The latest news and notes from around the Eastern Conference on Saturday morning:
- Al Iannazzone of Newsday.com talks to a longtime NBA coach about the difficulty of gameplanning for the Knicks because of their depth. The coach cites Amare Stoudemire, J.R. Smith, and Steve Novak as bench players teams have to plan for in addition to New York's starters.
- Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel writes that the Heat will be faced with a challenge posed by the new CBA when it comes to keeping their big three together in the future.
- David Mayo of MLive.com takes a look at the ways in which the Pistons will compensate for Andre Drummond's absence.
- Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel talks to Magic guard Arron Afflalo about rookie Maurice Harkless' impressive play.