With all of head coach Derek Fisher's talk of going from worst to first next season, who wouldn't want to be aboard the New York Knicks train?
Point guard Alexey Shved is just hoping to hang onto his seat. Shved, who came to New York in a mid-season trade from the Houston Rockets, will be a free agent at season's end, but he wants to help turn the moribund franchise around.
"I hope next year I can stay here," Shved told the New York Post's Marc Berman on Saturday. "My agent will do his work summertime but I want to stay here.
"We had a lot of problems and injuries. Everything will change next year and I want to be part of it."
The Rockets reportedly traded Shved with the belief that he would return to Europe after this season, one in which he also played for the Philadelphia 76ers. But in joining a banged-up Knicks roster with an ailing point guard, Shved got a chance to play consistent minutes, and made New York his most productive NBA stop to date.
He averaged 14.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists in 26.4 minutes across 16 games, before a broken rib ended his season. The Knicks went 4-12 in those games, which seems bad until you realize that they're 12-52 in Shved-less contests.
"(The injury) was very unfortunate for him personally as well as for the team," Fisher said.
"It definitely hurt our team, but think of a guy who hadn't gotten a chance other places to come here and get the chance to show his game, having it cut short. I think he’s done well enough that teams that are interested will have a chance to look at him and see how it goes this summer."
"I feel great over here," Shved said. "Great guys, coaches. I see the coach, he trusts me when I’m on the court. Great organization. A lot of guys want to be here.
"They gave me a chance when I came here. I played minutes in Minnesota my rookie year, a little bit in Philly. But here they trusted me more than anywhere."
Berman reports that Knicks president Phil Jackson and general manager Steve Mills want to bring Shved back, but with cap space being arguably their most treasured asset, will likely only offer him a minimum contract.
