"Carmelo Anthony said Isiah Thomas has taken the easy way out in already jumping off the Knicks bandwagon after their 2-4 start.

Anthony, who scored 37 points in last night's 99-96 victory in Washington, was amused at Thomas' remarks on Miami radio that criticized the Knicks' acquisition of defensive center Tyson Chandler. The move formed the "Broadway Bigs'' — a power frontcourt of Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire and Chandler — but also cost them in the backcourt with the necessary amnesty cut of their starting point guard, Chauncey Billups.

Thomas, the former Knicks president and now the coach at Florida International (which is off to another lousy start at 4-10), said the NBA is a guards' league and teams can't win big with just a good front line.

The indication was Thomas would have preferred the Knicks sticking with rolling the dice for Chris Paul through their master plan of preserving 2012 cap space.

Anthony views things differently than Thomas.

"I'm not someone who likes to disagree or agree with someone else's opinion, but from my standpoint, I think we did a great job of building something, starting something in New York and bringing Tyson, me and Amar'e here,'' Anthony said. "It's a great foundation to building a house. That's our goal.''"