Can New York Knicks compete against the top 5 teams of the Eastern Conference next NBA season? Pt-1
After failing to clinch a play-off berth in six consecutive seasons, New York Knicks nightmare finally came to an end with the arrival of three coveted NBA players.
Before the beginning of the 2010-2011 season, New York Knicks hired the free agent Amare Stoudemire who opted out of his contract with the Phoenix Suns. In the middle of the season, Denver Nuggets’ two pivotal players Carmelo Anthony
and Chauncey Billups joined forces with the versatile power forward Amare to help New York Knicks qualify for the play-offs.
Knicks efforts to make their line-up star-studded did pay off as the trio guided the team to secure a place in the post-season for the first time since 2004 with a record of 42-40 in the last season. However the team failed to
make a deep run as the Boston Celtics eliminated New York Knicks in the first round of the Eastern Conference.
New York Knicks finished with the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference behind Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Magic, Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls. No prominent changes are expected in the Knicks line-up for the next season
except Iman Shumpert, who was drafted by the franchise with the 17th overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft.
The teams which finished above New York Knicks in the last season will also be going with the same line-up to start the next season except Orlando Magic’s Jason Richardson and Atlanta Hawks Jamal Crawford, who are the most prominent
unrestricted free agents and might not be seen in their respective teams.
This means that the New York Knicks will be facing almost the identical teams with the same squad they faced by the end of the last season. Knicks will also be having the similar team from the previous season with the addition
of Iman Shumpert, hoping the Georgia Tech standout makes a significant contribution in his rookie season.
Under the circumstances which are expected to be quite the same as they were in the last season, the question arises that whether New York Knicks can stand against the top 5 teams of the Eastern Conference with the same line-up.
NBA is facing lockout at the moment with no definite answer of when the league will get back to business. The training camps were called off and the preseason games were cancelled as well as a result of the lockout. The negotiation
has entered the phase where there will be a season or there will be no season.
Having said that, it is expected that the NBA owners and players association will take the matter more seriously now in order to ensure the beginning of the 2011-2012 season. Because any further delay will only result in a complete
season wipe out and neither the owners nor the payers would want to end up without a single NBA game.
Hoping that there will be a 2011-2012 season, when many NBA teams are weighing their concerns to put up a better show in the coming showdown, the biggest concern for New York Knicks is that whether they can compete with the top
teams of the Eastern Conference with the same squad.
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