impressed

And, if he keeps the pick, Walsh is aware his choice might not be popular with the fans in attendance Thursday at Madison Square Garden. He learned that during his first two drafts with the Indiana Pacers, in 1986 and '87.

Donnie Walsh realizes that is how many people will view his first draft with the Knicks. New York is scheduled to pick sixth Thursday night, likely long after freshmen Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley will be gone.

With Stephon Marbury in the last year of his contract, the Knicks will need a point guard - especially one capable of running new coach Mike D'Antoni's offense. But if Walsh goes for backcourt help, he said it doesn't matter if the player is a combination guard or a true point, such as the one D'Antoni had to run his system in Phoenix.

The Knicks need some, and this is their best chance in a while to get one through the draft. The No. 6 spot is the highest for the Knicks since they picked fifth in 1986, taking Kentucky's Kenny Walker. New York would have had top-10 picks in the last two drafts, but both went to Chicago as payment in the Eddy Curry trade.

"If you can get Steve Nash, let's get him, OK?" Walsh said. "But there are other ways to do what Mike wants than to have to have that. That's the best answer to everything, to have the best point guard in the league, or one of the best. But if that's not available, doesn't mean you can't play his style with other players. There are different ways to play it."

Coming off a 23-59 finish in their seventh straight losing season, the Knicks need help everywhere. Walsh expects plenty of guards to be taken early, and New York could grab one of them. The Knicks worked out guards such as O.J. Mayo of Southern California, Indiana's Eric Gordon, Arizona's Jerryd Bayless, D.J. Augustin of Texas and Russell Westbrook from UCLA.

"My first two years in Indiana I figured that one out," Walsh said, "The first year I got unanimously booed, so it was the whole arena, for taking Chuck Person, who became rookie of the year.

Walsh said previously that a high pick could be packaged with one of the Knicks' high-priced veterans to facilitate a trade, but said it was hard to know if any would become available to him.

GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) -Not top two, so probably too late.

"I think based on the college experience up to now, I could see where people would say that," Walsh said Tuesday. "But I would just caution that that's said every year, something like that, and then a guy like Roy all of a sudden, where did he come from? So there's always going to be guys that are picked later on that turn out to be great players."

And while the Knicks president understands that thought, he won't entirely agree with it. After all, it was only two years ago that Brandon Roy was taken at No. 6, and he followed his rookie of the year campaign by being chosen to the Western Conference All-Star team last season.

"Second year it was Reggie Miller and I realized that there were some cheers, but four-fifths of the arena booed. You know if you're going to pick one guy, there's four groups up there that want you to pick someone else, so you're going to get booed."

Walsh added that he was impressed with the way Italian forward Danilo Gallinari shot the ball in his workout.