Knicks and Nets: What is next?
By A. Mazzolini
As the NBA All-Star breaks comes and goes for the two teams in the metro area, the Knicks and the Nets, it’s time to once again focus on the regular season. For one, the
franchise, there is reason to think that they can see more game than just the shortened regular season. While for the other, the
squad, the only thing they can hope for is to land big man Dwight Howard and make a splash coming back to the Empire State next season. In this shortened season the storylines have been many, unfortunately not all great, and if I had to guess that trend won’t change much from here until both squads head to the off-season.
For the Nets, who right now are 10 and 25, last in the Atlantic, 10.5 games behind division leading Philadelphia and 6.5 games behind the last playoff spot in the East, the thought they can come back and be part of the mix is pretty much over and done. For this franchise their moral victory for the season will come if they can land Howard and keep Deron Williams. If they can’t not only will they have had another lousy season, having missed the playoffs the last four seasons and not having had an above .500 regular season record in six, but they might head to their new home in Brooklyn without a star on their roster. That would not bode well for either their win/loss percentage or their ticket sales. How bad this team has been playing in the past years has made many forget than in this century the Nets were twice in the NBA Finals. Sadly, if they keep this up they might not get back there until the next one.
However, for as bad as the Jersey team is, they might have less problems than New York one, who has the talent, but needs to gel quickly. However, like it or not, with all the players that are coming back into the swing of things it’s going to take a while for this team to get comfortable with one another and begin to play as a unit and not five individuals. All of this while trying to see if Jeremy Lin is the one that we all watched keep the Knicks afloat, if not more, while Amar`e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony were gone, or if he is the point guard that could not bring up the ball against the Miami Heat. In the city that never sleeps both the highs and the lows are the steepest of any sport city, and as Frank Sinatra sang, if you can make it here you can make it anywhere, he forget to add you can also crumble here like nowhere else in the chorus of his very famous song. Right now the Knicks are in second place in the Atlantic, 3.5 behind the Sixers, while in seventh place for the PO, just a half game ahead of the last team, the Celtics, and two games in front of the last team out of the race, the Cavaliers. Whether they stay there, move up or down is all going to depend on how this team becomes in the next weeks.
Last week on Mike & Mike in the morning an NBA analyst put the New York Knicks (as well as the Boston Celtics) as two of his last four teams in the East once the first round of playoffs are over. If Dwight Howard is moved I can see the Orlando Magic sliding, but that still just gives one of these two teams being able to avoid either Miami or Chicago in the first round. But, here is my question for all of you…
Which is worst: The Nets heading to their new arena without a top notch superstar to trademark or the New York Knicks having all of this talent and might not go past the first round of the playoffs?