Only 5 teams in Western Conference now above .500 . . . while Eastern Conference has 10 teams.

Just the opposite of recent years.

At start of this season I was assuming a playoff spot for Knicks if they managed .500.

But Orlando and Detroit have upped their games and Indiana is back to what they were.

So now it looks like Knicks need to beat out 3 of these decent teams: Hawks, Celtics, Pistons, Magic.

It's going to be real tough to do . . .

It was bound to happen eventually with all the draft picks coming into the Eastern conference. I think more East teams are embracing analytics now, too.

Knicks have a lot of teams ahead of them, but with the parity of the records they are only four games out of second place in the conference.

I think they can move up the standings. For instance, I think they're definitely a better team than the Hornets. I'm curious to see how they stack up against Boston, Detroit, Atlanta (they played them very early on before KP emerged and before Afflalo was playing), etc.

One scary thing about the East is that two teams behind us - Milwaukee and Washington - have a ton of young talent and could improve very quickly with the right moves. Milwaukee in particular I think can be very good.

The East is really tough for sure. I do think the Knicks have a competitive team when they actually have things working in sync. Fish handling the rotation right and our guys playing unselfishly. Still they are not a smooth offensive team and against better defensive teams they struggle. Little by little I think this team is making improvement and eventually it will kick in and they will maximize the talent they actually have.

Melo, Afflalo, KP, LT and Gallo in particular are pretty clear on their roles. DWill and KOQ are coming around as well. The defense should keep us in any game for the most part.