Looking deeper, the knicks are basically brand new to each other. That Carmelo trade gutted the franchise of its forward momentum. There was an identity building at msg through alot of home grown talent backed by a few off season additions. With that said, the end result of the trade left the Knicks with very intimidating talent and huge expectations of taking the next step towards greatness. The group will have a good chance at walking into training camp fresh and eager to figure out the best way to win with the super talent they have. No team in the NBA has the upside the Knicks have without even thinking about how they can upgrade the roster in the future.
As is, if you put these guys through training camp, they can compete and defeat any team in the league in a 7 game series. That includes Chicago, Miami and Boston. Chicago has no outside shooting. Aside from Derrick Rose they have no offense. Their defense and overall energy is not enough to match the walk in the gym talent the knicks have. Miami's big three got away with overwhelming teams with individual match ups. The Knicks fire power trumps theirs along with coaching. Add the fact that neither team plays lock down defense and the Knicks should always beat them in 7. Boston has been together longer and won a championship. Their execution is a given, but they took 4 games to finally blow out a team that only had Carmelo and Toney Douglas at full strength. Give the Knicks a training camp and equal healthy rosters and the Knicks win every time.
With all that said teams will look to get better. Chicago will get a shooter probably. Miami will reload their role players while Boston will reinvent themselves as guys get older. The Knicks will have 2nd year player Landry Fields back and sure to improve his game. They drafted an intriguing player in Iman Shumpert. They will get 2010 2nd round pick, a 7' center, Jerome Jordan back from overseas. They added big body Harrylson of Kentucky in this years 2nd round. They have veteran free agent guys like Jeff Foster and Kurt Thomas available to plug holes as well. The Knicks are right there ready to compete with anybody as soon as they are allowed to.
The statements above are a fact of life. No kool aide sippin or blind faith from a diehard homer here. The Knicks barely have to lift a finger and they will instil fear throughout the league. The real kicker with the lockout is the possibility of the cap going up 7 million dollars. That was one of the proposals made by the league as they try to issue a hard cap for teams to follow. That extra money will put the Knicks over the top to add either Chris Paul or Deron Williams after next season. As a knick fan you can't be any happier by all of this. To add to it, the New Orleans hornets are currently owned by the league office aka, the nba! They already sold the knicks the second round pick they wanted in the draft. I see that as a sign for things to come. That team is in danger of being moved to another city and they can't afford Chris Paul. They can't even afford David West that's why he opted out of his final year despite the lockout. The Hornets with no ownership or ties to the city would be more likely to trade Chris Paul.
Kick your feet up knicks fans. This is clearly our time to shine.... Its been a long time coming.
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