It took two years of furious roster shuffling and careful bookkeeping for the Knicks to land a star player and create the chance for a rebirth. Their endeavor provides some hints about where the NBA might be heading in its labor negotiations. Lengthy contracts and guaranteed salaries can make it tough for teams to recover from bad decisions. Commissioner David Stern wants to remedy that in the next collective bargaining agreement, which is being negotiated. 'One of the generalized goals enunciated by us in collective bargaining, if you put it into sort of a framework, is to come up with a system where teams are not doomed by their past mistakes for inordinate lengths of time, so the fans can have hope,' Stern said in a session with New York reporters. Stern declined to offer specific mechanisms but mentioned 'shorter contracts or less guaranteed money' as potential solutions. The National Basketball Players Association will resist both measures. The league has created several new limits on contracts over the years, instituting maximum salaries in 1999, and reducing contract length to no more than six years in 2005. But most player contracts are fully guaranteed, and a waived player still counts against the salary cap, making it hard for teams to rebuild. The Knicks were in salary-cap purgatory for the last decade because of poor decisions by Scott Layden and Isiah Thomas. At Stern's urging, the Knicks in 2008 replaced Thomas with Donnie Walsh as team president. Walsh essentially sacrificed two seasons to purge the bad contracts and create salary-cap room. The payoff came in July, when he acquired the star forward Amar'e Stoudemire and nine other players. 'I think that Donnie has done what he was brought in to do,' Stern said. 'They have a team that's young, athletic, talented and on an upward tick -- with just enough question marks to make it interesting. I think fans in New York are going to be in for a fun season.' Thomas was named a Knicks consultant in August, sending fans into a brief panic. Stern blocked the move five days later, citing league bylaws that prohibit holding jobs in both the NBA and the NCAA. Thomas is the head coach at Florida International University. Stern initially offered no objections when the Knicks approached him about the hire. Once it was announced, NBA lawyers advised Stern that it was against the rules. 'I think it's fair to say that I missed the issue,' Stern said, adding, 'I blew that one pretty good.' 