dk7th wrote:

nixluva wrote:

gunsnewing wrote:No one was referring to Kidd Wallace Camby and prigs as AARP squad early in the year. Common thought was that their veteran presence would be huge in the playoffs unfortunately they never made it there fresh and healthy. KG and Pierce did and almost beat us WITHOUT Rondo. They won't be counted on as heavily as they were with Boston. Brooklyn has a young core in place. We got a mediocre core and Amare. We don't have KG AND Pierce's championship pedigree

Oh wait we have Tyson Mr. No Show in the playoffs

Be careful. cuz the old adage is that athletes often get old all of a sudden and not slowly. Players can look fine and then just one day they don't have it. That's what happened to Kidd for sure. Pierce already showed in the playoffs that he had finally reached his limit. Who knows if maybe KG might hit that wall this year. Its a long way from training camp to the ECF's.

What's so young and so core about the Nets? You ain't winning Jack SHHH with D Will and Lopez. JJ is old already and you can't say for sure what you'll get out of PP, KG and Jet. Don't go counting them as definite positives at playoff time. The Knicks are stronger than they were last year. They may not be perfect but the Knicks are going to be really good.

losing rondo put too much of a burden on pierce to run the offense and he did look exhausted no doubt. but if properly utilized pierce is the ideal player to extend his career because he has an old man's game. kidd and pierce and garnett probably are on the same page that they don't want to play more than 24-28 minutes a game. that's why picking up kirilenko was so important for them. nets are deep and their collective bbiq just shot up with the acquisition of pierce and garnett. kirilenko is pretty savvy too. and this kid teletovic has a pretty good ceiling, come to think of it.

brooklyn has a very intriguing team but much relies on pierce and garnett's health. if they remain healthy i predict the nets will be the better team this coming season than the knicks.

the main issue with the knicks, outside of questionable defense, remains chemistry and a balanced offense. they just don't have the components to make it work and you can't use hopefulness as a substitute for a pragmatic view.

that's just my take for what it's worth... i may be wrong but i doubt it.

We have yet to see if the Nets even with KG and AK47 will be a good defensive team. As for chemistry, why should the Knicks have chemistry issues? They didn't have any issues last year until players broke down. The Nets are gonna be tough and battle between the 2 teams for the Atlantic Division will be epic. There are more questions on the Nets side than the Knicks. This Knicks team has already proven they can play well and win 54 games. This Nets teams is unproven. We don't know about Kidd or how the Nets will come together as a team.

gunsnewing wrote:Dwill Lopez and Johnson are very good. They won 49 games we won 54. We weren't that much better. Nyets lacked leadership and toughness. They have that now in KG AND Pierce. Those guys are not coming out of retirement like Wallace and injury prone like Camby and 40 like Kidd. They are in their mid 30s and minutes will be kept under 30 unlike last yr.

IMO nothing you wrote is very inspiring. KG and PP are OK at this point in their careers, but they no longer dominate and as such they will help but how much? Who can know with these guys. They are OLD and that was what we learned last year about our old guys. It's true that KG and PP have been more effective than the old guys we had, so they should be able to do something, but just how much can they give the Nets? Can they give the Nets what they need over the course of 82 games in a MUCH TOUGHER EAST? If you have to watch these guys minutes how will that effect the team overall?

martin wrote:

gunsnewing wrote:No one was referring to Kidd Wallace Camby and prigs as AARP squad early in the year. Common thought was that their veteran presence would be huge in the playoffs unfortunately they never made it there fresh and healthy. KG and Pierce did and almost beat us WITHOUT Rondo. They won't be counted on as heavily as they were with Boston. Brooklyn has a young core in place. We got a mediocre core and Amare. We don't have KG AND Pierce's championship pedigree

Oh wait we have Tyson Mr. No Show in the playoffs

Boston almost beat us kinda like the Knicks almost beat Indiana?

I think Knicks lose had Rondo played

gunsnewing wrote:

martin wrote:

gunsnewing wrote:No one was referring to Kidd Wallace Camby and prigs as AARP squad early in the year. Common thought was that their veteran presence would be huge in the playoffs unfortunately they never made it there fresh and healthy. KG and Pierce did and almost beat us WITHOUT Rondo. They won't be counted on as heavily as they were with Boston. Brooklyn has a young core in place. We got a mediocre core and Amare. We don't have KG AND Pierce's championship pedigree

Oh wait we have Tyson Mr. No Show in the playoffs

Boston almost beat us kinda like the Knicks almost beat Indiana?

I think Knicks lose had Rondo played

Nope! Iman Shumpert would have shut him down.

- ok, I see your Granger and raise you Wallace.

- well Wallace was old so no dice

- that's not fair

-

yellowboy90 wrote:- I see you're Amar'e and raise you Granger

- ok, I see your Granger and raise you Wallace.

- well Wallace was old so no dice

- that's not fair

-

well, you can argue that melo, jr and chandler were playing injured too. if they were healthy, the series would have been different.

dk7th wrote:

nixluva wrote:

gunsnewing wrote:Dwill Lopez and Johnson are very good. They won 49 games we won 54. We weren't that much better. Nyets lacked leadership and toughness. They have that now in KG AND Pierce. Those guys are not coming out of retirement like Wallace and injury prone like Camby and 40 like Kidd. They are in their mid 30s and minutes will be kept under 30 unlike last yr.

IMO nothing you wrote is very inspiring. KG and PP are OK at this point in their careers, but they no longer dominate and as such they will help but how much? Who can know with these guys. They are OLD and that was what we learned last year about our old guys. It's true that KG and PP have been more effective than the old guys we had, so they should be able to do something, but just how much can they give the Nets? Can they give the Nets what they need over the course of 82 games in a MUCH TOUGHER EAST? If you have to watch these guys minutes how will that effect the team overall?

depth is a luxury in a bloated and diluted league. somehow the nets have acquired depth which, if properly utilized, preserves the legs of veterans. the celtics were running on fumes last season against the knicks yet still made it interesting. i think kidd will be a very good rookie coach and he and frank will find a way to best distribute minutes.

it's also about how smartly the players themselves use their skills to offset energy expended. what i don't like about the knicks is that they have players who often don't demonstrate efficiently expended energy for maximum results. this is where good team defense where everyone can pull his own weight becomes paramount. the knicks have not shown that capacity and it hurt. maybe artest is a catalyst here at least i hope he is. i have to think that he will see a lot of time on the floor with shumpert and chandler. but this switching thing is not a good strategy. if you can't keep your man in front of you then what are you doing playing basketball?

the nets? we don't know for sure but any team with garnett and kirilenko and yes paul pierce will be a pretty good defensive team at the very least. reggie evans is also not too shabby.

i think garnett and pierce are more than okay. it's not 2008 but they are incredibly smart players.

KG and pierce as role players to the Nets core is an interesting phenom.

The real season will be the second part of the season as JR won't be ready and I suspect Bargs has fallen behind with his illness. Metta has to adjust to the floride in the Water and Stat I suspect will be on a 20 min clock.

If Nets are healthy they can jump out to a nice lead in the division and then manage the minutes thru the roster.

Thus, I think the Knicks winning the Atlantic will have to be a later season surge but it has been stated that KNicks might sacrifice some wins to be fresh for the playoffs. IN the Melo Era this has yet to be something we have been able to do.