Gallinari is good distraction until LeBron sweepstakes

NEW YORK -- LeBron James doesn't visit Madison Square Garden until Friday. Consider the building warmed up.

Making his first start of the season, Danilo Gallinari served as a pretty effective opening act for the King, whose visits here are really the only thing to get excited about for the next 79 games. The Knicks are 0-3, but their 21-year-old Italian sharpshooter reversed those digits with a career-high 30 points Saturday night in a 141-127 overtime loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Will the Knicks land a big free agent in 2010 to pair with Danilo Gallinari? (AP)

It was a third straight listless start for the Knicks, who didn't respond to coach Mike D'Antoni's lineup change -- Gallinari for Al Harrington -- until it was too late. Harrington also had a career high, with 42 points off the bench. But his electrifying performance -- 14 in the fourth quarter to help the Knicks erase an 18-point deficit -- didn't matter. Nor did Larry Hughes' 18 points off the bench in his first action of the season. Neither will be playing in this building next season, at least for the Knicks.

What matters -- and what will matter from now until the clock strikes midnight on July 1, 2010 -- is what's left on the roster to combine with a marquee free agent or two in an attempt to win something. There are more subtractions to be made: Eddy Curry, banished until he develops a taste for salad, and Jared Jeffries, whose shot attempts now produce groans before they leave his fingertips.

"Donnie Walsh is a pro's pro and has done an amazing job of undoing the damage from the previous administration," said agent David Falk, on hand to watch his client Elton Brand. "They'll get a great player. There's no question they'll get one or two great players. It might be LeBron. If not, they've still created an opportunity to turn it around. And you've got to give Donnie a massive amount of credit for that. You've got to undo the damage first, and he's done a masterful job."

There's truth in what Falk says, even if you deduct style points due to his decades-old grudge against the leader of the previous administration, Isiah Thomas. Walsh, I'm sure, would appreciate the tip of the hat. In his first year as Knicks president, he aggressively attacked his roster and exterminated 2010 impediments Zach Randolph, Quentin Richardson, Jamal Crawford and others. It only gets harder from here. Walsh has come to realize that the job of cleaning up the Knicks' books is even more difficult than he imagined.

•  76ers 141, Knicks 127 (OT)

Sometimes, even when Walsh gets rid of a bad apple, it rolls back into the building and lands in a courtside seat. Sure enough, there was Stephon Marbury, strolling along the sideline with 4½ minutes left in the first quarter Saturday night. He plopped down in the front row, a few seats down from Dustin Hoffman and directly across from the Knicks' bench -- where he sat for the entire season opener last year with a DNP-CD around his neck.

Marbury, desperately trying to make himself the story again, immediately began U-Streaming from his seat on Saturday and causing a ruckus among the fans seated behind him. After the quarter ended, an usher asked him to move to the seat for which he had purchased a ticket, in the second row. Marbury decided to leave instead. If only his buyout negotiation last season had gone this smoothly.

Unlike a year ago, Walsh isn't desperate to move contracts. If the right deal comes along, he'll do it as long as it doesn't add significant salary beyond this season. Even after turning down one ridiculously lopsided trade proposal after another during his tenure, Walsh still has to fight the impression among some rival execs that this is the place to dump contracts and problems. Even those who deal fairly assign a discounted value to the pieces on the Knicks' roster that are actually worth acquiring. The next move -- dumping Curry or Jeffries to make room for a second max free agent -- will be Walsh's finest work if he's able to get it done.

Then, Walsh will go face-to-face with a growing perception around the NBA: Unlike during the days when Falk managed Michael Jordan's career, a marquee player no longer needs a top-three market to become an icon. Now, the money and the media follow the talent. Every NBA game is available for viewing on your laptop, whether you're in Tribeca or Turkey. The Knicks have shrunk themselves with a decade of ineptitude, and technology has shrunk the world.

"New York is an amazing place to play," Falk said. "But to be marketable -- I mean, LeBron's pretty marketable now. It's a very interesting dynamic. I think at the end of the day, if you're advising LeBron, you advise him to go where he can win and the marketing will follow. You're not going to advise him to go where he's marketable and hope you win. He's been in the league seven years. He's a great player. He works his ass off, and he's got to go where he has the best chance to win. If it were Utah, I'd tell him to go to Utah."

Falk believes only one or two max free agents will change teams next summer. LeBron and Chris Bosh are on his maybe list; he doesn't foresee Dwyane Wade leaving Miami, which will have enough cap space to re-sign him and add another big-ticket item. Each of them will be evaluating something more important than dollar signs. They will be going where they believe they can win championships, then waiting for the money to follow them.

Which brings us back to Gallinari, who made 8 of 16 from 3-point range and showed some of the crafty footwork that reminds you of a young Dirk Nowitzki. At one point Saturday night, Gallinari had the ball at the top of the 3-point arc, stunned the defender with a crossover dribble, and buried a step-back 3-pointer that was rather Dirk-like. Dirk, though, wasn't nearly as strong or tough as Gallo this early in his career -- maybe not even now. And Dirk never had the luxury of being a superstar's wingman.

The Knicks need a dynamic point guard, a rugged power forward who can score, and a superstar to pair with Gallinari, who isn't ready to contemplate how such things might transpire.

"To be sincere, I try to not think about the future," Gallinari said. "Because with the New York situation, everybody talks about the future. We are playing 2009-10 season and we have to be focused on this season. I want to be focused on this season. I don't want to think about the future."

That's Walsh's job, one that I don't envy.