coolhandluke121 wrote:paul wrote:New York really, really aren't the second best team in the East. Not imo anyway. It's a tougher stretch of games for sure.
I'm torn on them. I really do think guys like Kidd and Wallace are way underrated at this point in their careers. On a team that just needed veterans to be good "glue guys" I think they are going to continue to make a bigger difference for them than the box score might indicate. I always love when great players find ways to continue to help their teams win even when they're WAY past their prime. And Chandler needs to get a little more credit as well. He's arguably their most important player.
I really think guys like Smith, Melo, and Amare get vastly over-rated most of the time, but they are unquestionably very talented and with the right supporting cast they can go places. Although I think it's a disservice to call them the stars and the other guys the supporting cast when the team needs all of them equally.
A large part of their early chemistry is due to A'mare being out imo without question, it removes one of the more horrible two star 'fits' in the NBA. As to Chandler I'm with em, he's been credited and then some.
I don't think there was ever a doubt that Kidd would help them, he was tbh exactly the kind of influence that team needed, it must be a hugely refreshing change to have that presence rather than the usual A'mare vs Melo slap fight on who can shoot the most.
So far they've really only beaten Miami (which is impressive), other than that they've had the currently pretty awful Philly twice, a struggling Dallas and the very bad Magic. 5-0 is great, but it's a soft 5-0, if they win tonight and tomorrow night then they've really got something going.
The roster composition is light years better than the debacle of the last couple of seasons I agree and A'mare being out shouldn't be underestimated (as a positive, not a negative), but there's no way I can have them above Boston. They shake out somewhere with Brooklyn, Chicago, Us, Indiana and Philly (if either of them can get going).
Man the East is crap, I'd have them fighting for the 7-8 in the West, they might be a 2-4 seed in the East.