KNICKS BETTER? OR STILL IN TROUBLE?

415-375-19 OVERALL
80-76-5--- NFL
192-162-10 NBA
77-60-1 NCAA



So we didnt have the greatest start to this week but what can one expect from Las Vegas, they have to give away the easy ones every once in a while... Either way the NBA is back and that is the most important thing we have to discuss on this site.

Speaking of the NBA lets talk about the New York knicks and their new look roster, as well as the Denver nuggets. The knicks have acquired Carmelo Anthony and his side kick, former finals MVP Chauncey Billups, along with Renaldo Balkman, a very athletic swingman and Sheldon Williams, who in his young career has become quite the journeyman. But although the Knicks have put together a lineup that includes the NBA's toughest man to guard and its best Power Forward, I still see some gaps in this lineup and on the bench. D'Antoni's style will easily cater to Carmelo, as he encourages the fast break mentality which will open the court and provide shots for both superstars, and this will be complimented by the excellent passing of Billups who knows how to win, however there are two main components that this team is still missing; Rebounding and Defense.
Its very tough to get into a fast break offense without the ability to rebound on defense, not to mention the traditional fast break is run when a team makes a defensive stop and catches the offensive team off guard in transition. The new Knicks lineup is likely to be
1.Chauncey 2.Fields 3. Carmelo 4.Williams 5. Amare or the same lineup with Amare at the 4 and Roni Turiaf at the 5. To me, although the knicks will win a few more games, with less than 30 left in the season, this roster spells a lot of points and still NO DEFENSE.
Billups is still excellent on offense and is still Mr. Big shot, but unlike felton he cannot match up with Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose, or any of the elite point guards in the league, while those teams have players that cannot only matchup with him at the one, but also have paul pierce and luol deng to match up with MELO. The knicks lineup is vastly improved in some areas, and having melo will certainly help them sell tickets, but to be frank it WILL NOT, and I repeat WILL NOT get them past the first round of the playoffs, especially since with less than 30 games left they look like they will take 6th 7th or even 8th in the Eastern conference. Their problem all along is they are SOFT. They get pushed around by the rugged teams of the East, Hawks, Celtics, the Heat etc. If the Knickerbockers get lucky they will draw the Magic in the playoffs, the other soft team in the east. But still, with no one to guard Howard and Brandon Bass seeing more playing time, I think the Knicks are in trouble come playoff time.

As Far as the Nuggets, they still have some thinking to do. They already have a stellar center in Nene, and they will be splitting playing time at the 4 with Wilson Chandler and Kenyon Martin both showing their skills this year. Gallinari will fill the 3 nicely on offense but plays ZERO defense, while the 2 guard debate still rages on, do we start JR SMITH now that Melo is not around for 27 a game? or do we continue to roll with Arron Afflalo, who despite marked improvement in the last 2 seasons, is still not really a viable starter on a contending team. As stated by J.A. Adande in his ESPN article today, the Nuggets' Management and Ownership played their cards correctly by waiting until the last minute for this trade. It got the Knicks front office to offer much more than they would have Pre-All Star Break and the addition of Wilson Chandler and/or Mozgov may have been directly correlated to the savvy business sense of the Nuggets ownership..
-Blake C


PICKS COMING SOON!!!