ive been following the knicks for the last few seasons, almost as much as the lakers in fact, and to see them become a team this season rather than a group of individuals was pretty cool. this organization has been without success and good luck for too long and bringing in amare and felton into the starting line-up really clicked, those guys had a raport, they had a good way of playing off each other.
sure billups is good, but felton was playing so well this season, he was a big reason why the team was going okay.
anyway, its obvious that the knicks arent fooling themselves thinking they'll be a contender straight away. they still have a few peices to add, like the ones they gave up in this melo dea. but billups, fields, melo, amare and turiaf will be good until the end of the season, they'll probably make the playoffs and have a decent run. i dont see them commiting to billups as a starting 5 player for too long, i think its almost a given that chris paul or deron williams will be a member of this team in 2012. sheldon williams, balkman, and brewer provide some good energy, steady rebounding and big bodies to bang around, but they still need to add one or two key players who are good defenders. when your two best palyers are both sub-par defenders, you know that defense should be a top priority in terms of additions to the team. im not sure if im correct, but i think billups is a good defender, this will probably help melo, stoudamire and turiaf at handling players driving through to the basket.
what im really interested in seeing is the relationship between melo, stoudamire and D'Antoni. they have the potential, with the additions of a few key role players, to build a team to seriously contend againt miami, orlando and chicago (boston will be out of the picture in 1 to 3 seasons).