I think people are getting a bit carried away with their views of both teams. The Knicks arent good enuff to start making bold predictions on who they will or wont sweep during the regular season before the season begans. You cant even honestly make a bold statement like saying the Knicks will sweep the season series vs the Bobcats, why because the NBA season is way to long to make those type of predictions before the season starts. We arent talking about a matter of 4-7 game playoff series played over a week or 2. The 4 meetings between the Nets/Knicks is spread out over 5 months, which means that the same teams that face each other in the 1st match in December will be totally different mentaly/and possibly player wise from the teams that face each other in their last matchup in April. Thats just the nature of the NBA, so to make season sweep or even have a true assetment of all 4 matchups is impossible.
Teams go thru so much up & downs suring the course of 82 games, you cant predict wins week to week, yet alone call a season series. So yes the Knicks look to have an edge on the Nets in certain aspects on paper. But the difference in talent far enuff to make season sweep statements. And games arent won on paper in sports especially not the NBA, if they were the Hawks wouldnt have record victories against just about every top team in the league last year.
So lets talk more about how each will stack up in the Alantic division race more than who will win indiviual games vs the other because how each stack up in the division is truely the only legit vision on has the potenial of predicting. And my view is that both of these teams will most definately be in the hunt for the division title. The Alantic Division doesnt have any teams good enuff to run away with the crown, which means the team closet or right above .500 will probably walk away with the division title.
While the Knicks have the potenial to be very talented on the perimeter positions at the PG,SG and Small Forward, they also have the potenial to have a logjam at those 3 postions which could lead to some chemistry problems. The Knicks have 8 players, some of who are making well into the millions, who will all be looking to play signifant minutes between those 3 perimeter positions. So the Knicks are going to find away to distribute the minutes in away to keep alot of ego's in check. Which will be hard to do with guys who are use to playing major minutes like Tim Thomas, Allan Houston, Penny Hardaway, and even a guy like Shandon Anderson. So thats one question mark for the Knicks right off the bat, minute distribution along the perimeter.
Another question clearly has to be the stableness of the Knicks at the 4 & 5 spots. While the Knicks add Crawford to the backcourt they still did not address their major problem, which is their frontcourt. Once again the Knicks look like they will be going into the season with Kurt Thomas as their most reliable bigman. Now I got alot of respect for the effort Kurt Thomas has given the Knicks over the past 6 years. And I think sometimes we in the New York era take his hustle and effort for granted sometimes, with the amount of respect we show him. But its clear as day he isnt enuff along the frontline to put the Knicks back amongst the league's better teams. The Knicks needed to do one of two things this off-season, either add some reliable depth alongside Kurt Thomas or use Kurt Thomas in a trade to up grade the power forward or Center spot, the Knicks did neither of the two. Instead, they re-sign Vin Baker at a bit to much imo.
So the Knicks are going into the season with a frontline thats a question mark. I mean yes, the expectations are high for Mike Sweetny. But true be told this is really his rookie year after not finding away off the bench last year until the playoffs, really. So to expect anything overally special from him this year is asking a bit much from Sweet. I am expecting him to have a fare share of up & downs, good and bad stretches all season long as I would any rookie. Consistency will clearly be up & down for Mike this season.
Vin Baker is always a question mark because of his off-court situation. He is liable to fall of the edge at anytime in his off-court battle. Everything seem just fine last year Boston for Baker, until one day you turn on the TV and here VB getting suspended from the Celtics indefinately. And thats how it is when battling the off court demons that he is trying to battle. So to count on Baker for an entire season is wishful thinking. And after those to the 4-5 spot probably becomes even more shakey with the exception of Jerome Williams, who we know will bring some scappiness and rebounding when he is in the game playing some at the 4. But Nazr Mohommad, Bruno Sundov(if he even makes it past traing camp) etc. their isnt much there for the Knicks at the bigman spots once you get past Kurt Thomas, as far as reliablty is concerned.
The Nets have plenty of question marks that we all know about the loss of Martin at the 4, Kidd's knee, Ron Mercer replacing Kerry Kittles, what Zo is able to bring to the table? but one thing people for get to take into account is the exprience this team as together in adverse situations.
The Nets still have more than half their active roster from runs thru the playoffs these last three 3 seasons. They have the exprience of winning games that they have too. Look at the Nets record against the Alantic Division last year, even when they struggled early they made sure to win the important games in the division. And thats due to the exprience, they still have a large part of that expreince still on their roster and they have add on to that will leaders like Eric Williams and the return of Zo. So the experience factor alone is going to allow the Nets to win alot more games then people expect.
So like I said with their current rosters neither team is good enuff to runaway with the division(no one in the division is) but they both have factors that will keep them in the race but major question marks that may cost them in the end. The Alantic Division is wide open, something that you really couldnt say for the large part of the Nets 3-time division rain.
