Knicks · ESPN Eastern Div Power rating as of 8/20 (page 1)

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/827348...

Forecast: 2012-13 East standings

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ESPN.com

Fresh off their championship run, the Heat look to have the inside track to the East's No. 1 seed again.

It's time to kick off our fifth-annual Summer Foecast series. (Last year, it was a Winter Forecast due to the lockout.)

Over the next two weeks, we'll roll out our predictions for how each team will do this season, as well as the 2012-13 Rookie of the Year, Best Newcomer, Worst Newcomer, MVP, conference champions and NBA champs. We'll also examine which teams will make the biggest turnarounds this season and which teams could be in for the most turmoil.

To do so, we surveyed 100 of ESPN's best basketball minds, including contributors from ESPN.com, the TrueHoop Network, TrueHoop TV, Daily Dime Live, ESPN TV, ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes, espnW, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Insider, ESPN Fantasy, ESPN Games, ESPN Dallas, ESPN Los Angeles, ESPN Boston, ESPN Chicago, ESPN New York, ESPN Stats & Information, ESPN Topics and ESPN Analytics.

We'll start with the conference that features the reigning NBA champs.

To participate in the discussion and perhaps get your opinion published on this page, #NBApicks is the Twitter hashtag to use. Or you can just follow along @NBAonESPN.

Let's begin ...

Forecast: 2012-13 Eastern Conference Standings

RANK TEAM W L PCT '12 W '12 L '12 PCT
1 Miami Heat 60 22 .732 46 20 .697

2 Boston Celtics 50 32 .610 39 27 .591

3 Indiana Pacers 50 32 .610 42 24 .636

4 Chicago Bulls 46 36 .561 50 16 .758

5 Brooklyn Nets 46 36 .561 22 44 .333

6 Philadelphia 76ers 46 36 .561 35 31 .530

7 New York Knicks 45 37 .549 36 30 .545

8 Atlanta Hawks 40 42 .488 40 26 .606

9 Milwaukee Bucks 37 45 .451 31 35 .470

10 Cleveland Cavaliers 33 49 .402 21 45 .318

11 Toronto Raptors 32 50 .390 23 43 .348

12 Washington Wizards 31 51 .378 20 46 .303

13 Detroit Pistons 30 52 .366 25 41 .379

14 Orlando Magic 21 61 .256 37 29 .561

15 Charlotte Bobcats 19 63 .232 7 59 .106

* -- Teams tied in win total ordered by decimal rankings from our experts' predictions.

U know, I always get pissed at these things and they are usually right...Pacers better huh...

BS!

I really wanted to know why they thought the knicks were just 7th in the east.

ESPN took a poll of 100 to get this so its not just one man's "hate".

Hol, your right, I hate these things but they usually do turn out to be correct.

Could fans be over optomistic over our own progress while not paying attnetion to the other teams?

I get Philly moving ahead with Bynum (Potentially). I had them moving backwards prior but the trade moves them ahead?

Bulls with Rose hurt I don't get why they have them 3rd. He is not expected back for some time.

Boston I can't be objective because of Hate. The core is old. Jason Terry is old. The utes the have are nice but do they contribute right away? When does Rondo start to infect the restof the team?

Indy had a great season last year and I can understand the vibe they are getting.

Brooklyn's roster I can't get my head around quite yet. How good is Marshon Brooks and the new Bench Euro's? BroPez is a 20pt scorer but 7.5 rebounder won't cut it. If Amre can learn new post moves can Bropez grab some boards?

Knicks at 7 spot? We assume our Front line can get the space it needs? Amare at the 5 and Melo at teh 4 with Novak in the corner?
I think we see this more this year.

Maybe after Miami its all too close to tell this early!

Does this ranking factor Rose being out for a big part of next season? I know they played well without him but that still seems overly optimistic with the changes Philly and NY made. They would also have to transition back to Rose being a starter. I would put Philly and NY ahead of Brooklyn.

GustavBahler wrote:Does this ranking factor Rose being out for a big part of next season? I know they played well without him but that still seems overly optimistic with the changes Philly and NY made. They would also have to transition back to Rose being a starter. I would put Philly and NY ahead of Brooklyn.

Knicks change? Camby, Kidd and Brewer?
I think our biggest impact will occur not with the roster but how well our players form chemestry.

Seems we been playing off of talent alone. We have lots of it but if woodson can blend it well we are much improved. If not, we'll struggle and the 7th spot might be more accurate.

No different than any other team mind you. On paper we are very good.

Pacers are gonna be really good. Philly is gonna be good. Miami, Boston, Bulls, obv.

I think the Knicks could be 6/7 depending on the Nets. If the Knicks gel, they could be better than Philly and Indiana.

Lol at ranking the Roseless Bulls 4th

Plus the Nets who had the worse record in the East at 5.

Bullshit and they know it.

according to that we're a game off of 4th place. One of these years age is going to catch up to Boston. Really not too far away from finishing second, according to this.

Who made this list loudmouth Stephen A?

Nets ranked higher than us? Really?

SupremeCommander wrote:according to that we're a game off of 4th place. One of these years age is going to catch up to Boston. Really not too far away from finishing second, according to this.

I think Washington is over looked a bit. They added Reezy, Nene and Okafor. Nene is a more natural 4. If Wall starts to play up to his potential thats a nice 4. Is it a 40 win team? That I can't say but they won't be a joke anymore especially at home.

Nalod wrote:

GustavBahler wrote:Does this ranking factor Rose being out for a big part of next season? I know they played well without him but that still seems overly optimistic with the changes Philly and NY made. They would also have to transition back to Rose being a starter. I would put Philly and NY ahead of Brooklyn.

Knicks change? Camby, Kidd and Brewer?
I think our biggest impact will occur not with the roster but how well our players form chemestry.

Seems we been playing off of talent alone. We have lots of it but if woodson can blend it well we are much improved. If not, we'll struggle and the 7th spot might be more accurate.

No different than any other team mind you. On paper we are very good.

Absolutely. We also have Felton from training camp on and in good shape and Prigioni as well. All in all that's an upgrade at the PG position from last season.

Last season Chandler would consistently get into early foul trouble and our defense would suffer. Now Camby can step in, he's still a good defender. Not to mention KT is there for spot minutes as well.

Stat is coming back in better shape, maybe since he first got here with some new moves (we'll see what happens there). Melo, I believe is going to have his best season as a Knick. Most players who come back from Team USA have some of their best seasons afterwards.

You're right its up to Woody to get them on the same page. I believe he will do that. I just want to see him do a better job in the playoffs which career wise has been something of a negative. Its not all on him of course.

Miami
Boston
Philly
Indy
Knicks
Nets
Bulls
Hawks

There are a few things I see where the average writer could have overlooked, and where we could improve immensely...1. Last year we didn't have consistent play all season with a coach that stresses the PG running his offense...Felton and Kidd can change this...2. A healthy Amare with a PG willing to pass to him...Let's face it, Amare needs a PG to be effective unless Dream performed wonders in Houston in a two week span...3. Four guys will be hungry and have a lot to prove...Melo, Amare, Felton and Woody...Three players for obvious reason and Woody, this is NY, his contract isn't big enough that it can't be bought out, we have seen this...4. Better defense this year, we played inconsistently last year with two different defensive philosophies...Clearly Woody improved what we were doing late in the season and this should be better with a training camp...I thought we won some games late in the season we would have lost early in the season....They are picking us to finish with the same win percentage as last year...I think we are slightly better...A good year from Felton and Amare can net us 50/52 wins...I'm putting it out there...Can't wait...

I'm not convinced about the Sixers at all- will Bynum stay injury free? Is he ready to be the number 1 option on a team? Hmmm... Also I have no respect for the Pacers at all after we thoroughly kicked their ass twice ( and almost a third time if we hadnt relaxed too soon). Bulls are also a big question mark too- is Deng having that wrist surgery or is he going to play through it?

The east is a big question mark outside of Miami, I hope we do better than people are expecting.

There a ton of variables and so many of them figure into "reality".

Just because a preseason ranking has us 7th does not mean it going to happen.

I think they pretty much use a matrix of stats and come up with a probabilty index.

Much of it is based on career stats by players and predicting what a rookie can contribute.

I cannot based anything from last year. I know we pretty much had Indy's number but they had a better record so its fair to say we gave them a pretty good game but they were the better team league wise.

Nets did not have BroPez and Deron they let shut down when ever he wanted to. They and washington will have a very different look to them. Im not talking uniforms either.

What the Knicks (or any other team "SHOULD" do and the end result is always fun to watch.

Well, we are a bit too low. I do think we finish top 3 in the East. But, look at what we added and look at what we lost. Yes, we have a pretty good bench from the PG position but we lost our PG and replaced him with Felton. I liked Felton, but much preferred Lin - hard worker, period. I hope Felton comes to play, if he does, we will probably be all right. But I think our chance at really going for it went out the door with Lin - he and Chandler to me were the heart and soul of the team. Chandler probably keeps the team together and as others have said, chemistry is what this team needs now. On a smaller note, much smaller, I do wonder if we will notice much of Lins Buddy being gone to Toronto. I bet he plays really well there, but he just didn't fit the more iso nature of this team.

Lin>Felton
Lando>Brewer
Camby>JJ2
Kidd>Baron
Pablo=Bibby (Bibby came up nice in the playoffs)

What am I missing?

On paper one can say we better in some areas, weaker in others.

Amare SHOULD be a monster! That alone could be a big difference!

And melo is in great shape

Nalod wrote:

SupremeCommander wrote:according to that we're a game off of 4th place. One of these years age is going to catch up to Boston. Really not too far away from finishing second, according to this.

I think Washington is over looked a bit. They added Reezy, Nene and Okafor. Nene is a more natural 4. If Wall starts to play up to his potential thats a nice 4. Is it a 40 win team? That I can't say but they won't be a joke anymore especially at home.

I agree and Bradley Beal could turn out to be really good, especially because there aren't really any young SGs in the league that could turn out to be a star. I live right outside DC and am considering a mini-plan for the Wiz