Do you think Matt Millen is a Knicks fan?

With five hours until the NBA trade deadline at 3 p.m. EST, I'm trying to give Isiah Thomas the benefit of the doubt. My inner Little Ian is also reminding me that I loved Isiah as a kid, often risking ridicule by putting my pasty white torso in a Pistons #11 jersey whenever I played basketball. Right now, those sentiments are all that's keeping me from joining the pitchfork-and-torch mob decrying Isiah as the worst executive in professional sports. (Matt Millen, put your pitchfork down. You're still on the hook, pal.)

Isiah has to be working on something else, right? Tell me this Steve Francis deal is the precursor to bringing Kevin Garnett to New York. Because that's the only way yesterday's deal with Orlando makes any sense. Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury, two shoot-now-pass-later point guards, in the same backcourt? Francis, Marbury, and Jamal Crawford on the floor at the same time?

(Image from the New York Daily News)

I have friends in New York, so I hope they're reading this now. Mis Hooz, if you see an older, bespectacled gentleman standing along 7th or 8th Avenue outside Madison Square Garden, muttering "Joe fired me, I didn't quit... Joe fired me, I didn't quit," and staring at the oncoming traffic, hold him in your arms and don't let him go. He needs your help.

Here's the lead of Frank Isola's story from the New York Daily News, which also has a hilarious back cover today:

By early morning Larry Brown was talking about the Knicks potentially adding a player with a defensive mind-set, who is unselfish and owns a high basketball IQ.

It's on you New Yorkers to watch out for the poor guy. We can't help Larry Brown here in Detroit. Not just because of the geographical distance, but because we're too busy pointing at him and laughing the laugh of schadenfreude. We're nice people here, but you're dead to us when you'd rather go someplace else.

(Photo by G. Paul Burnett/ New York Times)

Oh, Isiah! Even your mother has to be saying that with tears in her eyes right now. And my Isiah jersey shrunk and ratted up years ago.

▪▪ Complete Sports points out that the Knicks actually have five shoot-first point guards, and has many links from the national (ESPN, etc.) perspective to browse.

▪▪ The New York Daily News' Mitch Lawrence and Father Knickerbocker both think Isiah is doing a great job... of improving the other teams in the NBA.

▪▪ Greg Eno wonders if Isiah ever had a plan in New York, and also has a very intriguing proposal for his next career move at Out of Bounds.

▪▪ The NBA Source proposes five trades that could realistically be made by the deadline today.

▪▪ In case you were thinking the Knicks were the only team being criticized, Peter Kerasotis of floridatoday.com asks what the Magic have to show for Tracy McGrady.

▪▪ Who else could be on his way out of Orlando? Grant Hill.

(Updated at 5:30 p.m.)