New York Knicks 2010-11 preview
For two years the Knicks front office told their fans we’ll be bad with the aim of clearing cap space for the crazy free agency class of 2010. The aim was to bring LeBron James to the big apple accompanied by preferably Chris Bosh.
That failed to happen when LeBron and Bosh teamed up with Dwyane Wade in Miami but the Knicks have assembled quite a promising team that will almost certainly win more than the 29 games they managed last season.
But how many more is hard to predict given the Knicks’ team is pretty young and not exactly built around defence, plus they didn’t sign Lebron.
Uncharacteristically, the Knicks didn’t blow their cap space by overpaying players when they missed out on Lebron and Co. They signed Amar’e Stoudemire to a five-year $100 million contract which was their biggest expense considering they had space for another marquee player.
That means the Knicks have positioned themselves for a run at the free agency market in 2011 and the year after. After years of inadequacy the Knicks are finally in position to be competitive in the next few years.
Off-Season moves
The Knicks were pretty busy this off-season revamping their pretty dire roster.
Amar’e was the big-name signing the Knicks needed. Knowing they probably wouldn’t get LeBron they did the second best thing and made sure they get an NBA superstar to give their fans hope. That hope isn’t false despite the questions marks over Stoudemire.
His knee carries the biggest question mark and with so much money being invested in the power forward, there have been some raised eyebrows over the move. But it had to be made, not signing someone of Amar’e’s stature would have risked alienating their fanbase for the foreseeable future. If worst comes to worst the Knicks can at least say “we tried”.
Stoudemire will provide the Knicks with a legitimate scoring threat in the low post and will command a double every time he gets the ball. But without Steve Nash to run the pick-and-roll he might not be as effective.
Whatever you think of him the addition of Amar’e is going to make a big difference to the Knicks, as long as he’s fit.
Donnie Walsh brought in Raymond Felton to replace Chris Duhon at point for just $21 million over the next three years. Felton will provide good defence and run a good transition offence which in D’Antoni’s system should work well.
The sign-and-trade of David Lee could, potentially, give the Knicks a solid foundation to work on with Anthony Randolph. Randolph was the main piece of the Lee trade, along with Ronny Turiaf and Kelenna Azubuike, players that will help New York – one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA – with their defensive game.
If Randolph continues improving he could become a legitimate star. He can already shot block like an elite defender and grabs enough rebounds (6.5 per game last season in just 22 minutes per game) to be a major asset to this team.
Other moves - drafted Andy Rautins and Landry Fields, bought the rights to Jerome Jordan, signed Timofey Mozgov from Russia and signed swingman Roger Mason.
Prediction
The Knicks are definitely a better team this year, they’ve improved on both sides of the court and still have tradable assets to make improvements during the season. Winning more than 29 games is all but certain if they stay healthy, and a run at the play-offs could be a possibility. Seventh or eighth for the Knicks this year.
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