NBA Insider: What's up with the big guys?

Growing size issue

Mike D'Antoni left nearly 21 feet of potential centers - 6-10 Ronny Turiaf, 7-1 Timofey Mozgov and 6-10 Anthony Randolph - on the bench during most of Thursday's 112-103 loss to Dwight Howard and the Magic, opting to use 6-9 Shawne Williams when Amar'e Stoudemire got into foul trouble.

D'Antoni's logic was understandable, because Williams' ability as a perimeter shooter allowed the Knicks to keep playing their style and his 7-3 wingspan was enough to at least contend with the 7-foot Howard.

Although it is a mystery why Turiaf, who often brings great energy and toughness off the bench, was used for only six minutes, Anthony has been relegated to project status. He is earning a troubling reputation as a player who, despite a terrific skill set, doesn't appear to want to work hard all the time.

Mozgov's quick regression is much more alarming because he began the season as a starter with intriguing potential. He is always willing to work, but he came over from Russia extremely raw and clearly needs a lot of time invested in him to develop.

"It's not great that I don't play, but it's an experience for me," Mozgov told Newsday on Thursday before the game. "I've got to improve. I have to show Coach something and I hope it will be pretty good."

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Contributing in the Knick of time

Within two months, Williams has seen his role expand from 15th man to an important part of D'Antoni's eight-man rotation. That's just about all the time the 24-year-old reclamation project had to make himself valuable to the team, because this week brings a critical date for him. The Knicks have until Wednesday to waive Williams. His $854,389 salary would become fully guaranteed for the rest of the season after Jan. 10.

This is significant to the Knicks because, with a full 15-man roster, if they wanted to add a player - teams can start signing free agents to 10-day contracts Wednesday, and center Earl Barron is available - they'd first have to waive a player. The most likely candidate would be Roger Mason Jr., who rarely plays and probably would prefer to seek an opportunity elsewhere, but that means first negotiating a buyout of his $1.4-million veteran's-minimum salary.

Garnett still ahead of Amar'e

During his time in Phoenix, Stoudemire followed a trend of making funny video campaigns to earn All-Star votes. In New York, Stoudemire's play is making a strong enough campaign for MVP, even though it hasn't helped him in the ballot box. The latest returns released by the NBA last week showed Stoudemire (637,486) trailing Kevin Garnett by 75,069 votes for the second forward spot in the East starting lineup. LeBron James leads all forwards with 969,459.

Stoudemire did close the gap with Garnett, adding more than 50,000 votes since the first returns were released in mid-December. However, it would take a strong push during the next month to overcome KG, who also has the benefit of a larger image in the valuable (and extremely loyal) Asian market, which has access to the online ballots, because of his sneaker deal with China-based ANTA Sports Products.

"I mean, Yao Ming was the leader for votes for five straight years, and sometimes he didn't even play half the season," Stoudemire said of the voting process. "So you really can't figure out who's going to receive more votes."

Yao, by the way, leads all centers in the West with 637,527 votes. He's out for the season after playing in only five games.