But John Hollinger (Insider), in a discussion of the whole league (which includes noteworthy mocking of Wolves GM David Kahn), says to expect things to cool off a bit over the remainder of the season for the Knicks:
At 19-14 so far, the Bockers project to go just a game over .500 the rest of the way, largely because the schedule gets more difficult. New York has played the league's fourth-easiest schedule thus far, but that changes starting now. The Knicks' next five games in particular -- home versus San Antonio, at Phoenix, at Lakers, at Portland, at Utah -- make it likely they'll be dancing within a game or two of .500 for most of the season before an April stretch of patsies lets them close on a high note.

Additionally, I would submit the Knicks aren't as good as their current record for another reason -- they've outscored the opposition by only 0.9 points per game, which normally would leave a team just a game or so above .500 at this point in the season.

Margin of victory, it's worth noting, has the track record of being a better predictor of future success than won-loss record ... so ignore it at your peril.
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/23575/john-hollinger-predicts-knick-mediocrity

LOL first of all how is this mediocre? the most optimistic of predictions this year had us between 42-45, with 45 being the high mark. i think 99% of knicks fans would take 44 wins heading into this season.

i would also assume that the knicks will make a deadline move to shore up the bench. you can't really get any less production than they have so far, and gallinari going down only expedites playing the guys we currently have. if knicks finish with 44-48 wins i'll be ecstatic.

hollinger sucks.

that margin of victory thing is actually legit. it could be off because we have a guy (Amare) who is unusually clutch down the stretch which leads to us winning a higher %age of close games than normal.

MS wrote:Again it's a very reasonable assessment of where the team is. Everyone gets so upset but the obvious is that we have played well, we are very thin with no depth and our schedule has been very easy. Quality wins on the season fellas how many do we have? NO, OKC, The Bulls twice. You play your schedule and injuries happen.

Here is the thing. We haven't been over .500 in 7 years or so everyone gets so made when someone talks about our team. Once we start beating good teams regularly then maybe some of the critics are being a little unfair. Chances are we are going to have a rough road trip without Gallo. Hopefully not, but until we add depth and balance out the roster we at best a 44 win team.

What i take umbrage with is that Hollinger is calling 6 games over 500 "mediocre." (And actually that was Abbott of True Hoop, not Hollinger saying that). Whatever. Like i said before, i'll take 44 wins this year. there is nothing mediocre in my mind about that. Give me a 6 seed.

MS, not for nothing but we are 2-0 against the Bulls this yr. True, we haven't played them with both Noah and Boozer, but a potential (and likely) first round opponent 2x is strong.

Four quality wins and its only January 4! I will take that. GO KNICKS

markvmc wrote:Mediocrity is neither good nor bad, it's just OK. 6th seed in the play offs, out of 15 teams is exactly that. Better than we've seen for a while, and with the promise of better to come given our cap situation, but mediocre nonetheless.

i've watched every game except the Pacers game....and for the most part, excepting the early losing streak against teams we should have beaten while MDA was messing with the line up and rotations and Felton was still trying develop some chemistry with Stat and others, i don't see a mediocre team. How that translates into wins and seeds i guess is a numbers game. If he wants to label 43-45 wins mediocre...it is gonna upset me cuz i see alot of gritty fight for every win.

So we're basically locked in there no matter what Hollinger thinks.

We have the distinct advantage with a big working between us and Indiana that we can form the team based on matching up with Orlando or Chicago over the next three months.

PWNED