NEW YORK — The Knicks officially claimed 6-foot-10 Steve Novak off waivers Wednesday night.
“He’s a shooter,” head coach Mike D’Antoni said before the preseason game against the Nets at MSG. “Spreads the floor. Can’t have too many shooters.”
Released by the San Antonio Spurs Monday, Novak has made 41.7 percent of his 3-point shots, and 513 of his 720 attempts are from beyond the arc.
He went 23-of-42 from deep last year in San Antonio.
The Knicks still have the $2.5 million “room” exception to use on another player going forward.
“We’ll just keep watching and seeing,” D’Antoni said. “If we can better the roster Glen [Grunwald] will do that.”
FREE THROWS
Billy Walker (groin), Jared Jeffries (calf) and Baron Davis (back) are all out against the Nets. D’Antoni said “hopefully [Walker] will be ready for Sunday [vs. the Celtics].” Jeffries is expected to be ready for practice Friday and the Celts on Sunday…Asked about Toney Douglas’ role as the starting PG, D’Antoni said, “You start, you don’t start, Toney’s going to play a lot of minutes.” Yet he also said he wants to check out Mike Bibby as a distributor for the team’s two stars, Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire. “We want to look at that,” he said….D’Antoni on Tyson Chandler: “He’s a dream. Great at everything. That’s why he’s a champion.”…D’Antoni on 7-footer Jerome Jordan: “He’s a project a little bit.”…Former Knicks and Syracuse guard Andy Rautins has signed to play in Spain with Lucentum Alicante, the former team of Kyle Singler (Duke) and Jeremy Hazell (Seton Hall).
