NEW YORK -- Antonio McDyess is looking to leave his frustrations in Denver, and the New York Knicks are hoping they lose their lottery status after one dreadful season.

McDyess and point guard Frank Williams, the No. 25 pick in Wednesday's NBA draft, were introduced at Madison Square Garden on Friday. They were acquired on draft night from the Nuggets for Mark Jackson, Marcus Camby and the No. 7 draft pick, Maybyner Hilario, on Wednesday.

"I'm looking to be on a winning franchise, and it just seemed like in Denver they were taking steps back,'' McDyess said. "I had been there six years, and I felt like I couldn't wait anymore.

"They said when I first got there they were going to rebuild this and we were going to be in the playoffs. In two or three years, it hasn't happened.''

The Knicks broke out balloons for the pair, but peppered the press conference with blue and orange mainly for the seventh-year power forward, whom they hope will help them return to the playoffs for the first time since 1987.

"We have a guy we can go to late in the game, a guy who demands a double team in the low post,'' Knicks coach Don Chaney said. "In the past, we've died protecting our lead from the perimeter. This should change things a great deal for us. It should help us maintain leads once we get them.''

McDyess was limited to 10 games last season by surgery that repaired the patella tendon in his left knee in October. But after rehabbing the knee and sharpening his skills, McDyess and the Knicks think he can return to the form that made him an All-Star reserve in 2001, when he averaged 20.8 points and 12.1 rebounds.

"I feel I'm going to be an even better player,'' McDyess said. "I worked at stuff every day. I improved a lot. When I came back I wasn't dunking as high as I was, and that was a big part of my game.

"When I wasn't able to do that, I had to concentrate on a lot of other things, like shooting the ball from outside, passing and dribbling. From that part, I improved.''

The Knicks also drafted two point guards in Williams and Milos Vujanic of Yugoslavia, a second-round pick who will probably play in Europe this season. General Manager Scott Layden and Chaney both said they were happy to get the players with the 25th and 36th picks, respectively.

"People might question the logic in drafting two point guards,'' Layden said. "But the logic is this: Frank was so highly rated on our board, you take him. And the same thing happened in the second round. We didn't think those players would be available at those spots; we had them going higher.''

Williams played three years at Illinois and averaged 16.2 points in his junior season, establishing himself as a penetrating point guard. With the Knicks juggling Jackson, Charlie Ward and Howard Eisley at point guard last season, Williams said he'd like to break into he rotation quickly, and Chaney confirmed it was a possibility.

"As far as I'm concerned, entering training camp, if he wants the job and he works for it, he gets it,'' Chaney said. "It's wide open.

Chaney called Williams a "much better penetrator'' than Ward or Eisley.

"He gets to the basket, no question about it,'' Chaney said.

While McDyess gives the Knicks some size and strength inside that will put them into the mix in the Eastern Conference, they still lack a center who can compete with the Western Conference's top teams.

"I would love to have another big man, preferably a center,'' Chaney said. "Even with the addition of Antonio, we're still fairly small.''

While McDyess told Denver officials he planned to opt out of his contract, which expires in 2004, he said the promise of the playoffs made waiving it with the Knicks easy, even if that means playing center some of the time.

"It didn't take too much time for me to say 'OK, I'll do it,''' he said. "At first, I was kind of weighing it, but after I really thought about what we could have here in the city, on the Knicks team, I said 'I gotta do this.'

"If I got to play center, I would. I look at it this way: in the East, there are not too many big centers or too many powerful guys. I think we can squeeze through that.''