Second best team in the East?

[CoachKobe]

but miami will walk 12-0 through the east anyway. no serious competition, a whole conference as the laughing stock of the league.
heat wouldn't make the finals through the west.

I'm sorry but I probably missed last year's playoffs in which the Heat struggled a lot more vs the East than they did vs the West Champ.

you probably missed it because without bosh they played like crap/relied on lebron-in-superstar-mode. but bosh did play in the finals.

[Nuntius]

you probably missed it because without bosh they played like crap/relied on lebron-in-superstar-mode. but bosh did play in the finals.

Then I must have also missed this season's games of Miami versus the top East teams and their games versus OKC.

Yes, I know, I know, RS is supposed to be irrelevant. But when a top team beats another top team so often it tends to mean something.

[Meeks]

Bulls with DRose is still #2 in the east for me, maybe even tied for #1

miami crushed chicago 4-1 with an mvp-rose.
and that was the 2011 version of the heat.
and, as said, the mvp-version of rose.
your statement is a total fail.

You mean the same season where both Miami AND Chicago were in the east finals????
Whoever won that was number 1 in the east (Miami) and whoever lost was still number 2 (CHI).
Your attempt at an argument is a total fail.

[NYK_89]

Amare has always been hurt as a member of the NYKs come playoff time - if we use past history as a future predictor - what's going to change?

It's always something with the Knicks and their injuries or someone coming back from injury or whatever. Great teams make it all work - that's why they are great and win. Miami was w/o Bosh for nearly the entire Pacers and part of the Boston series - but they made it work somehow. All great teams overcome adversity to some capacity. NY isn't there and hasn't proved anything as a collection of their current talent.

What? Again this just does not make sense.
Here is a few points.

The Amar'e injury was a back injury before game 2 trying to touch the top of the backboard. That injury lingured literally all through last year, that was all one injury. He was semi healthy for the playoffs although had only been back for about 2 weeks then punched the fire extinguisher, are you seriously formulating an argument around him having a incredibly stupid freak injury again, like punching glass or trying to show off in pregame dunks???

I don't even see the reason to bring up 2 years ago because outside of a HURT STAT Carmelo is the only player left on the team from that squad. So im just going to throw that out. The team had been together about a month had zero depth lost 2/3 of their best players in game 1 and has only 2 players remaining on the team now, Not to even mention played a 3 seed as a 6 seed.

Last year we faced the Heat at full strength, no team in the NBA can compete with them when they are playing like they did in round 1 last year. The big 3 were healthy and Lebron and Wade were playing at the top of their games. Again I fail to see why losing to them in 5 is so horrible, the Thunder lost to them in 5 maybe we should just write them off as well.

You also continue to just ignore that last year the Knicks had Baron Davis playing with an injury in each knee that would have sidelined him had we had anyone to replace him. We had Mike Bibby backing him up... We had nobody as a backup big, the list goes on and on. This years Knicks team with Felton, Kidd, Camby/Martin, and despite his up and down nature a JR smith who is about 10x better this year then he was last year is immeasurably better then last years.

I get saying you don't believe. I think we will need some serious luck to get to the ECF and even Boston in the first round will be a fight. But to discredit the Knicks solely on the last 2 years is just an incredibly weak thing to do and is obviously a cop out the teams aren't the same and i don't see how losing to the heat disqualifies you.

[bronxknicksfan1]

You're right, the regular season has no bearing whatsoever on evaluation of a team's ability. Delete the thread.

In all seriousness though, what other team can slump hard like the Heat did early and the Knicks did in February and STILL be the top 2 teams in the conference. You would be silly to think that Carmelo Anthony can't take a postseason team with STAT playing regular minutes, Tyson Chandler DPOY, and finally a good healthy supporting cast past the likes of the Bulls, Pacers, Nets, and Hawks. I mean, one arm STAT and Melo single handedly beat the Heat in a PO game, now they have better help. Granted the Heat also added Allen.
I just think it's silly how the two teams haven't yet built an actual rivalry yet by the Heat fans comments you would think they've hated us since the 70's(not that the team existed).

The duo of Amare and Melo have been together for nearly 3 years (right?) And in those 3 years they haven't won a single post-season series. The rest of your team and any team for that matter really doesn't make much of a difference when your star player(s) aren't capable of doing much come PO time.

While Melo was putting up great stats offensively, the likes of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh were doing 3-Fold. And let's forget Amare for this disucssion. Some thing or the other will develop with him - it always does.

The Knicks - until they can prove they can win a series - because it's been what like -8 years (IISC) since they've won a single series, let alone advanced very far.

Or simply the Heat have LeBron and other teams don't...

[LikeABosh]

We didn't crush Chicago. It was a tough series and the only crushing that happened was in game 1 (which we lost) and the last 3 minutes of game 5.

4-1 is a crush. Nobody watched that series and said oh man bulls had a real chance at winning it if they played again.

Well, if you insist

[NYK_89]

Bulls with DRose is still #2 in the east for me, maybe even tied for #1

miami crushed chicago 4-1 with an mvp-rose.
and that was the 2011 version of the heat.
and, as said, the mvp-version of rose.
your statement is a total fail.

You mean the same season where both Miami AND Chicago were in the east finals????
Whoever won that was number 1 in the east (Miami) and whoever lost was still number 2 (CHI).
Your attempt at an argument is a total fail.

You said maybe even tied for #1, pretty basic reading comprehension. Also considering that Boston Miami and Chicago were the only teams worth anything that year I fail to see how they were the clear #2. Considering how the Bulls played the first two rounds I think the Celtics easily could have taken them out and it at least would have been a long series.

[UnderdogRaptors]

Top 4 in the east imo:
1.) Heat
2.) Pacers
3.) Bulls
4.) Nets

[dreamchaser]

Top 4 in the east imo:
1.) Heat
2.) Pacers
3.) Bulls
4.) Nets

Did you literally put the Nets over the Knicks???

[Meeks]

miami crushed chicago 4-1 with an mvp-rose.
and that was the 2011 version of the heat.
and, as said, the mvp-version of rose.
your statement is a total fail.

You mean the same season where both Miami AND Chicago were in the east finals????
Whoever won that was number 1 in the east (Miami) and whoever lost was still number 2 (CHI).
Your attempt at an argument is a total fail.

You said maybe even tied for #1, pretty basic reading comprehension. Also considering that Boston Miami and Chicago were the only teams worth anything that year I fail to see how they were the clear #2. Considering how the Bulls played the first two rounds I think the Celtics easily could have taken them out and it at least would have been a long series.

Keyword MAYBE.
Claiming Chicago with a healthy drose as #2 is not as far-fetched a claim as CoachKobe made it out to be.

[NYK_89]

Top 4 in the east imo:
1.) Heat
2.) Pacers
3.) Bulls
4.) Nets

Alright im outta here.

Though i still love how everyone still seems to think Rose is going to come back and save the bulls who are on a B line for the 7th seed right now.

ITS MARCH HE STILL HASNT PLAYED

FFS he may even not be off a minute restriction by the time the playoffs hit.

[NYK_89]

Keyword MAYBE.
Claiming Chicago with a healthy drose as #2 is not as far-fetched a claim as CoachKobe made it out to be.

I don't even get what you are saying, he CLEARLY only addressed the maybe tied for #1 part of that in his response. And there is no "maybe" about it the Heat are #1 in the league and there is no competition.

[Flash3]

Amare has always been hurt as a member of the NYKs come playoff time - if we use past history as a future predictor - what's going to change?

It's always something with the Knicks and their injuries or someone coming back from injury or whatever. Great teams make it all work - that's why they are great and win. Miami was w/o Bosh for nearly the entire Pacers and part of the Boston series - but they made it work somehow. All great teams overcome adversity to some capacity. NY isn't there and hasn't proved anything as a collection of their current talent.

What? Again this just does not make sense.
Here is a few points.

The Amar'e injury was a back injury before game 2 trying to touch the top of the backboard. That injury lingured literally all through last year, that was all one injury. He was semi healthy for the playoffs although had only been back for about 2 weeks then punched the fire extinguisher, are you seriously formulating an argument around him having a incredibly stupid freak injury again, like punching glass or trying to show off in pregame dunks???

I don't even see the reason to bring up 2 years ago because outside of a HURT STAT Carmelo is the only player left on the team from that squad. So im just going to throw that out. The team had been together about a month had zero depth lost 2/3 of their best players in game 1 and has only 2 players remaining on the team now, Not to even mention played a 3 seed as a 6 seed.

Last year we faced the Heat at full strength, no team in the NBA can compete with them when they are playing like they did in round 1 last year. The big 3 were healthy and Lebron and Wade were playing at the top of their games. Again I fail to see why losing to them in 5 is so horrible, the Thunder lost to them in 5 maybe we should just write them off as well.

You also continue to just ignore that last year the Knicks had Baron Davis playing with an injury in each knee that would have sidelined him had we had anyone to replace him. We had Mike Bibby backing him up... We had nobody as a backup big, the list goes on and on. This years Knicks team with Felton, Kidd, Camby/Martin, and despite his up and down nature a JR smith who is about 10x better this year then he was last year is immeasurably better then last years.

I get saying you don't believe. I think we will need some serious luck to get to the ECF and even Boston in the first round will be a fight. But to discredit the Knicks solely on the last 2 years is just an incredibly weak thing to do and is obviously a cop out.

It's always something (as of late) with the Knicks (Melo/Amare version) that they didn't perform up to par or whatever you want to call it. This team is better built - that goes w/o saying - from a depth perspective. But a lot of that depth is quite old. We've seen Rasheed Wallace go down already.

There's only so much left in Camby, Martin and even Kidd - so them getting hurt (God-forbid) - will not be surprising, and another - see, it's the same old Knicks. There's always something saying that will pop along from outsiders like myself.

When the team hasn't won a playoff series in nearly 10+ years, and until that changes I won't believe it - it's very hard to convince someone otherwise.

[CoachKobe]

Keyword MAYBE.
Claiming Chicago with a healthy drose as #2 is not as far-fetched a claim as CoachKobe made it out to be.

hey, come on, it was clear that i was responding to the #1 thing.
if d-rose returns to what he was before his injury, the bulls will be definitely up there. no doubt. huge rose fan here.
but they'd still be one tier below the heat.
tied for #1? come on.

[Ice Man]

The Knicks are a 52-win team that hasn't won a playoff game in a decade. This year because nobody else in the East can play they are the #2 seed. But that doesn't make them better than what they are -- this year's Hawks. A #4 or #5 seed in a normal year.

[NYK_89]

It's always something (as of late) with the Knicks (Melo/Amare version) that they didn't perform up to par or whatever you want to call it. This team is better built - that goes w/o saying - from a depth perspective. But a lot of that depth is quite old. We've seen Rasheed Wallace go down already.

There's only so much left in Camby, Martin and even Kidd - so them getting hurt (God-forbid) - will not be surprising, and another - see, it's the same old Knicks. There's always something saying that will pop along from outsiders like myself.

When the team hasn't won a playoff series in nearly 10+ years, and until that changes I won't believe it.

You have all the reason to doubt. But your reasoning needs to apply to the
Bulls who got crushed as a 1 seed last year (since apparently injures are not a factor, and lets face it Rose coming back and contributing is fairly on par with one of our key players getting hurt percentage wise)
Nets who have had more top 5 picks then playoff appearances in the last 7-8 years,
The Pacers who beaten up 2 years ago and whos only recent playoff win is against a Dwightless Magic team ,
Why are their pasts not affecting your judgement of them. Yeah they all have very different teams and have improved drastically but so have the Knicks. Yet you decide to discredit only 1 team of the 4.

[NYK_89]

The Knicks are a 52-win team that hasn't won a playoff game in a decade. This year because nobody else in the East can play they are the #2 seed. But that doesn't make them better than what they are -- this year's Hawks. A #4 or #5 seed in a normal year.

The Hawks? First off this years East is the best it has been in awhile. Second off THE HAWKS?? Carmelo and Chandler are EASILY the 2 best players on those teams of yesteryear and STAT if he continues to improve coming back is just as good as players like Joe Johnson.

[orlandomanic]

The way the Hawks have been playing, it looks like they are playing as second best in the east, especially since they installed that Spurs System on offense.

I love watching fundamental basketball and the Spurs and Hawks score 90% of their buckets off of assists

[Flash3]

It's always something (as of late) with the Knicks (Melo/Amare version) that they didn't perform up to par or whatever you want to call it. This team is better built - that goes w/o saying - from a depth perspective. But a lot of that depth is quite old. We've seen Rasheed Wallace go down already.

There's only so much left in Camby, Martin and even Kidd - so them getting hurt (God-forbid) - will not be surprising, and another - see, it's the same old Knicks. There's always something saying that will pop along from outsiders like myself.

When the team hasn't won a playoff series in nearly 10+ years, and until that changes I won't believe it.

You have all the reason to doubt. But your reasoning needs to apply to the
Bulls who got crushed as a 1 seed last year (since apparently injures are not a factor, and lets face it Rose coming back and contributing is fairly on par with one of our key players getting hurt percentage wise)
Nets who have had more top 5 picks then playoff appearances in the last 7-8 years,
The Pacers who beaten up 2 years ago and whos only recent playoff win is against a Dwightless Magic team ,
Why are their pasts not affecting your judgement of them. Yeah they all have very different teams and have improved drastically but so have the Knicks. Yet you decide to discredit only 1 team of the 4.

Not sure where you are going with your post - when I clearly never mentioned Chicago as #2. My post clearly said it was NY or Indy.

[Nuntius]

This year because nobody else in the East can play they are the #2 seed.

At this point, I'd like to remind people that the Knicks are not the only #2 seed in the East currently