Douglas Forming Strong Bond with New Mentor Duhon

Toney Douglas has found a mentor in Chris Duhon. MSG Photos

Chris Duhon prepared enough during the summer to withstand another 82-game season playing the same amount of minutes as he did last year, but the Knicks may have found another point guard to help prevent the starter from possibly burning out.

The Knicks acquired the No. 29 overall pick in last June’s draft and selected Florida State’s senior guard Toney Douglas. Like Duhon, Douglas played four years of college basketball and starred in the ACC, and under the former Duke standout, Douglas is on the right path to play significant minutes right away.

“I’ll just try to help him learn more about the game,” Duhon said. “The NBA is definitely different from college and that transition is very important as you grow as a player. I’m going to try to help him as much as possible.”

Through his first few official NBA practices, Douglas appears to be a leading candidate to backup Duhon, who led the Knicks in minutes per game (36.8) last season and seemed to wear down a bit after the All-Star break.

Knicks Head Coach Mike D’Antoni already believes Douglas can contribute right away, particularly as a defensive specialist, and Duhon agrees with his coach’s assessment.

“Toney is a very smart player,” Duhon said. “Obviously, he’s an ACC guy so he knows what it means to compete. He’s very, very great defensively and has great instincts. I think at some point in the season he’s going to be a guy we count on a lot.”

The Knicks, who play a run-and-gun style of basketball, never have a problem putting points on the board, but they feel the need to become a better defensive team. That’s where they’ll count on Douglas the most this season. Nate Robinson even compared Douglas’s perimeter defense to that of Allen Iverson, who fills the passing lanes perhaps better than any other player in the league.

“A lot of people don’t really talk about that much defense here because of our system,” said Douglas, last year’s ACC Defensive Player of the Year. “But you have to play defense. There’s no point in you scoring if someone else is scoring. You need stops and I feel like that’s one thing I can control.”

Douglas, an Atlanta native, has been working out in New York since August to prepare for his first season, following a somewhat up-and-down Summer League. In Las Vegas he showed signs of being a great floor general – recording 12 assists and zero turnovers in a game.

But after working out with Duhon for much of the summer, Douglas is now looking more and more like an NBA player. Douglas has been in New York since the beginning of August preparing for the season.

“We always step on the floor together and compete against on another,” Douglas said of Duhon. “He always tells me if I’m making a mistake and always gives me words of wisdom of what to look for. I really appreciate him for that.”