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Except for one shining moment, when they outgunned the Kings, it's been one long season for the New York Knicks, and they still haven't even played 10 games. But that could all change for the better in the coming days when Antonio McDyess makes his long-awaited New York debut. Providing, of course, one thing:

"If I'm the old Antonio," McDyess said.

No one knows how good McDyess will be when he returns from a serious knee injury that KO'd him from all of last season and all but 10 games the year before in Denver. Back when he averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds a game for the Nuggets in 1999, he had two sound knees and literally leaped over opponents to execute his favorite move in the paint.

So you'd think that after three operations on the same knee since the 2001-02 season, and after two major setbacks since reinjuring his left knee in the 2002 preseason, the Knicks would be a little bit leery about what he can do.

Not if you talk to the boss.

James Dolan, president and CEO of Cablevision (the parent company of the Knicks), is brimming with confidence.

"He knows what kind of player he can be and is," Dolan said on Oct. 23, the first of the three interview sessions he'll grant the New York media for the entire season. "The public hasn't really seen it. New York is the place for him to showcase that talent. I think his disappointment at the injury is not only about not playing, but not being able to take the surprise out of the box for New York. He's going to take it out of the box this year. I know he will."

If Dolan is right, then the Knicks can forget the horrors of the first seven games, when they lost five, and set their sights on a playoff berth.

"With a healthy McDyess and with the addition of Keith Van Horn, I expect them to be a playoff team, for sure," said Nets coach Byron Scott, whose team might see McDyess Friday night in the Meadowlands.

The Knicks still haven't made it official -- the prevailing theory is that they want him to make his debut in a home game in the Garden -- but on Wednesday, coach Don Chaney didn't rule McDyess out of Friday's game.

Either way, he appears to be close to getting on the court for his first regular-season game as a Knick. And it's not a moment too soon for the 29-year-old power forward, the team or its legion of fans who have suffered through two straight lottery seasons when the Knicks put together only 67 wins.

The preseason was a washout because of injuries to Allan Houston and Van Horn, and even Dolan admitted it might not be until midseason before the Knicks could show their potential. But it looked like they would be eliminated from the playoff chase by Thanksgiving. Two close losses to the Bucks were bad, then the bottom fell out when they showed a total lack of effort against the Cavaliers, then 1-5, this past Monday in a 94-80 rout.

The Knicks approached the game as if they were trying to get Chaney pink-slipped, a virtual impossibility since Dolan remains his strongest advocate. Dolan has all but guaranteed that Chaney and team president Scott Layden will still keep their jobs, even if the Knicks fail to make the playoffs for the third straight season.

Against LeBron James and Co., the Knicks played with no defensive intensity -- something we've seen a handful of times in the Chaney era. But never this bad. "I have never played in an NBA game, I don't think, where guys got such open shots," Van Horn admitted.

To make matters worse for Chaney, he unleashed a 10-minute tirade at the writers over his use/misuse of Dikembe Mutombo. His benching of Mutombo against smaller, quicker teams had been an ongoing point of contention, since Mutombo himself had not been happy with his benching, even meeting with Chaney to tell him he wanted to play against those kinds of teams that continually feast on the older, slower and less-athletic Knicks. Players not only openly second-guessed Chaney's handling of of Mutombo, Houston also said that they weren't prepared to play the Cavaliers, which, naturally, didn't reflect well on the head coach.

That's why McDyess' return is potentially huge. He could ease a lot of tension, solve a lot of problems and help get a lot of wins.

	“	He can really make a major difference for their team, just as Grant Hill would for ours. We're very similar in that respect. The addition of Antonio for them, or Grant for us, would mean adding a major talent, and that would impact the whole Eastern Conference. ”
		— Magic GM John Gabriel on Antonio McDyess

"He can really make a major difference for their team, just as Grant Hill would for ours," Magic general manager John Gabriel said. "We're very similar in that respect. The addition of Antonio for them, or Grant for us, would mean adding a major talent, and that would impact the whole Eastern Conference."

The obvious reason: This is not the Western Conference, where Shaquille O'Neal and a slew of big, high-scoring power forwards rule the day. Other than Jermaine O'Neal and perhaps Kenyon Martin, who would be a small forward on the other side of the Mississippi, the East doesn't have quality big men.

If he's the "old Antonio," McDyess would be just the player the Knicks have needed since they traded Patrick Ewing away three years ago. Although the Knicks are stocked at power forward, they're all of the smallish, non-scoring variety, if not outright backups. None of their fours or fives command a double team when the ball is thrown inside.

Houston, the Knicks' best perimeter player, has not been getting room to operate over the last two years. He needs space to get his shot. Since they still don't have a point guard who can break the defense down -- and Latrell Sprewell, who could occasionally set up Houston by doing that, is long gone -- the return of McDyess could probably be the biggest break for their shooting guard.

"He's going to show us all just how good a player he is," Dolan said with typical enthusiasm. "He's been dying to do that. Remember, he was coming off an injury coming to us. So he didn't even get to show us. But if you saw the games he did play in, he was a real force. That's how he plays basketball. He knows he's going to be a force here. And I think he knows he has that potential of greatness, and I think he's itching to get to it."

Just as there are a few million Knicks fans itching to see the "old Antonio."

Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.