ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York Knicks are trying yet again to be relevant, because there is no margin for rebuilding in the basketball Mecca. The organization has to continuously retool and compete, even though many of the pieces they have gathered are aging, ill-fitting, or declining.

There is brimming intrigue with these Knicks, however. They acquired Jason Kidd, Marcus Camby, Rasheed Wallace, and Kurt Thomas, making for an impressive senior-league core, although the Knicks are banking that all of this quartet has something left.