Rasheed Wallace has reportedly agreed to a 2-year deal with Boston, and Jason Kidd gave a verbal committment ot Dallas. If 'Sheed does sign with Boston, and Garnett comes back healthy from his knee injury, the Eastern Conference should be extremely interesting this year. Of course, nothing will be final/official until Wednesday (see Turkoglu/Trail Blazers).
I think with a healthy Garnett and Rasheed Wallace giving the Celtics 20-25 minutes a night, that they would be the favorites to come out of the East. They could also sign Marbury for depth. I dont think Shaq is the answer for the Cavs (he does make them better)...although the Cavs did get to the Eastern conference finals with one of the worst teams I have ever seen (that will tell you how great LeBron James is) Orlando should be right there again as well especially after trading for Vince Carter. You're right, the East will be competitive. I just hope my Knicks can join the party! (or at least make the 8th spot and actually get into the playoffs)
Marbury has already said he doesn't think he'll be back in Boston. Grant Hill is looking at both the Knicks and Celtics,though I wonder how much he has left. He played in all 82 games for Phoenix, about 30 minutes a game, but he'll be 37 before the season starts. But if Boston can get him, and he's healthy, he'll be a big step-up from Marbury any day.
Rumor has it that they are. At least they got rid of Isaiah Thomas, got a good coach in D'Antoni and GM in Donnie Walsh. It may take them a little while, but I think eventually, they'll at least be a spoiler, if not a playoff team. They still have a lot of big contracts to get rid of, though.
Yes, the Knicks are still in the league... laugh all you want, but from a business/marketing standpoint they are the most relevent franchise in the NBA
All it takes is one Superstar (see LeBron and 11 below average Cavs) and the Knicks will be solid playoff contenders year in and year out. They have to either get lucky in the draft (i.e the Spurs with BOTH Robinson and later with Duncan (which is why they make the playoffs every year)) or attract a big time free agent to come to NY. Less we forget that throughout the late 80's and 90's, because of Ewing, the Knicks were annual playoff participants.
You can go from bad to good very quickly in the NBA
Not disagreeing with you. They were more competitive last year than at any time under Thomas. At least they were less disfunctional. Their problem now is that they're trying to rebuild against a lot of loaded teams. But if they can hold the course, that'll help them as the year goes on. Speaking of marbury, he made a comment about D'Antoni's coaching style recently, saying it would never produce a title because it didn't concentrate on defense; imagine, Marbury talking defense!! Go figure!!
well, maybe just a little. I have not forgiven them for the Willis Reed incident in 1970.
The Knicks may be a long way from relevant. D'Antoni is a great coach if you like exciting basketball but I doubt if his system will ever win a championship. Repeat after me....defense, defense, defense. It's hard to imagine that the Knicks will field better players than the Suns did and Phoenix failed to win bupkus.
Add in the fact that ESPN voted the Knicks the second worst franchise in professional sports (only the Clippers were worse) and I feel sorry for the rabid NY fans that haunt the Garden. You deserve much better.
And yeah, I am a life-long Laker fan if you did not guess.