I dont want a 1999. I want a 1973

It's interesting how no one seems to rate Indiana highly, despite having finished w/ the best record in the NBA and very solid record against the west. On paper, they only have two good player (O'Neal & Artest)-- the rest of them are just journeymen. Their coach (Carlisle) certainly had them playing better than the sum of their parts in the regular season. I'm not sure how Stephen Jackson (instead of Al Harrington) will impact the team. Certainly it'll expedite the end of Reggie Miller as a regular in the rotation.

In all, I don't see them getting significantly worse next season. They should still battle for control in the central-- and 55-60 wins shouldn't be too out of the question.

Where do the Knicks stand?
Balance will need to be the key to this team. This Knicks team will likely sport around 6 double-figure scorers (Houston, Marbury, TT, Crawford, KT, Sweetney)-- if we didn't, I'd be disappointed.

Some estimates:
Marbury 18ppg
Crawford 14ppg
TT 13ppg
Houston 13ppg
Sweetney 10ppg
KT 10ppg

At these scoring levels, this would already account for 78ppg. Figure 7ppg from Baker, 6ppg from Nazr... and 5ppg from JYD/Shandon/Moochie. That leaves our scoring around 96ppg-- but you expect this team to get up and down the court a lot.

With Crawford & Marbury in the backcourt, I think TT will have a hard time getting the ball enough to put up the career numbers we'd like to see. He'll also get competition for the ball inside from Sweetney. I'd put money down that he breaks the 5.0 barrier in rebounds, but also believe he won't break 15ppg.

If Wilkens is the coach, I think we're looking at 42-47 wins, 4th-6th seed. If we can get a different coach (with the initials PJ), we're looking at a 47-53 win season, 3rd/4th seed.