My thoughts on your points Sir:

1. Our cap situation is depressing for the next 3 years, with money tied up to only 2 solid players (Melo & TC) and the rest tied to mediocre players and old/past their prime players with little room for internal improvement (Shump is our only hope).

2. I agree on Grunwald, but he’s not the problem. Dolan is.

3. We have 2 legit all-star caliber players. STAT is a shell of his former self and does not have a very good PG and/or the offense all to himself to make him all-star caliber anymore.

4. We do have depth but its really old.

5. I think Melo will do his thing. I highly doubt Amare and Felton shut up anybody, particularly Felton.

6. But is that coach the best we can do? I can name 3 coaches on the open market I would rather have than him (SVG, Sloan & McMillan).

7. Completely agree. I would go further and advocate that Kidd be the starter over Felton, so that he can assert that leadership from the opening tip with Melo, STAT and TC on the floor.

8. Ok, I buy that.

9. We have 3 PGs that can’t attack the paint, are average shots from outside (which means they can’t effectively stretch the floor) and I only trust Kidd when it comes to critical decision-making.

10. I agree. Defense will definitely be our calling card.

I’m glad you agree that #4 is whats realistic for us, instead of some who wildly think we are #2 in this conference.

Here are my 10 biggest reasons for optimism:
1. We are not capped out for the forseeable future…if the Amare-Melo-Chandler thing doesn’t work out, there is major cap relief in 2-3 years.
2. Grunwald is our second at least “competent” and ad best “damn good” GM in a row, and looks to be here for a while.
3. We have 3 legit all-star caliber players in our starting lineup.
4. We are at least 2 deep at every position with established NBA rotation players (unless Thomas, Kidd and/or Camby all hit the age wall hard):
PG: Felton, Kidd (Maybe Prigioni?)
SG: JR, Brewer/Shump
SF: Melo, Novak
PF: Amare, Thomas
C: Tyson, Camby
5. Amare, Melo, Felton and several others are at a critical career crossroads and will be trying to shut a lot of mouths.
6. We have a coach who seems flexible to the roster, has his player’s respect, and a defensive mentality.
7. We have veteran leadership, including 2 guys who recently were critical players on a championship team.
8. We have guys that have recently played together: Amare-Felton, Kidd-Chandler, Melo-JR-Camby
9. We have 3 PGs that can run an offense, play respectable D, have years of high-level experience, and will take some of the critical decision-making out of less capable hands.
10. We have a number of really good defenders and the reigning and former DPOYs protecting the rim.

For the short term, #4 is a huge difference from previous years, especially last year. Let’s remember that the following guys who played big minutes: TD, Fields, Bibby, Jorts, Jeffries, and Baron all were replaced with much, much better players, and that Lin was replaced with a player who “might” (and I think he will) be better than him this year.

I completely agree with the conspiracy theory. Ruru sometimes sounds like he has not been a fan of the Knicks for a long time. Anybody who has been rooting for this team knows to temper their expectations because they almost always disappoint (except for 1999 when the far exceeded expectations).

Ruru,

You said our 36 wins in 66 games comes out to 51 wins in an 82 game schedule? What formula are you using? 36 wins in 66 games equates to a 0.545 winning percentage. In an 82 game schedule, to achieve that exact winning percentage, you would have to win 45 games. So where are you getting 51 wins from?

Robtachi: C’mon, Melo’s/CAA’s perpetual PR machine has much better and more fruitful avenues to pursue than a stathead internet fan blog.

I’m all for conspiracy theories, jon, but you’re venturing a little too close to that aluminum foil helmet

I didn’t say he was their only employee, this isn’t the only place he posts like this (which he’s talked about, I haven’t really checked), and you’ll note he didn’t deny it. we had this discussion last season and semi-resolved it then with him admitting a connection that he wouldn’t talk about the specifics of. the CAA element is a new one that I’m introducing, though.

anyway, I like ruru and respect his input in general, but the endless flow of positive spin makes me feel like I’m listening to a Kremlin spokesman circa 1980. it’s a bit much sometimes is my point. :)

er:
in the lakers 4-1 loss to okc they lost 2 of the 4 games by 3 or less and everyone says they got destroyed in the series so point diff isnt that big a deal in terms of the perception of the outcome in a series

That just means the media doesn’t really know what it’s talking about. I actually saw someone that said the OKC-Miami series wasn’t close, and they had 3 consecutive games where OKC was within 1 possession, WITH the ball, in the last minute of the game. The Lakers were also a lot closer to OKC than anyone gave them credit for, they happened to blow a game or 2 in the last few minutes or it might have gotten really interesting. They also just added the center in the league for guarding teams like OKC and Miami, while fixing a lot of their 3 point shooting and ball handling issues with Nash. They also have some solid depth now (Blake-Meeks-Jamison-Hill isn’t too shabby, especially if Jordan Hill plays like he did in the Nuggets series)

thenamestsam: Sure, this is all true and we’ve been through it ad nauseum. I was responding to the idea that the fact that OKC lost once and we lost once means anything. They blew us out. Mitigating circumstances sure, but we don’t need to pretend it wasn’t a blowout. As I’ve said, I think we match up with them as well as anyone in the east, but how we played this past year certainly doesn’t show it.

ruruland: In that series the Knicks had no point guard capable of playing pick and roll, shooting, or getting the basketball inside the 3pt line.

That allowed the Heat to basically suffocate the offense and force Amar’e and Melo’s touches into20+ feet territory. It also allowed their defense to overhelp on all the Knicks shooting threats.

Thirdly, the destitute pg issues forced JR Smith onto the ball, taking away his spot-up game and putting him into create/forced-shot situations.

———Davis in his prime was a mediocre at best pnr player, but prior to his knee popping out, he was playing through injury and really didn’t even resemble the player he was in Cleveland—–

On top of that, Chandler was a shell of himself with the flu, Amar’e missed a game and a half basically, and Shumpert played one half of basketball.

Felton’s ability to beat ball pressure means the Knicks will be able to involve Amar’e and Chandler much more, and its shooters will get more opportunities. It will also relieve some of the pressure on Melo to create.

The pg domino effect really made the entire difference offensively. Adding Camby, a healthy Chandler, Shumpert, Brewer, Kidd and Felton is going to make a big difference defensively in the playoffs against that team.

Sure, this is all true and we’ve been through it ad nauseum. I was responding to the idea that the fact that OKC lost once and we lost once means anything. They blew us out. Mitigating circumstances sure, but we don’t need to pretend it wasn’t a blowout. As I’ve said, I think we match up with them as well as anyone in the east, but how we played this past year certainly doesn’t show it.