According to these rankings, they have us as an 8th seed in the playoff's, trailing the Bobcats. I think we will definitely be in the mix for the final 2 spots but what concerns me is we are relying on potential being realized (Randolph, Gallo)and to a smaller extent, Felton, having a significant spike in his numbers and play now that he is in a system that he should thrive in.

I say we make the 7th or 8th seed. It's funny, the Eastern conference top 3-4 teams are head and shoulders above the average NBA team but there is a significant drop-off after those teams. The Knicks could reach as high as 6, but could also have a terrible year based on all the WHAT IF's (Amare gets re-injured, Gallo doesn't push himself, Walker plays like he did in the summer leagues, Chandler stays average, etc.)

nyk4ever wrote:how are the bobcats ahead of us when theyve lost felton and chandler?

Fox Sports missed the memo when they were busy trashing us. The main incompetence here is their rankings. On the plus side, when was the last time we even cracked the top 20? This is basically a hidden compliment. Small steps.

I would rather be an underdog anyway- makes it more fun to go back and read foolish prognostications after we do better than the "expert's" predictions.

There are lots of ifs, but if we have no injuries and Azubuike fully recovers at some point; if Gallo and AR take the next step in their evolution to becoming stars; if MDA can get the most Felton has to give as a PG,; if Douglas and Chandler continue to improve, and Amare embraces the Garden spotlight, this team is going to beat a good many of the teams we face and even those we lose to are going to face the realization that we have the capability of beating them.

sidsanders wrote:why should we even care what they say?

we shouldn't.

To me just think about what their trying to say. Last year the Bulls got to the 8th seed with 41 wins. I just don't think we'll be that bad this time. I think we solved some of the problems we had last year. No PG, No C, No shotblocking, Not enough 2 way players, not smart enough, not enough players who can play fast and smart as this system requires, not enough shooters. I think we'll have some improvement in all of those areas. We're not world beaters, but we should be a solid 5-7 seed, depending upon how things go. I don't think we're gonna be struggling to make it to 8.

We're stronger up the middle where teams need to be in order to be consistent. If Turiaf can get fully healthy and we can get something out of Timo off the bench, we should be able to match up with any team fairly well. The X factor this year is gonna be how much Gallo, AR and Chandler improve. Those guys could push us up or drag us down. We don't have that guy show we can just give the ball and get out of the way. Gallo and AR are the guys that have the best chance to be stars for us outside of Amare. I also think TD is gonna be a real spark off the bench.

Although I'm crap at predicting how good offseason move make teams (the ones I think did well always disappoint- like the Spurs and Toronto last year, and the ones I think did miserably seem to excel, like the Bucks last year), I thing the Bobcats made some really poor moves- maybe not so much if Livingston continues how he left off last year for the Wizards, but if anything happens to him they'll be in big trouble. Anyway, my winners and losers this year are (though if past experience is anything to go by, the opposite will be true!):

Winners:

Heat, obviously
Chicago- I like them adding Boozer and potentially 2 good shooters, though I think the loss of Heinrich to Lebron's ego games is going to be big
Mavs- I'd of liked us to take a chance on T Chandler- they didn't do anything major, but they kept Dirk which people were doubting a few weeks ago
Bucks- I like what they did, although they overpaid with Gooden
Kings- good draft, looking forward to seeing what they do
Knicks- I like what we did, we just need some good luck for a change- our chances are based on how our young players develop, if thy don't it's going to be a long, disappointing season.

Losers:

Nets- should have just kept the cap space, gotten a couple of good draft picks over the next 2 years and then started signing free agents when in Brooklyn
Hawks- JJ's contract was the biggest mistake this offseason and it gets worse every year he declines, they are screwed until it expires- thank you so much to the hawks for stopping us from signing him
Toronto- a mess
Cavs- nothing they could have done about it
Blazers- although they haven't done that much, you could tell as soon as Pritchard left- I don't know, they just seem a bit of a mess right now and need some trades to clarify things
Warriors- mess, bad draft, overpaid Lee and could have done much better trades
Suns- should have kept Amar'e, especially if they used pretty similar money on getting Turk (if you're worried aboyt Amar'e declining, why get a guy who is already 2 years into his decline and is still signed up for 3 or 4 more?), Warrick and Frye- it's all very well saying Nash will lift their games, but Nash is getting old and will dtart to decline long before these contracts are up.
Magic- just for signing Duhon as their main move- why do these writers always claim our players are pure crap (correct in Duhon's case), but as soon as they move to another team they are a good pick up?
Bobcats- Larry Brown traditionally needs someone to save him from himself when it comes to changing rosters- MJ is the opposite of that someone

Bonn1997 wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:We have suck for so long, that it's not just ESPN, and FOXSPORTS that pretty much bash's us, walk down the street in any other city and talk to a basketball fan and see what thet say about the knicks. Believe you me I travel a lot, and when ever i bring up the knicks, trust me, we gets no respect.

Yeah, every offseason for the past 8 or 10 years when these predictions come out, people here talk about how biased against the Knicks ESPN, Fox, and other media sources are and are convinced we're gonna prove them wrong. The ESPN season predictions for the Knicks have consistently been much more accurate than UK posters though.

Yea it seems every year we go through the same thing. ESPN, Foxsports rates the Knicks low fans get upset and claim bias. But at the end of the season it's the same results with very little deviation. It's pretty simple start performing in a way that garners respect and you'll receive it. Continue to perform as a inferior team you'll get no respect from the media.