John Denton of the Florida Today reports: With the New York Knicks struggling and possibly in the hunt for a new head coach this summer it was inevitable that Doc Rivers' name would eventually surface in rumors.

But while Rivers, a former Knicks player, has a distinct affinity for New York and the Knicks' franchise, he said he has no plans of leaving the Orlando Magic any time soon.

"I'm a Magic coach and I'm going to stay a Magic coach," Rivers said. "That's not going to change. I'm going to stay here."

Rivers is under contract with the Magic through the 2004-05 season and has an option for the 2005-06 season.He originally signed a four-year, $8 million contract with the Magic in 1999, but inked a two-year, $16 million extension last spring that boosted his pay to an average of $5 million a season.

"I loved the Knicks and I still think it's still the single-best place I played as a player," Rivers said. "I love New York, I love the fans there and I love the city. But I love where I'm at more. I love a lot of things about where I'm at so I'm going to stay here."

According to Chris Broussard, the Knicks' president, Scott Layden, has been roundly criticized for piecing together a roster that currently sits in 11th place in the so- so Eastern Conference. While much of the disparagement is deserved, in fairness to Layden, it must be stated that the Knicks have had their top nine players for only the past six games. And during that stretch ? aside from the 43- point farce against Charlotte ? the Knicks have played as well as anyone in the East.

Last Saturday, when Camby fouled out at the end of the first overtime in Milwaukee, Weatherspoon played the entire second overtime and wound up hitting the game-winning free throws. Against Philadelphia on Tuesday, Weatherspoon played the first six minutes of the fourth quarter while Camby rested with four fouls.

"We're playing at a different level now," Weatherspoon said. "We're going out there being aggressive. That's one of the things New York was known for, being a rugged defensive team that found ways to win and held opponents down. We've played that way lately, and hopefully we'll continue to get wins before the All- Star break and try to creep closer to even."

How much will a lottery pick help the New York Knicks?  Not much if you ask guard Latrell Sprewell, who according to Newsday writer Barbara Barker is dead against the Knicks adding a lottery pick and with it one of the best collegate/high school players.

"It's not like you're going to get Tim Duncan this year," Sprewell said.

Right now Duke's Jason Williams is the consensus number 1 pick, and then there is a huge drop after him.  But Sprewell thinks that not even Williams is a sure thing.

"He's a great kid, but you never know how a guy's going to come into the league and adjust," Sprewell said. "I was a guy no one expected to do anything. Picking out that one guy is very difficult."

With the way the Knicks season has gone what have the fans got to look forward to if they cannot lay their hopes on the draft?

Marc Berman of the New York Post reports that while all the talk has centered on the Knicks trying to pry third-string big man Marc Jackson from the Warriors, GM Scott Layden actually has worked harder on obtaining Golden State's 6-11 starting center Erick Dampier, according to sources.

In fact, Layden is trying to get a third team involved in a Dampier deal since the Knicks and Warriors have no match. League sources say the frontcourt-glutted Warriors, for contract purposes, are willing to deal Dampier. The 27-year-old's trading value has never been higher and he's in the third year of a seven-year, $49 million pact. Golden State would want back in package at least one player whose contract expires after the season.

Before Stephon Marbury was shipped to Phoenix last summer by the Nets, he knew he was being shopped. According to a source, Marbury told one member of the Nets' family two days before the historic Jason Kidd trade, "I hope they ship me out west. That way I'll have a better chance of being traded to the Knicks," writes Marc Berman of the New York Post.

The Coney Island point guard keeps his Knick desires to himself. When asked last night about the Knicks' recent woes, he said, "I really don't care how they're doing. Why should I? It really doesn't matter to me."

League executives believe it's possible the Suns would eventually deal Marbury, probably in the summer. Knick GM Scott Layden had no chance of getting Marbury when he was with the Nets, who would never deal him to their cross-river rivals. Former Knick GM Ernie Grunfeld tried to obtain him from Minnesota four years ago, but his agent David Falk steered him to New Jersey.

TOUGH TIMES like these require a strong leader, a commanding presence, a forceful figure with courage and ability to make difficult decisions and creative changes.

For the Knicks, that person is ... exactly who? As the team flops and staggers with no real sense of direction or purpose, the situation begs for intervention from above.

And please, not from Scott Layden, the embattled general manager who gave his state-of-a-mess address last night. No, aim higher. We saw how Layden and the team dealt with a bad stretch. Now, what about the boss? There will be no action taken or words spoken today or tomorrow by MSG chairman Jim Dolan, however. He did have a good excuse to distance himself from Monday's accident: He was honeymooning. But in the coming weeks and months, if the married Dolan is anything like the single guy, he'll remain in the shadows while keeping his fingerprints off the daily operation. In every way, Dolan is an unabashed delegator, leaving his people to stand out front to catch bouquets or direct hits.

That makes sense. The close target is the most convenient one.

When things go wrong, the abuse is usually heaped on the player, or the coach, sometimes the GM. But behind all the missed shots and faulty game strategy and awful trades is an executive who's indirectly responsible for what you see. Ultimately, it's his call. He sets the tone and the organization follows. He makes the choices that impact the present and future. That said, three major decisions that couldn't pass without the blessing of Dolan are haunting the Knicks today and threatening them tomorrow:

The Patrick Ewing trade.

The hiring of Layden.

The $100-million contract for Allan Houston.

None could happen unless Dolan signed off, believing they were in the best interest of the franchise. Well, there's only a one-word reaction to that: Oops.

A sports team should always fall in one of two categories: contending for a title or building toward one. The Knicks are neither.

They're stuck in the middle with no sign of relief. They have players who can't be moved and others who won't fetch equal value. And as much responsibility as Layden should bear for this, the plight of the Knicks is due to Dolan more than you think.

When Dolan gave Dave Checketts the boot a year ago, the knee-jerk reaction by many (guilty right here) was that Dolan craved the spotlight. He was anxious to assume control, make waves, be a Steinbrenner. As we see, this couldn't be further from the truth. He's generally publicity shy, confessed to being a novice in basketball matters and he puts a lot of faith in those he hires. In one sense, Dolan's approach is refreshing. Lord knows the sports world doesn't need another egomaniac whose self-esteem needs to be fed by constant appearances on ESPN. Why hire someone to run your team, then try to run it yourself? But trading Ewing, hiring Layden and making Houston obscenely rich was all about Dolan, plain and simple.

No team swaps a franchise player, even a fading one, unless the boss wholeheartedly endorses it. And although Dolan said he knows nothing about basketball, it's not as if he arrived yesterday. Three years as Garden chairman should make him smart enough to know you keep a player in the last year of a fat contract and then smile as it melts off your salary cap. That's an easy call, Business 101. Instead, the Knicks got the go-ahead to trade Ewing for spare and expensive parts, and in the case of Glen Rice, a broken-down one.

After Checketts left, Dolan had no real reason to keep Checketts' pal around, either. Had he inspected Layden's resume a little more closely, Dolan would have known Layden did nothing in Utah except live off Karl Malone and John Stockton, players who weren't drafted on his watch.

Yet Dolan gave Layden complete control and watched him stock the roster with dime-a-dozen players bought at inflated prices.

If the salary cap wasn't buckling enough from the weight, Dolan broke the bank to keep Houston when nobody else was prepared to raise the roof for a one-dimensional free agent. Even Houston was shocked. By one rival GM's estimate, Dolan overpaid at least $30 million for a player who'll stress out the cap for years.

So that's Ewing, Layden and Houston, three backfiring decisions that land on the owner's desk.

Has Dolan, the son of a rich cable guy, broken the family toy? As the season chugs onward, maybe it's time for Dolan to break from his usual routine, step to the forefront and start making bold changes that will reshape the franchise.

On second thought, maybe he should leave well enough alone.

Remember, when a GM publically voices support for his head coach, it's never a good thing. But the New York Times reports that Scott Layden has done just that.

Layden, the Knicks' president and general manager, said before tonight's game that he still had faith in his coach, Don Chaney, and his struggling team, even after the 43-point loss to Charlotte on Monday.

Layden again refused to say that Chaney would definitely coach for the rest of the season. The team is 4-16 under Chaney. "But I think we still believe in this group," he said. "We believe in Coach Chaney and we believe in the coaching staff. Having said that, I'm not na?ve enough to think that we don't have a lot of work ahead of us."

Regarding the possibility of a trade, Layden said the team would continue to seek ways to improve itself and indicated that no player was untouchable. "That's no knock on our team, but we're in the business of always trying to improve," he said. "You always have to see what's available and if you can, you have to look at that."

Marc Berman of the New York Post writes that Raptors center Hakeem Olajuwon revealed yesterday he was closer than anyone realized to becoming a Knick last summer. Now Olajuwon is thrilled he nixed the Knicks.

Olajuwon told The Post the Rockets and Knicks had a sign-and-trade worked out in case he tabbed them as his final choice. Toronto won the Olajuwon sweepstakes because the 39-year-old future Hall of Famer sensed the Knicks were in decline and forced Rockets GM Carroll Dawson to trade him there.

Olajuwon said the Knick deal also included fellow Rockets free agent Shandon Anderson for Glen Rice and another Knick. GM Scott Layden and Dawson later worked out a Rice-for-Anderson swap with the Knicks also getting Dallas' Howard Eisley.

"It was close, the deal was real," Olajuwon said. "It was there. It was really a possibility. It could've happened. I gave it serious thought."

New York Knicks coach Don Chaney issued a blunt and bold challenge to forward Latrell Sprewell.

"I told (Sprewell) at halftime, 'If (Raptors guard Vince) Carter plays 48 minutes, you're going to play 48,' " Chaney said.

As it turned out, both Sprewell and Carter played all 48 minutes for their respective teams last night. But Sprewell's minutes were far more effective, as he racked up a game-high 35 points and helped hold Carter to a horrid 6-for-23 shooting night in the Knicks' 96-92 win.

The victory allowed the Knicks to snap an ugly eight-game losing streak, which reached its apex with a 111-68 loss to the visiting Charlotte Hornets at Madison Square Garden on Monday. Sprewell didn't score and went 0-for-9 in that game.

No one could see this one coming. Not the New York Knicks, despite their recent string of losses and plunge in the standings. Not the Hornets either -- they hadn't exactly been burning through the NBA themselves.

So how does a matchup of NBA teams in serious need of a victory produce something like the Hornets' 111-68 Monday matinee devastation of the Knicks? It was New York's worst loss at Madison Square Garden.

"Today there was a sense of urgency with us, to be honest," Charlotte forward P.J. Brown said. "It came down to us really needing this game. We knew they were on a losing streak and would be desperate."

Desperate, perhaps. Responsive? Not at all.

This one had everything the Hornets (19-21) have been searching for in a season marked by sharp performance swings. High energy and aggressive play from the outset. Smothering defense. Easy baskets. No letup. Game-long consistency.

That level of play was seldom evident in the previous four games, three of them losses. Monday, the Hornets parlayed all that, with ridiculous ease, into a 24-point first-quarter lead. They eventually ran the margin out to 45 points well before the final buzzer offered the Knicks some relief.

"That's what we've been lacking all season ... a killer instinct," said point guard Baron Davis. "We jumped on them real hard and in the second quarter I think we played even better. Usually we let teams right back into a ball game. Today our defensive intensity was there the whole day."

The size of the defeat and an inability to put up any sort of a counter brought a steady chorus of boos down from the Garden seats and left the Knicks (14-25) feeling as whipped mentally as physically.

"I think we have reached rock bottom," New York guard Latrell Sprewell said. "This is the worst we have felt as a team this" season.

The loss was New York's eighth in a row and its 16th in 19 games under interim coach Don Chaney.

Defense, a trademark of Knicks teams for years, was soft and slow. This time it was Charlotte's work on defense that made the big impact.

Coach Paul Silas made a switch in assignments, putting 6-foot-9 Lee Nailon on 6-3 New York point guard Mark Jackson. That freed Hornets guards Davis and David Wesley to use their quickness and pressure the Knicks' top scorers, Allan Houston (20.2 average) and Sprewell (19.1).

"We just had a defensive focus that we were going to go out and stop people," Silas said. "Putting Lee on Jackson was a big key."

The defense kept New York's scoring in the teens in each quarter. It allowed the Knicks a meager 30.1 shooting percentage (16.7 percent in the second quarter).

Davis, in his most assertive performance in weeks, finished with 24 points on 9-of-12 shooting, nine assists, two steals and two blocked shots. Wesley and Nailon followed with 16 points apiece. The bench had 38 points and 23 rebounds.

"Charlotte came out and shot the ball extremely well," New York forward Kurt Thomas said. "They picked up their pressure on the defensive end and we just couldn't get it done. It was the worst game I have ever been a part of."