Last season we had the 22 games below decided by 6 points or less :

Wed 3 @ Minnesota L 93 - 99 6
Sat 13 @ Indiana L 97 - 103 6
Fri 19 @ Dallas L 101 - 103 2
Fri 3 Orlando L 98 - 104 6
Sat 4 @ Charlotte L 101 - 107 6
Fri 10 @ Washington L 104 - 106 2
Wed 15 Detroit L 93 - 94 1
Wed 22 @ Boston L 109 - 114 5
Sat 1 New Jersey L 87 - 93 6
Tue 11 New Orleans L 82 - 88 6
Sat 15 @ Chicago L 84 - 86 2
Mon 17 Chicago L 86 - 88 2
Fri 21 Houston L 91 - 92 1
Sun 23 Milwaukee L 96 - 101 5
Fri 4 @ Sacramento L 115 - 116 1
Wed 9 Miami L 110 - 116 OT 6
Mon 14 @ Philadelphia L 105 - 106 1
Tue 15 Miami L 96 - 98 2
Fri 1 New Jersey L 91 - 93 2
Sun 3 @ Milwaukee L 102 - 106 4
Sun 17 Atlanta L 135 - 139 OT 4
Tue 19 @ Chicago L 91 - 92 1


Please take into account that we lost 49 games, which means that nearly 50% of our games were decided by 6 points or less.

What would in your opinion be the impact of LB on that ?

how many did the Knicks WIN by 6 or less?

With Larry on board, we'll be slightly better than .500. That's good enough to make the playoffs, but unfortunately, NOT good enough to get past the 1st round. We'd be sneaking in against the 1st or 2nd seed, and that's a quick 4 and out if you ask me...

Posted by Knight:

The good news is that this year every game will be exciting to watch.

That means nothing when your real goal is not just to make the playoffs like we did in 03, but to actually WIN games.

Sweetney is Sweetney. He's not gonna give you 20 and 10 all of a freakin sudden. He'll gradually improve year by year, but never more than a hard worker that puts up sold bench numbers.

We need someone. Anyone. Any star quality player that can play nice alongside Steph. We don't need another Kobe-Shaq relationship. Someone that can be Batman to Steph's Batman. No Robins allowed...

Posted by bobs3304:

Posted by Knight:

The good news is that this year every game will be exciting to watch.

That means nothing when your real goal is not just to make the playoffs like we did in 03, but to actually WIN games.

Sweetney is Sweetney. He's not gonna give you 20 and 10 all of a freakin sudden. He'll gradually improve year by year, but never more than a hard worker that puts up sold bench numbers.

We need someone. Anyone. Any star quality player that can play nice alongside Steph. We don't need another Kobe-Shaq relationship. Someone that can be Batman to Steph's Batman. No Robins allowed...

man you just gotta wonder what woulda happened in minny if Starbury had been given enough money to afford earmuffs . . .

Shorterm - yes, exciting games are great.

Longterm - no, they don't mean ****. b/c in the end, all that matters is making the playoffs. if we make a playoff push, the excitement will come solely from that, no matter how the games are played

Posted by bobs3304:

Shorterm - yes, exciting games are great.

Longterm - no, they don't mean ****. b/c in the end, all that matters is making the playoffs. if we make a playoff push, the excitement will come solely from that, no matter how the games are played

Agreed. There's nothing more exciting than playoff games where every game matters and a win is a win no matter how you get it.

[Edited by - Knight on 07/22/2005 11:44:13]

Posted by bobs3304:

With Larry on board, we'll be slightly better than .500. That's good enough to make the playoffs, but unfortunately, NOT good enough to get past the 1st round. We'd be sneaking in against the 1st or 2nd seed, and that's a quick 4 and out if you ask me...

Well, lets not get ahead of things. Making the playoffs would be great for this team, no matter if we can't move on, because being a young team, it would be the first step every team takes to being contenders. And we don't know how our rookies will work out and we'll see how many trades we are able to do both now and in the deadline. We could be better than we hope, especially with Larry...

Posted by Nalod:

Posted by Knight:

Sports is entertainment too, I can appreciate a good game and good players no matter what the outcome is--I expect to see alot of good basketball next year regardless of how the chips fall.

Good point! This team needs to mark improvement with player developement and just make the playoffs for me to be satisfied! If I see Rose, Mo T. TT, and JYD getting big minutes and we win, im not gonna be cool! by that, I want the ceiling to raise!

[Edited by - nalod on 07/22/2005 11:54:08]

Same here, Nalod

I think larry get's us half of those wins.

Which is an 11 game swing.

which is in the neighborhood of 43 wins.

Which will be the knicks exact win total next year.

Funny, you say MIGHT be clearly better, then you say we only have a shot at spots 6 - 8.

Either, put NJ and Cleveland in the clearly better category
OR
Say we have a shot at spots 3 - 8.

We beat NJ (which MIGHT be clearly better) for the division, that gives us the 3rd spot.

So, we have a shot at spots 3 - 8, which gives us a shot at making it to the second round.

if you don't think NJ is clearly better than us, then the 3rd sport is MAYBE ours.


[Edited by - rvhoss on 07/22/2005 14:09:00]