The Knicks acquired small forward Demetris Nichols from the Blazers for a 2nd round pick in 2009.  Nichols played his college ball at Syracuse so he’s played a lot of games at Madison Square Garden already.  Nichols led the Orange in scoring last season and he’s gotten better every season at Syracuse so the Knicks might have stole him from Portland.  Nichols played in 123 games at Syracuse and he averaged 10.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.0 steal and 0.8 blocks per game.  He also is a decent shooter despite what the numbers said in college as he shot 42.3% from the floor, 35.8% from the three point line and 75.2% from the free throw line.

The Knicks wanted to get tougher during this year’s draft and Wilson Chandler definately qualifies there.  The 6′8″, 230 pound power forward from DePaul is a banger inside.  Chandler played in 59 games at DePaul and he averaged 12.9 points, 7.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.7 steals and 1.5 blocks per game.  Chandler isn’t much of a shooter though as he has hit 44.5% from the floor, 30.3% from three point range and 65.9% from the free throw line.  Look for Chandler to be a backup as a rookie but he could develop into a starter down the road.

The Knicks took advantage of the Blazers’ wanting to get rid of Zach Randolph.  The Knicks traded Channing Frye and Stevie Francis to the Blazers for Zach Randolph, Fred Jones and Dan Dickau.  Randolph is by far the best player in this trade and it isn’t even close.  Randolph will immediately slide into the starting lineup alongside Eddy Curry and give the Knicks a good one-two punch inside.  Randolph has the best season of his NBA career in 2006 with the Blazers.  He played in 68 games (67 starts) and he averaged 35.7 minutes, 23.6 points, 10.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.  He also shot the ball pretty well as he hit 46.7% from the floor and 81.9% from the free throw line last season.  Randolph should quit shooting too many three pointers as he only hit 29.2% of them last season.  Randolph has had a good career in the NBA as he’s now played in 387 games (266 starts) and he’s averaged 16.0 points, 7.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists.  He has hit 46.6% of his shots from the floor, 26.1% from three point range and 77.5% from the free throw line. 

Fred Jones will be a backup shooting guard for the Knicks.  Jones played in 63 games (12 starts) last season for the Blazers and Raptors.  In those games he averaged 20.9 minutes, 6.5 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists.  He didn’t shoot too well last season as he only hit 38.5% from the floor, 30.5% from three point range and 83.3% from the free throw line.  Jones has been a backup his whole career in the NBA so he should have no problem coming off of the bench for the Knicks.  Jones has played in 308 games (31 starts) in his NBA career and he’s averaged 22.9 minutes, 7.5 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game.  He has shot 41% from the floor, 34.1% from the three-point line and 82% from the free throw line. 

Dan Dickau has been a reserve point guard his whole career and nothing will change in New York.  He played in 50 games (3 starts) last season for the Blazers.  He averaged 8.9 minutes, 3.3 points, 0.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.  He didn’t shoot too well as he only hit 35.8% from the floor, 26.2% from three point range and 79.2% from the free throw line.  Dickau’s play acutally has gotten worse as his career goes on and he likely won’t be in the NBA much longer unless he can reverse that trend.  He has now played in 223 games (49 starts) and he’s averaged 15.4 minutes, 6.0 points, 1.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.  His shooting touch that he had in Gonzaga is now shot as he only has hit 39.6% from the floor, 34.3% from three point range and 83.2% from the free throw line in his NBA career.

The Knicks won’t miss Frye or Francis that much.  In fact it’s amazing that Isiah Thomas found someone to take Francis’ poor contract.

The Knicks have most of their players signed for next season already and it doesn’t look like they can take on too much money in free agency.  It’s possible that the Knicks could trade a couple of their veterans but most of them have been underachievers lately so they will be hard to move.  The Knicks will likely take the best player available when they draft as they don’t have any glaring needs despite last season’s poor record.  The thing that would improve the Knicks the most is just staying healthy as they lost a lot of key players in the second half of last season to injury.  The Knicks own the #23 pick in the NFL Draft on Thursday.