GREENBURGH, N.Y. (AP) – The New York Knicks have signed veteran guard Mike Bibby, re-signed forward Jared Jeffries, and inked their two draft picks.

With guard Iman Shumpert and center Josh Harrellson also signing Sunday, the Knicks’ roster is at 11 players. Most of their moves were on hold while they worked to complete a three-team trade that brought Tyson Chandler from Dallas to New York on Saturday.

Bibby could replace Chauncey Billups, who the Knicks used the amnesty clause to waive so they could afford Chandler’s four-year, $56 million contract. Bibby has averaged 15.2 points in 13 NBA seasons but struggled last season for the Miami Heat, managing only 3.6 points per game in 20 postseason starts.

Shumpert, the No. 17 pick from Georgia Tech, is also an option at the point.

Jeffries is a favorite of coach Mike D’Antoni because of his ability to defend multiple positions.

With rumors swirling again about his desire to play for the New York Knicks, Chris Paul appears to be bracing for a season unlike any of his other six seasons with the New Orleans Hornets. On the same day Paul participated in his first volunteer workout at the Alario Center since the 149-day lockout ended, a report came out in Yahoo! Sports on Thursday saying his agent told the Hornets the All-Star point guard would not sign a contract extension and wants to be traded to the Knicks.

But two league sources confirmed after the story broke that Paul’s agent, Leon Rose, never made the request to the Hornets.

“It is just rumors; you can’t control it,’’ Paul said. “It’s always going to happen, and it’s part of the game. I’m just happy to be back with my team.’’

Whether the Hornets trade Paul or he opts out after this season remains unknown. Paul has yet to disclose his plans, and Hornets General Manager Dell Demps was not available the past two days to address the situation.

But sources indicate the Hornets still aim to sign Paul to a long-term extension. However, the Hornets have listened to several trade offers from teams interested in acquiring Paul.

Publicly, though, Paul appears as if he expects to remain with the Hornets. Earlier this week at a charity event in New York, Paul said his heart remains in New Orleans.

“Right now, we only have five people on the roster,’’ Paul said. “I think our most important thing right now is trying to figure out what guys like D. West are doing, too. He’s like a brother to me. I’ve never played a season without him, so (I’m) trying to communicate with him as much as possible.’’

Paul said Thursday he’s had conversations with Hornets forward Trevor Ariza on how they can get their team better, and that’s important right now.

Yet, if Paul indicates he is not interested in a long-term deal to remain in New Orleans, Demps is likely to pursue the best trade offer available that would give the team maximum value in return to keep the franchise from having to rebuild as Cleveland was forced to do when LeBron James left in free agency to join the Miami Heat. The Cavaliers finished 19-63 last season under former Hornets coach Byron Scott.

Desiring talent to make another playoff run, it does not appear beneficial for the Hornets to trade Paul to the Knicks. The Knicks gave away most of their assets to obtain Carmelo Anthony in an extend-and-trade deal last season.

The Knicks are not likely to part ways with forward Amare Stoudemire or Anthony. After those two, the Knicks’ next best player is 35-year-old point guard Chauncey Billups, who likely doesn’t fit in the long-term plans Demps and Coach Monty Williams would have if Paul is no longer around.

If Paul opts out at the end of the season and goes to the Knicks, he would earn $4 million less than the $17.7 million left on his deal for the final year with New Orleans.

Paul has made frequent trips to New York the past several months because he was a member of the players association’s executive committee that took part in labor negotiations with the league.

“I’ve been back and forth to New York 18 times this summer, and I was engulfed in all that,’’ Paul said. “I just now had time to actually see my family and actually take a deep breath and realize I’m finally getting a chance to play basketball.’’

The Paul-to-the-Knicks speculation has been swirling since he suggested at a toast during Anthony’s wedding in 2010 that he and his close friend should team with Stoudemire to formulate a Big Apple trio that’s similar to the Miami Heat’s trio of James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, who made it to last season’s NBA Finals but lost to the Dallas Mavericks.

Since the first day he joined the Hornets in 2005, Paul has aimed to win. He has suggested in the past that he wants to win now instead of having to wait.

Paul has leverage to scare off some teams the Hornets could pursue trading him to because of the threat of not signing an extension. If he’s traded to a team and decides not to sign an extension, that franchise would have him for this season before he could opt out.

There was an ESPN report Wednesday saying Paul would not sign an extension with the Celtics if he was traded to Boston.

John Reid can be reached at jreid@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3407.

Of course former New York Knick GM Donnie Walsh thinks the team he just left could be a “championship-contender.” Technically, he brought the players in; though there is still some sort of consternation as to whether or not he would have given up as much as James Dolan gave up in the trade for Carmelo Anthony(notes).

And, technically, he’s still a Knick employee; paid as a team consultant.

And, technically? He didn’t actually say “championship-contender.”

From an interview with Marc Berman at the New York Post (via Pro Basketball Talk):

“We have a core of players we can build around to build a [championship-contending] team,” Walsh said. “We’re not finished. There’s more pieces. But I think we got some really good players that can lead a team and form a core of that team. What we have are the most important things.”

What did he say within the brackets, there? The ones that hit the Post as “[championship-contending]“? I’m having a little fun here, Berman’s not going to fudge a quote, but it does leave Donnie a nice out for whenever the Knicks stop paying him.

And, technically again, he’s not wrong. All cores can be looked at as championship-contending if you toss in enough caveats. And Donnie tossed in quite a few. The difference is just how close to “championship-contending” your core is by itself, or if it’s merely a “[championship-contender].”

The Knicks, I’m sure you’d agree, have the former in the form of Amar’e Stoudemire(notes) and Carmelo Anthony. Stoudemire is the NBA’s premier scorer at the big forward position, sorry Dirk, and Carmelo is a solid second behind Kevin Durant(notes). The problem is that someone like Dirk Nowitzki(notes) does untold things that don’t show up in a typical box score (like creating brilliant spacing and working from spots that leave obvious passing angles, even if he doesn’t get the assist), and things that do show up in the box score (like those once-a-week turnovers).

And Durant? Like Carmelo, he’ll hardly be confused with T.R. Dunn anytime soon, but unlike Carmelo he’s also surrounded by a brilliant cast of lockdown defenders and role-players.

Because the Knicks are grandfathered into massive deals with Stoudemire and Anthony, they’ll hit next summer’s big free-agent offseason with over $44 million in salary tied up in just four players, with the [championship-contending] core combining for just over $40 million. We have no idea what the next collective bargaining agreement is going to look like, and no clue as to where the cap is going to be set. But it nearly goes without saying that the Knicks will have to be awfully creative to finagle a max-making third star into signing a deal with New York.

And doing so, at least under the old rules, would leave New York top-heavy as they struggled to fill out the rest of their roster; not unlike last year’s Miami Heat. The Miami Heat contended for a championship. Could a Knick team with an approximation of Miami’s trio do the same? Hard to tell. Hard to tell if they can even get a chance to, considering the next CBA.

What’s worst? Even if the NBA resolves its lockout in the next few weeks, Knick fans will have to wait at least another year before finding out if they can lose the brackets surrounding “[championship-contending].”

Related: Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki, Miami Heat

Updated Sep 7, 2011 4:01 AM ET

New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony had two cell phones stolen by an unidentified attendee after an all-star charity game in Baltimore last week, the New York Post reported Wednesday, citing a source.

“Fans bum-rushed the court to get close to the guys after the game,” the source said.

“Carmelo’s phones were stolen during all of the chaos.”

Fans on Twitter caught wind of the missing phones and tweeted to help Anthony find them.

A rep said they still had not been returned to Anthony, who played alongside the Miami Heat’s LeBron James at the event at Morgan State University.

Read more here

New York Knicks Superstar, Amar’e Stoudemire has recently sold his exclusive penthouse property in W South Beach for a whopping $5.2 million to a company called MF Penthouse 3 LLC.

Amar’e Stoudemire’s $5.2 million penthouse is among the finest pads available in South Beach, ever. Due to the recent NBA lockout, not to mention the flunked out deal between the Miami Heat and Amar’e Stoudemire, we can only assume that the recent real estate sale was made for investment reasons (and of course, because of the ongoing economic crises).

The real estate deal was closed just recently, and Amar’e Stoudemire got assistance from people like Mathew Kreiger, a Miami Beach attorney and Dave Marotta, a real estate broker who was also the listing agent on the said property.

Quentin Battle
W South Beach