Just a New York Minute

Jamal Crawford	Zach Randolph

(Photos courtesy of NBAE and Getty, AP and Julie Jacobson)

by Jimmy Russotto                                                                        

10/30/07

I for one am REALLY looking forward to the upcoming NBA season.  The much-embattled Isaiah Thomas has finally put together something to be proud of.  Along with the return of two of his best young players, who had been injured for much of last year, Isaiah has managed to land one of the best if most unheralded power forwards in the league in the large person of Zach Randolph.

If not for the somewhat transparent media conspiracy against Isaiah and media mogul James Dolan, much of New York would be jumping on the bandwagon right now.  The heart (David Lee)and soul(Jamal Crawford) of last year's Knicks team was lost to injuries at the most critical juncture of the season.  Within weeks of each other,  Lee, one of the league's best rebounding power forwards, went down with an ankle injury while Jamal Crawford, who had been a much-used sixth man on the Knicks teams of the last two years, had to get an operation on his foot.  Crawford averaged nearly 18 points per game while Lee pulled down over 10 rebounds per game.  The Knicks could not withstand the loss of production and dropped from the 8th playoff spot they had attained in mid-March.  For the rest of the season, they won only four more games.

Meanwhile, Zach Randolph was the second-best power forward in the league statistically.  Only Dallas's great Dirk Nowitzki had a better scoring average.  Randolph averaged nearly 24 pts per game and also had 10 rebounds per game.  He can play defense in the low post as well, something the Knicks sorely missed last year.  The often maligned Stephon Marbury was a warrior for the team last year, playing 74 games at 37 minutes per game.  Despite Stephon having to change his game, he still managed to score at 16 1/2 per game and averaging about 5 1/2 assists.<>

With Nate Robinson, the mercurial young point guard, expected to see more time this year and the return of Jared Jeffries (out with a sprained knee for about 6 weeks now) and Quentin Richardson, it is somewhat difficult to understand how these pieces will all blend together.  But Isaiah maintains that he'll figure it out and I believe him.  If he needs more defense, he'll go with Jeffries and Richardson, Randolph and maybe a Mardy Collins and Renaldo Balkman..  If he needs scoring, he can go with Randolph again, but team him up with Crawford, Marbury and Robinson.  Need rebounding, get Lee in there.    This team has tremendous flexibility and talent, and Isaiah has the experience to be able to figure out the combinations he needs.

One challenge will be that the rest of the Atlantic division has improved as well.  Boston, of course, has added two premier players in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.  Those two players combined with Paul Pierce will create problems for any team.  The Nets return largely intact with Richard Jefferson available for the whole year.  Toronto had a 47-35 record last year but did not improve significantly.  Jason Kapono will give them a long-range shooting threat.  The Sixers could also be a sleeper, returning Andre Miller, Andre Igoudala and an improving Samuel Dalembert at center but I don't see them as being able to contend equally with the rest.

I think it'll be a dogfight between the Nets and the Knicks for the top spot in the Atlantic, while Boston will be a close third.  Boston, after all, changed over a great deal of the team, and I think it is too much to ask that they take the top spot in their first year.  Basketball is a team game and the chemistry needed to win will reside in East Rutherford, NJ and in New York.

Intangibles also go to these same two teams.  While the Knicks have had tremendous difficulties with injuries, the Nets had their own problems with the losses of Richard Jefferson and Nenad Krstic, their center.  The Knicks could even be helped by the ridiculous media harping on the Thomas sexual harassment case.  It appears to me that, while Isaiah was ruled to be guilty, his players and even his management is firmly in his corner, which says a lot to me.  Isaiah may be technically guilty, but the degree of wrong perpetrated on the alleged victim I believe is adjudged to be small, and certainly not worthy of the huge judgment awarded to the plaintiff.  It can be little things such as this that put a team over the top, sharing mutual hardships and weathering them together.

This latter factor gives the Knicks the edge, I think, in any battle with the Nets and Boston.  Down the stretch, when a team needs toughness more so than any other single attribute, the Knicks will prevail.  We may even see the incredibly-soft Curry play some defense.  Curry will be the biggest x-factor.  If he insists on being the high-scorer every night, there could be trouble in Wonderland.  I don’t think he is really that type of player though, and while he may suffer through bouts of mild sulking, I think that overall he will benefit from the attention opponents must give to the other big guy, Randolph.  Relieved somewhat from the scoring burden, he can concentrate more on rebounding, blocks, assists and the rest of his game.

The Nets will have their own soft-playing reputation with which to deal.  Although they have added Jamaal Magloire and the good-looking rookie Sean Williams, it remains to be seen how they will fit into the mix.  Josh Boone was in the building last year, and it is hard to imagine him having that much more of an impact. (Although I said that about Utah’s Deron Williams last year and was incredibly, undeniably wrong).

In the rest of the Conference, I expect that Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland will prevail in the Central while Miami will fall, replaced by Washington and maybe even Atlanta.  The playoff teams in order of finish will be Detroit, Knicks, Washington (Southeast winner), Nets, Cleveland, Boston, Toronto and Atlanta.