No thanks, I'll wait for an offseason.

I need to see the roster before I make that prediction. Let's say Isiah takes a step back and trades a couple vets for a guy with huge potential that isn't ready to produce yet. A move like that may hurt us in the short run and hold us back for a season but raise our long-term potential. You never know how the offseason will shake out.

Now if you say we went in with the exact same roster. I would say you have to weigh the improvement of guys like EC and Lee and Balkman and Collins. Against injuries that will definitely happen. The aging of Stephon(good chance he will be out a portion with various injuries next year because his body is breaking down). Better chemistry than what I predicted this year and I'd go about 5 wins above what I predicted this year. I was 35-38 this year. My early prediction not having seen any offseason stuff would be 40-43. Underachieving around 37. Overachieving would be 46 and above in my view.

45 is realistic, but like Bippity10 said, it depends on if Balkman, Collins, Lee, and Curry can make significant improvements in the weaknesses of their games. Additionally, we need Q to get back to about 95% and play in 65+ games and we need Crawford to improve his shot selection. And the biggest thing we need to do is cut down on turnovers. If those things happen, we should be able to get to 45 wins.

[Edited by - thegame on 04-09-2007 11:13 AM]

Nixluva you have to get over the injury thing. Injuries need to be factored into all predictions. Looking ahead to next year you cannot guarantee that an aging Marbs and a back surgery victim are going to be healthy all year long. Plus this year has proven that injuries can happen to the young and warriored as well. That's why when most of us made predictions in the offseason we mentioned things like injuries and chemistry as the reason for our predictions all the while being called haters.

We will have injuries next year(not as devestating but they will happen). We will recover from them better next year than this year. We will make better effort instead of making excuses and that's why I'm predicted a 7-10 game upswing from where we will end up this year. Predicting higher based on this roster is similar to what those that predicted 46 wins during last seasons offseason did. You can't expect everything to work out and go smoothly because they won't.

Posted by nixluva:

Posted by Bippity10:

Nixluva you have to get over the injury thing. Injuries need to be factored into all predictions. Looking ahead to next year you cannot guarantee that an aging Marbs and a back surgery victim are going to be healthy all year long. Plus this year has proven that injuries can happen to the young and warriored as well. That's why when most of us made predictions in the offseason we mentioned things like injuries and chemistry as the reason for our predictions all the while being called haters.

We will have injuries next year(not as devestating but they will happen). We will recover from them better next year than this year. We will make better effort instead of making excuses and that's why I'm predicted a 7-10 game upswing from where we will end up this year. Predicting higher based on this roster is similar to what those that predicted 46 wins during last seasons offseason did. You can't expect everything to work out and go smoothly because they won't.

I'm not saying that we can go thru the entire season 100% healthy. I'm just saying that THIS LEVEL of injuries should NEVER be expected. It's outside of the norm. If this happened to every team every year then we wouldn't have any repeat champs. Relative health is a big part of the equation. I'm sorry that I haven't been sticking the word RELATIVELY heatlhy in my posts, but I thought that would be understood. I'm not an idiot and I expected that most would understand what i'm saying without being so specific.

I guess I'm just confused because when I mentioned the possibility of injuries to Q and Marbs and Curry and Francis/Marbs led chemistry issues(all of which happened except for Curry injuries) during the preseason you called my posts anger filled, pessimistic and haterish. I'm assuming you now understand what I was getting at in the preseason and maybe I'm not such a hater, but just realistic. The same questions face us currently that faced us during the preseason. Not if negative things will happen to us but how will our players handle it. Having 5 guards taht all do the same thing and demand playing time does more to affect chemistry than it does to add depth. Hopefully this year illustrated this and we will start to trim the fat and balance the team(another thing I mentioned during pre-season was cursed for and is now the board mantra). On that day you will see a 10-15 game improvement and will see the optimism soar on this site, and predictions go through the roof. Not before. Until then 40-43 wins. Overachieving at 46 and underachieving at 37.

Last year Frye missed the last month of the season, Marbury missed a quarter of the season and Q had the same bad back that kept him out of almost as many games as he's missing this season.

Posted by nixluva:

I think that healthy this team wasn't that far off from that already. Giving them a likely better start to the year next year, i'd say that they can win that many games. The problem is that Isiah is VERY likely to make some changes and we don't know how that will effect the roster. So it is very early to say.

LMAO At full strength they were on pace to win 37-38gms. Actaully the question should read......



Will the Knicks win 45gms next yr if the CRAPLANTIC DIVISION repeats it's ineptitude, Kobe gets suspended when the Knicks play them, Paul Gasol get injured when they play the Grizzlies both times and the rest of the league suffers key injuries to big time players early etc etc while the Knicks, (cross your fingers) remain healthy.

Even if the above happens the answer is an EMPHATIC NO WAY JOSE!

[Edited by - TrueBlue on 04-09-2007 1:21 PM]

I will have serious opinion (not sarcastic remarks as usual) when this team will establish the style and identity and when the team management will show clear direction and desire to pursue greatness.
You cannot predict what erratic person will do and how he will be doing tomorrow. The same is true about Knicks of now.

If the Knicks come back with the same team next year it'll be fiction. If they get rid of Marbury, Francis and Crawford and get a decent pass-first point guard they'll have a shot at 45 wins.