Knicks Try to Keep Pace in Beefed-Up Eastern Conference LAS VEGAS - Knicks General Manager Glen Grunwald recognizes that the landscape of the Eastern Conference has changed. In a conference call on Thursday, Grunwald acknowledged that it would likely be more difficult for the Knicks to match the success of last season, when they finished second to the Miami Heat in the conference. The Indiana Pacers, who ended the Knicks" season in the second round of the playoffs, have bolstered their roster, including signing Chris Copeland away from the Knicks. The Nets added the likely Hall of Famers Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. The Chicago Bulls, who swept the Knicks in four regular-season games last season, will be better with the return of Derrick Rose. The two-time champion Heat re-signed Ray Allen and Chris Andersen. "There's been speculation and analysis that the Eastern Conference will be better this upcoming season, and it very well may be," Grunwald said. It's not just the Brooklyn Nets, but other teams in our conference will be improving. We have 10 players under contract at this time. We're pretty comfortable with our team. While Grunwald defended the acquisition of the inconsistent Andrea Bargnani, the No. 1 pick in the 2006 draft, Bargnani said Thursday on a conference call that he was ready to move past his experience with the Toronto Raptors, in which he was booed at times last season. "I'm really starving to win," said Bargnani, who vowed to be a better rebounder and defender. Grunwald's second task this summer was to retain the core of the roster. He re-signed J. R. Smith and Pablo Prigioni. Both Grunwald and Coach Mike Woodson agreed that re-signing Prigioni was a priority over re-signing Copeland because they needed a reliable backup point guard over a perimeter shooting forward, a role that Bargnani will assume. "You look at how we played coming down the stretch, Pablo had a lot to do with that," Woodson said. A lot of times things don't show up on stat sheets, but everybody on this team loved playing with him, and I thought he did a lot of positive things. The roster is still incomplete, Grunwald admitted. The Knicks do not have the cap flexibility to sign valuable role players in free agency. Grunwald said he wanted to sign a third point guard. With Rasheed Wallace, Kurt Thomas and Marcus Camby gone, Grunwald has to find a suitable backup center to defend and rebound behind Tyson Chandler. The Knicks are trying to persuade Kenyon Martin to return. The Knicks may also have interest in Metta World Peace, whom the Lakers waived on Thursday. World Peace, 33, is a Queens native who could be intrigued by ending his career in New York. "Playing in New York is enticing to a lot of people," Grunwald said hours before World Peace was released. I'm pretty optimistic that we're going to add some good players to our team. Woodson agreed. He said it might be a good idea to have one or two open roster spots when training camp starts. "I don't think we have to rush to do anything," Woodson said. A player or two could slip through the cracks. Someone is amnestied, waived or bought out. It can happen. We just have to sit back and patiently wait. For now, only one player has been added to the Knicks, a team that won 54 games last season. "We wanted to take another step forward this year," Grunwald said. We felt Andrea was a step forward for us.