Last week we asked which team has had the best offseason. Tonight, we go the other way by asking which team has grabbed the shortest end of the stick.
HEADLINES
- Kawhi Leonard’s Status In Question For Game 1 Against Mavericks
- Bulls’ Alex Caruso Likely Game-Time Decision For Play-In
- Jimmy Butler Suffers MCL Injury
- Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard Entering 2024 NBA Draft
- Pelicans’ Zion Williamson Out At Least Two Weeks With Hamstring Strain
- Jontay Porter Banned From NBA
- Zion Williamson Leaves Pelicans’ Play-In Game With Leg Soreness
- Kawhi Leonard Completes Team USA’s Star-Studded Roster For Olympics
The Knicks may have mad a unbelievably bad decision to not bring back Lin, but they definitely still had a good offseason. They lost Lin, Fields and Jeffries while adding Felton, Jason Kidd and Camby. That’s an upgrade in every meaning of the word. They got tougher and more experienced and are a team that will surprise a lot of people this year. I honestly think the 2 seed is within reach.
I disagree. Camby is only a depth move, as they already have Chandler/Amare. Felton is coming off of a bad year, and it can’t be safely assumed he will return to being a productive player. Jason Kidd is older/more fragile. I think lower half of the playoffs and a first round exit is in store for the Knicks
I also forgot to mention Brewer as a relatively significant upgrade to Landry Fields. Camby is a depth move? He’s going to play significant minutes at center and PF and even at his age is still one of the best rebounders in the game. JKidd is old, but PG skills, especially passing skills age well and he’s a very good spot shooter which is important with an iso-heavy star such as Melo. Felton himself admitted that he was out of shape last year and seems to have a chip on his shoulder to have a great year.
On paper at least, the Knicks have the 2nd best and most deep team in the conference behind the Heat.
PG: Felton/Kidd/Prigioni
SG: Shumpert/Brewer/JR Smith
SF: Carmelo/Novak
PF: Amar’e/Kurt Thomas
C: Chandler/Camby
I’m also betting they will sign Kenyon Martin. Nobody in the East other than the Heat is as talented and/or deep as the Knicks. The talent was always there, and now the seasoned vets are in the mix to will this team to victory.
Kidd and Felton ranked 47 and 43 in point guards for qualified PER…meaning there were 40 better Point Guards last year (not even considering Kidd continuing to age).
Shumpert was 61 in qualified PER for Shooting Guards, will miss a good portion of the year due to injury.
Amar’e was 26 in qualified PER for Power Forwards, plus he has significant injury risks, less athletic ability, and poor decision making in general.
3 of your 5 starters don’t even rank among the top 25 of their peers…flawed roster with no cap flexibility.
The PER stat in itself is flawed because it doesn’t consider the defensive side of the ball, which is the strong suite of players like Kidd, Felton, and Shump. It goes without saying that Amar’e had an awful year in every meaning of the word.
The Knicks spent the entire offseason bringing in vets without the “me first” attitude to try to make their “flawed” system work. Who better to make a team with some chemistry issues work than one of the best floor generals of all time in Jason Kidd?
As for the Knicks limited cap flexibility, it’s a non issue. Their entire core as well as many role players are signed for the next 3 years and they hold JR Smith’s bird rights. They have a full training camp to put together the pieces and time will tell how they do this upcoming season, but I think they have the potential to finish #2 in the East behind the Heat.
Not trying to rain on anyone’s parade, but even brining in veterans can’t change a Carmelo/Jr Smith/Amare team from a “me first” attitude.
And while PER has its limitations it does a good job of relatively valuing players to their position group, my point is that on most teams those 3 players would not even be starting.
As for defensive value, if we were in the early 2000s I would give you credit for Camby and Kidd…but its been 5 years since either of them were awarded “All Defensive” awards, and time has continued to drain their “lock-down” defense. Celtics, Pacers, Heat and Bulls all look better on paper, and even Brooklyn is starting to catch up with the Knicks.
So PER is the tell all stat, yet using it Amar’e ranks as the #22 best player of ALL TIME. While Camby is old, his defense remains top notch and you are just assuming he has gotten worse defensively even though that is not the case whatsoever. Kidd on the other hand, helped shut down Lebron in the 2011 NBA Finals just a year ago.
The Celtics are a year older, lost Ray Allen and were barely better than the Knicks last year. They did make some solid moves though this offseason, but I’d take the Knicks core over the Celtics core at this point and the role players give the Knicks a big advantage.
The Pacers are a solid team, but the NBA has proved to be a stars league time and time again, and they have none, plus they probably took a step backwards this offseason.
The Bulls may not even make the playoffs without DRose, and they seem to be throwing in the towel already for this year with their eyes set on competing next year when DRose comes back.
Brooklyn is set to become the most overrated team of all time. They added Joe Johnson to a team that went 22-44 last year.
Your argument is full of logical flaws. Amare’s career PER is a very bad measure of his current skills because of his age, injury/athletic short comings, and declines in production the last several years. Your argument is the same as saying Wilt Chamberlin would be a viable player today because of his career stats.
Secondly, it is the case that Camby has gotten slower/worse defensively…if your claim is that his defense is the same as in his prime, then why is he no longer on the all defensive team every year.
And as for Jason kidd…good luck. An aging point guard who had a good series 2 years ago against a player who had a history of underperforming in big situations, on a team that had been together less than a year and didn’t have a real offensive system. Living in a Knicks dream land.
So shutting down the 2nd best player of all time awards him zero credit because the player happened to have a history of underperforming? Yes, that makes sense. Oh, and it was one year ago. Knicks dream land? I think you and many others are down on the Knicks because they have a history of fucking up since Isiah ran them, but they are actually a really good team with the seemingly right pieces to make a run in their 3 year window.
Great logic…how about this…one of the worst statistical performances Lebron had this year was against the Charlotte Bobcats in April…I think that means that Derrick Brown and Gerald Henderson are great defensive players…right?
Because the all defense team is mostly awarded to bigger name guys… Camby flies under the radar every year and averages like 14 boards per 36 mins. There isn’t a team out there that wouldn’t love to have him. As for Amar’e, my only point was to expose your treasured PER stat. Amar’e clearly isn’t a top 20 player of all time by any means. His defense is awful, and the stat (no pun intended) doesn’t consider defense much. I think he can be a top 5 PF like he has been most of his career, he just needs to start knocking down the mid range jumper which he has hit his entire career other than last year. Through all this arguing, my only point was to say that the Knicks were a team that could surprise many people this season, and I think they could potentially grab the #2 seed in a conference that other than the Heat, everything is up for grabs.
Pretty sure the jury is still out on the Rockets and Magic pending the Dwight Howard trade. Can’t rate them until then. In any case, even if they don’t trade for Howard, I think the Rockets had a decent offseason. They’re on more of a rebuilding path now at least, instead of being consistently just outside the playoffs with veterans like Scola, they at least have upside on the roster now. Still need to get rid of Kevin Martin though. Will probably happen in a Dwight Howard trade.
How can th Mavericks be on the list? They should be praised for having one of the better offseason. So they missed out on D-Will and then went out and added OJ Mayo, Darren Collison and Kaman. They have a very good starting 5 now with a solid bench. To me, the mavericks are winners.