Jeff Van Gundy believes New York Knicks can be contenders for NBA World Championship soon
Former New York Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, the last man to guide the franchise to the NBA Finals, believes the current team is close to being a major contender for the NBA World Championship. The Knicks have had a tumultuous
last decade but a rebuilding project has seen them rise again in the NBA power circles.
The franchise appeared in the NBA playoffs last season after a long hiatus. New coach Mike D’Antoni, of the Phoenix Suns fame, has been successful in moulding the side into a strong and exciting unit capable of taking on some of
the bigger teams in the league.
His task has been made much easier by the acquisition of super star duo Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire. When asked if he thinks the Knicks are on their way to becoming a major power, Van Gundy replied in the positive.
"I do, I do," Van Gundy said Saturday by phone talking to ESPN.
The veteran former coach said that the Knicks would have been a force to reckon with already had it not been for the Miami Heat. The Heat have built up a magnificent side with three superb players in LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and
Chris Bosh.
In doing so, Miami have raised the bar, and Van Gundy believes the Knicks should now aspire to reach that level as well.
"And only because of how good Miami is. Miami is so good that New York will have to add one more really good piece, and then keep building around those pieces with winning supplemental players, too."
He thus believed that their rise can only be gradual, unlike that of the Heat who reached the NBA Finals in the first season of bringing the Big Three together. Miami ultimately lost in the NBA Finals to a veteran Dallas Mavericks
outfit, and Van Gundy believes the Knicks should get all the pieces in place before going for the jugular.
"I think they can move up into the top four or five in the East," Van Gundy, now an ESPN analyst, said, "and then become a championship-level team, depending on the moves they make going forward.”
The Knicks have become a big talking point ever since they signed Amar’e Stoudemire last summer. When Carmelo Anthony arrived in midseason, the team instantly registered on the NBA radar as a rising force.
They reached the playoffs under the tutelage of Mike D’Antoni but inexperience and injuries meant they couldn’t match the mighty Boston Celtics and had to bow out in the first round. Still, just a taste of post-season basketball,
something the fans have been yearning for some time now, has given them new hope and belief that they could indeed recapture the glory of their past.
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