GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Mike D’Antoni’s system is in place. The New York Knicks still need help running it.

Donnie Walsh thinks his team can find it in this draft.
There will be plenty of point guards available Thursday night, and the Knicks could take one of them when their turn comes up at No. 8.
Ricky Rubio will likely be gone by then, but Stephen Curry, Jrue Holiday, Jonny Flynn, Ty Lawson and Brandon Jennings are among the players who could still be available.
And if Walsh goes for a playmaker, he knows the kind he’s looking for.
“I think a guy that can play a fast tempo and I’d like a guy that can defend, too,” the Knicks president said Monday. “Somebody who can play a fast tempo, because that’s what we want to play.”
D’Antoni brought his uptempo offense to New York last year, but his team was prone to the types of scoring droughts that he rarely had to worry about in Phoenix. Of course, the Suns had one of basketball’s premier point guards in Steve Nash, who won a pair of MVP awards leading the fast break in the desert.
Chris Duhon played well in the early part of last season, but faded in the second half after being overworked. The Knicks didn’t really have a backup for him, with Stephon Marbury never playing before he and the Knicks parted ways, and Mardy Collins traded in November.
Holiday was brought in for a second workout Monday and believes he would be the best fit if the Knicks take the point guard route.
“I have that advantage of being taller than everybody and bigger and being a big point guard, just as quick, just as fast, so I have more vision,” the 6-foot-4 UCLA freshman said. “I could see over the top, I can get my shot off easier.”
Point guard is hardly the only need on a team that went 32-50 last season, and Walsh won’t say what direction he plans to go with his second straight lottery pick. Nor can he guarantee the player will be an immediate contributor.
New York took Danilo Gallinari with the No. 6 selection last year. The forward from Italy showed flashes when he was on the court, but was limited to only 28 games because of a back injury that eventually required surgery.
The Knicks still believe Gallinari will be a quality NBA player, and Walsh insists he can find one this year.
“Lately the draft is not something you can grade the next day,” Walsh said. “You’ve got to wait, see how these guys do.”
Walsh predicted 10 or 11 point guards could go in the first round. Rubio, the teenager who played on Spain’s silver medal-winning team in the Olympics, is expected to be the first one taken, likely somewhere in the top four picks.
But Walsh praised the athleticism of Syracuse’s Flynn and the shooting of Davidson star Curry, so he knows he’ll find something he likes when it’s his turn.
He just doesn’t know who it will be.
The Los Angeles Clippers have said they plan to take Oklahoma forward Blake Griffin with the top pick, but nothing is certain once it gets to Memphis at No. 2.
“After that, all the way down past us you have no idea who’s picking who and I think it’s to a degree because there is parity,” Walsh said. “There’s also at this point, most teams got a guy they want to take and they don’t want anyone else to kind of figure it out.”
Walsh added he is aware there are players he likes who won’t be available, so he is prepared for various scenarios. And he sees plenty of talent in this draft, even though it’s been considered weak beyond Griffin.
“I think there are good players in the draft, so in that sense I regard it as good,” Walsh said. “There’s going to be good players where we are, so in that sense I think it’s a good draft. You know you have to wait two or three years to find out how really good was it.”