Jared Jeffries' salary in the process, was untrue.

"I don’t know where that rumor got started, but it was absolutely bogus," Walsh said.

Earlier on Thursday, Robinson told Alan Hahn of Newsday that he wanted to be "a Knick for life."

The Knicks opened up two roster spots with Thursday's deadline-day trades but Walsh said he has not decided which players to sign to fill these spots.

Via New York Times

I really think these deals could push them into the playoffs.