New York Knics on a Tear but What does it Really Mean?

The New York Knicks have been on a tear at various moments during this season thus far. They just finished a five game homestand by going 5-0. And they currently occupy the #2 seed in the East. Management and the play of this group of Knicks deserve most of the credit. During the off season, the Knicks made the shrewd moves of obtaining Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd, Ronnie Brewer, Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas, and Rasheed Wallace. Unfortunately for the Knicks Rasheed Wallace will miss the rest of the season with a foot injury. In addition to having added all of these new veteran players, the Knicks already had Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, Iman Shumpert, Steve Novak, and J.R. Smith. With these new additions the Knicks are among the deepest teams in the league if not the deepest team themselves. The 3pt field goal has been very good for the Knicks as the team combines for almost a 39% clip from downtown. Carmelo Anthony, Steve Novak, and 35 year-old PG Rookie Pablo Pirigioni are all shooting better than 40% from beyond the arc. Speaking of Melo, many believe that if the Knicks can continue their current pace of .673 winning percentage way of basketball that Melo will win the MVP this season. Anthony is currently averaging a stellar team leading 28.4 points per game.

The only hiccup that the Knicks have had thus far was the cyst removal knee surgery Amare Stoudemire had and their lackluster play after starting PG Raymond Felton had surgery on his injured thumb. But now with Felton back the Knicks are right back to where they left off when their starting PG was healthy. STAT (Amare Stoudmire) has started to string some nice games together and is a strong force coming off the bench. Starting C and 2012 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Tyson Chandler, has been on a rebounding tear as well. Chandler has grabbed 20 rebounds in each of the last 3 games. Management was incredibly astute in knowing how well Tyson Chandler plays with both Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton. Chandler and Kidd won a title together in Dallas in 2011 and Chandler played with Felton in Charlotte, while the 2 were members of the Bobcats. Ronnie Brewer has been his usual ball hawking self and J.R. Smith has been the best bench player in the NBA not named Jamal Crawford. Knowing that all of this has gone well for the Knicks, the next question is what does it all mean?

Is this Knicks team good enough to defeat the Miami Heat in a conference finals matchup? Some of the parts that Miami has trouble defending are definitely there in the form of Tyson Chandler and the PG’s combo of Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton. The Knicks are similarly built to the 2011 Dallas Mavericks team with specialists at almost every position. However LeBron now knows what it takes to get to the top and whether this Knicks team will put a 4 pin on LeBron remains to be seen. The Knicks have defeated the Heat twice this season and did so both times by 20+ points with excellent 3pt shooting in each outing. However what happens in the regular season stays in the regular season and the Playoffs are a completely different animal. However if there’s anyone in the East that could give the Miami Heat problems in their title defense it’s definitely this New York Knicks team. Barring injuries, Madison Square Garden should be loud into late May. But don´t be surprised if there’s June games at MSG this year, because these Knicks are capable of playing that well..