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So...

Lets say its the last game of the season, and Knicks have a chance to. Move up to 7th seed (and face MIA), or rest our stars and stay put in the 8th seed ( and battle Bulls). What will you do as a coach?

battle the bulls!

1Hugo7 wrote:So...

Lets say its the last game of the season, and Knicks have a chance to. Move up to 7th seed (and face MIA), or rest our stars and stay put in the 8th seed ( and battle Bulls). What will you do as a coach?

id rather face the bulls because it looks like we might be better matched up against them and hopefully drose is still recovering from injuries and plus the heat are way tooo hard to face right now without lin and stoudemire!! but of course either team will be very hard to play against and get at least 1 or 2 wins

Here's something I wrote in a different thread, but it applies here as well:

There is no question the Bulls would prefer not to play the Knicks in Rd. 1. Especially with Bogut out.

But, think about this relistically. With an Amare + Tyson + Jeffries + Melo frontcourt and with the 3 pt. shooting abilities of the Knicks roster, would you rather play Miami or Chicago in Rd. 1?

Miami's frontcourt and their perimeter defense are their worst problems. Those also happen to be Knicks best strengths.

At the end of the day, Woodson's Knicks are not a true 8th seed. Probably should be higher. So, yes, neither Miami nor Chicago wants to play you in Rd. 1.

But which team is the Knicks roster suited for? That to me is the key.

1Hugo7 wrote:So...

Lets say its the last game of the season, and Knicks have a chance to. Move up to 7th seed (and face MIA), or rest our stars and stay put in the 8th seed ( and battle Bulls). What will you do as a coach?

I've been seeing this a lot lately so I feel the need to call it out. They're called the Miami HEAT not the Heats. The same way it's the Orlando MAGIC not Magics and the OKC THUNDER not Thunders.

Stay at 8th and face the Bulls.

might be #4 seed.....just 2.5 gb now with one remaining vs BOS

Knicks need the 6th seed for ANY hope of making it to the second round....

Dr. Detfink wrote:Knicks need the 6th seed for ANY hope of making it to the second round....

knicks can beat the bulls if they play hard. miami gets frazzled when teams match their intensity level. i am terrified of neither team. and, as has been stated earlier, the knicks are not a true 8 seed. this is not an 8-caliber team. this is a 3-4 seed trapped in an 8's record.

musiqsoulchild wrote:Here's something I wrote in a different thread, but it applies here as well:

There is no question the Bulls would prefer not to play the Knicks in Rd. 1. Especially with Bogut out.

But, think about this relistically. With an Amare + Tyson + Jeffries + Melo frontcourt and with the 3 pt. shooting abilities of the Knicks roster, would you rather play Miami or Chicago in Rd. 1?

Miami's frontcourt and their perimeter defense are their worst problems. Those also happen to be Knicks best strengths.

At the end of the day, Woodson's Knicks are not a true 8th seed. Probably should be higher. So, yes, neither Miami nor Chicago wants to play you in Rd. 1.

But which team is the Knicks roster suited for? That to me is the key.

I'm going to say something that you're not going to like here - it's a no-brainer - 10/10 you want to face the Bulls over Miami. the Bulls are a far less talented team than Miami and in the playoffs, talent matters a lot more than effort, hustle and preparation.

I would much rather face the corpse of Rip Hamilton, Deng, Boozer and Noah, than I would Lebron, Wade and Bosh. When the Heat turn on their playoff defense, they destroy you. Lebron is incredible in covering passing lanes and Wade is a great help defender. The Heat have not been playing at full intensity during the regular season, but they are the last team I would like to see in the playoffs.

The Bulls hustle and are great at getting offensive rebounds, but that's manageable. The Knicks have never had problem breaking down the Bulls' D with Amare and Rose is not a guy who puts a lot of pressure on the ball handlers.

The bottom line is that despite the record, the Bulls are a very beatable team come playoff time, particularly if we can get a healthy Amare.

Without Stat and Lin we don't even have a slim chance of beating the Heat. However, we have a slim chance of beating the Bulls even with Rose. If Rose is not at 100% our chances are even higher and if we can get Stat and/or Lin back even better.

Ron Mexico wrote:

Dr. Detfink wrote:Knicks need the 6th seed for ANY hope of making it to the second round....

knicks can beat the bulls if they play hard. miami gets frazzled when teams match their intensity level. i am terrified of neither team. and, as has been stated earlier, the knicks are not a true 8 seed. this is not an 8-caliber team. this is a 3-4 seed trapped in an 8's record.

10-3 since Woodson took over - that a #1 seed record, not a #8.

Lets go hunting in South Beach!!!

I'd love to upset the Heat and put more doubts that LeBron can't win a title but something about beating the Bulls just makes me happy. I would love to upset either team!

Lehman wrote:
I'm going to say something that you're not going to like here - it's a no-brainer - 10/10 you want to face the Bulls over Miami. the Bulls are a far less talented team than Miami and in the playoffs, talent matters a lot more than effort, hustle and preparation.

I would much rather face the corpse of Rip Hamilton, Deng, Boozer and Noah, than I would Lebron, Wade and Bosh. When the Heat turn on their playoff defense, they destroy you. Lebron is incredible in covering passing lanes and Wade is a great help defender. The Heat have not been playing at full intensity during the regular season, but they are the last team I would like to see in the playoffs.

The Bulls hustle and are great at getting offensive rebounds, but that's manageable. The Knicks have never had problem breaking down the Bulls' D with Amare and Rose is not a guy who puts a lot of pressure on the ball handlers.

The bottom line is that despite the record, the Bulls are a very beatable team come playoff time, particularly if we can get a healthy Amare.

Your analysis is pretty accurate, but a little rhetorically skewed anti-Bulls. Which is fine, its who you are.

My only contention is that the team concept has actually been pretty successful the last few years. With the esception of a couple of Lakers championships, in most cases the most talented team has not been the eventual ring winner.

I think its because coaches and schemes have become better over the last decade in utilizing roleplayer potential to the max.

So, while I know that Miami is uber- talented, I can also see how they are susceptible in the plyoffs without a real frontcourt.

It depends on how healthy our teams is.

If the team doesn't have any of it's core out with injuries.....I don't care who we play.

We can run in transition just like Miami and Chicago, and our team defense unders Woodson is at least on those teams level.

But if we are undermanned, I'd rather have the Bulls, even though their strength is our weakness.

musiqsoulchild wrote:Your analysis is pretty accurate, but a little rhetorically skewed anti-Bulls. Which is fine, its who you are.

My only contention is that the team concept has actually been pretty successful the last few years. With the esception of a couple of Lakers championships, in most cases the most talented team has not been the eventual ring winner.

I think its because coaches and schemes have become better over the last decade in utilizing roleplayer potential to the max.

So, while I know that Miami is uber- talented, I can also see how they are susceptible in the plyoffs without a real frontcourt.

The only "team-concept" franchise to win a title was the Pistons and they had 4 legitimate allstars, something that the Bulls don't have. I guess you can add the Mavs, but they still had Dirk, and Jason Terry playing at a very high level.

You may think of this as "anti-Bulls" rhetoric, but the truth is that there has never been a team to win a championship with as little talent as the Bulls. Simply never happened.

Miami has its flaws, but it's by far the more talented team and you really don't want to go against their defense in the playoffs.

I'd rather face Miami for several reasons, not the least of which is...

I don't know why everyone so eager to pick the Bulls and call it a no-brainer. They're easily the most disciplined team in the league coupled with their experience playing together, even at full strength I don't want none of them in the first. I don't underestimate them and after the next couple of games many of y'all won't either.

Lehman wrote:

musiqsoulchild wrote:Your analysis is pretty accurate, but a little rhetorically skewed anti-Bulls. Which is fine, its who you are.

My only contention is that the team concept has actually been pretty successful the last few years. With the esception of a couple of Lakers championships, in most cases the most talented team has not been the eventual ring winner.

I think its because coaches and schemes have become better over the last decade in utilizing roleplayer potential to the max.

So, while I know that Miami is uber- talented, I can also see how they are susceptible in the plyoffs without a real frontcourt.

The only "team-concept" franchise to win a title was the Pistons and they had 4 legitimate allstars, something that the Bulls don't have. I guess you can add the Mavs, but they still had Dirk, and Jason Terry playing at a very high level.

Spurs? Hell, even Miami's championship was with just one uber talent in Wade surrounded by a barrage of roleplayers with an aging Shaq as post offense.

Ditto with the Celtics. They were a bunch of past their prime stars joining under a team concept.

NYKat wrote:I'd rather face Miami for several reasons, not the least of which is...

I don't know why everyone so eager to pick the Bulls and call it a no-brainer. They're easily the most disciplined team in the league coupled with their experience playing together, even at full strength I don't want none of them in the first. I don't underestimate them and after the next couple of games many of y'all won't either.

I definitely wouldn't underestimate either team, although I think Miami is a slightly better team than Chicago.

They have two dominant scorers and playmakers, a reliable third option, solid defenders throughout the lineup, and very good 3pt shooters to space the floor.

Chicago has all of the above as well, but just one dominant scorer and playmaker.

Chicago definitely isn't an easy task regardless, but with our full compliment of players, I really don't care who we play.