The New York Knickstape is in for a interesting few weeks. They have games with their now biggest rival and a couple dates with ex-girlfriends, although no offense to Jeremy Lin and Mike D’Antoni, they arouse those type’s of feelings.

The Nets should be the focus for the Knicks, the first game between the two gave the Nets a victory because the Jerry Stackhouse couldn’t be stopped. This game will be the second in a row played at the new and improved Barclay’s Center, where surprisingly the Nets held a dominant home-crowd.

If the Knicks want to win this game they’ll have to do a couple things very well. First, they’ll have to close out on three’s. Last game they just didn’t seem to be able to rotate fast enough against an offense that was firing on all cylinders. Second, Anthony will have to be able to ease back into the game. After missing a few starts with that lacerated finger, Anthony came out strong in a victory over the Denver Nuggets, but he still needs to try and not do too much for a Knicks team that doesn’t need him to do it all anymore.

Moving on to Lin and the Rockets, who last time handed the Knicks an embarrassing

131-103 loss on Nov. 23.  This time the Knicks will have the home-crowd at MSG, where they currently are 8-0. It should be a good game, but with better inside play the game will come nowhere close to being that lopsided.

Lin said after the victory, “Today was a big step in the right direction in the way we want to play. … The way we moved the ball on offense and spread the floor, that’s something that we want to build off of.”

Since then they’re 3-3, the big win didn’t provide the exact momentum they were looking for. Regardless it should be a close one in New York, but the Knicks should be favored for good reason.

Christmas Day the Knicks will take on the Lakers, who are running into a lot of the problems that the Knicks did in the period directly following the trade for Anthony. Stars can’t seem to mesh together and team chemistry doesn’t come overnight. We’ll have full coverage on that matchup as the time draws near.

Check back tomorrow for more coverage and reactions from the New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets game tomorrow.

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The NBA saw a season in 2011-2012 that was founded on players coming together to win

Kemba Walker and the Bobcats have been a pleasant surprise at 6-5 so far this season. (Photo courtesy of ESPN)

championships.  The king of those team’s, the Miami Heat indeed won the championship and it looked like this trend was going to continue for seasons to come.

Enter Dwight Howard, leaving the single superstar Orlando Magic to team up with Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash in Los Angeles. Another team that wanted to come together to win a championship, they were added to the list of the Heat, Thunder, Lakers, Knicks, Clippers and Nets that have tried to add enough super stars to get over the hump.

This hasn’t been the case though; in the first portion of the season we’ve seen more parity from teams without the multitude of superstars. There are 10 teams that don’t have 2 or more superstars that are above .500 now.  The teams that need highlighted here are the Charlotte Bobcats, the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors.

Why these teams? It’s because they have one, or no, superstars on their team. The Bobcats won seven games in all of last season, they’re already 6-5 and improving. Led behind some solid off-season moves, Michael Jordan’s team has looked much better than their awful season. I doubt they’ll be able to sustain that record and make a playoff run, but without a true superstar it has still been a pleasant surprise.

The biggest surprise has been the Houston Rockets. After acquiring James Harden via the Oklahoma City Thunder, he’s been the man for the Rockets playing alongside Jeremy Lin. These two were supporting role players in the previous year, but this year are adding parity to the NBA.

The parity has been nice so far, it’s created an atmosphere where every game isn’t predictable and role players are rising up. Yes, it’s a long season and some of them won’t stay hot for awhile, but some will. A strong start is the best thing that can happen to small market NBA teams like Houston or Charlotte. It allows them to build fan interest early and make the money to stay competitive.

Parity is up compared to the previous season, whether a result of the new CBA or just a lucky shift of players is good for the league. It allows more money to be made league wide and allows fans the opportunity to see good basketball across the league.

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That headline comes to us courtesy not only from NN*L but from the miraculous start of the Knicks. Coming into the season with so many questions, the Knicks first game against Brooklyn was postponed, but the Knicks then demolished Miami and Philadelphia twice. The best part about the 3-0 starts is that all victories came by more than 15 points.

Carmelo Anthony has arguably been the best player in the NBA this season, minus James Harden so far. He’s averaging 28.5 points per game and has looked mighty efficient out there. Not only his scoring has been impressive though, Anthony is known as a great passer, but has in previous year’s elected many times to not give up the ball in favor of a bad shot. Not the case this year—Anthony is drawing doubles and finding the open man much more often than usual.

The other key to their great start is the two point guard lineup they’ve been using with Jason Kidd and Raymond Felton.This lineup has by far been the most efficient, Kidd and Felton are both hitting their shots. Kidd is shooting almost 55% from 3 point range while Felton is a little lower at 44% on field goals, he’s averaging 6 assists on only 28.7 minutes.

The Knicks lineup is the oldest in the NBA, but Mike Woodson has been keeping the players fresh. The Knicks only have two players averaging more than 30 minutes a game, Anthony and JR Smith, and that is a good thing. The bench contribution has been the most important part of their start and will be key to their season effort.

One thing to keep an eye on though is how Melo plays the power forward. When Amar’e comes back he’ll most likely be inserted there and Melo back at the SF position. I think that would be a mistake if they continue to play like this, although Amar’e has the max contract I think it’s best for him to come off of the bench in a sixth man type of roll when Melo or Chandler is out and play him at the 4 or 5 in those situations. His knees are only getting older so reducing his minutes could greatly improve his efficiency. Whether Woodson would actually do that is uncertain.

All we know now is that the Knicks are hot and look determined this season.

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Carmelo Anthony in action against the Brooklyn Nets this pre-season.

The 2012-2013 New York Knicks have an uphill battle this season if they want to improve on their previous season’s results. Although their first round exit in the NBA playoffs was disappointing  their first playoff victory in a decade was a step in the right direction, but doing any better this season seems unlikely though.

The Heat have a stranglehold on the Eastern Conference, and the Celtics have a hold on the Atlantic Division. The Celtics still have some question marks after losing Ray Allen to the Heat, but they return Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, who even as they have aged haven’t slowed up much in production. Rondo is undoubtedly one of the best point guard’s in the league and will continue being a walking double double regardless of having Ray Allen.

The Knicks 36-30 record was good enough for eighth in the conference. It was a season of ups and downs, with the explosion of Jeremy Lin and the rising and falling spurts from Carmelo Anthony.

Mike Woodson will get his first chance at a full season of coaching, one that he will need to improve their winning percentage, get out of the 7/8 seed spot and compete for a division championship in order to keep off of the hot seat. The Knicks are in win-now mode and need to be as their stars are only aging further. Their off-season moves were geared towards getting players with experience, something that shows their win-now mode. But how did their off-season fair?

Discussing the off-season moves

The draft was unsuccessful for the Knicks, they have nothing to show for their one pick they actually had in the draft. They had traded away their first round pick in a previous trade, and held only a second round pick.

With their second round pick they drafted Kostas Papanikolaou, a promising role player from Greece, who ended up being dealt in the sign-and-trade of Raymond Felton to the Portland Trailblazers. That trade sent Jared Jeffries, Kostas Papanikolaou, Dan Gadzuric and a second round pick to the Trailblazers in return for PG Raymond Felton and PF Kurt Thomas.

The sign-and-trade stemmed from one of the biggest debacles of the off-season, Jeremy Lin. NBA Insider Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported in this tweet:

Source with knowledge of Knicks’ thinking: “They will match any offer on Lin up to 1 billion dollars”

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 5, 2012

This was untrue and the Knicks passed up on the poison-pill contract of 4 years, $28.8 million with the fourth year being a team option. the poison-pill refers to the way the contract was back loaded. The third year of Lin’s contract would have cost the Knicks $9.3 million, something management decided was beyond their willingness to pay. If the Knicks matched the offer sheet they would have had to pay a massive luxury tax, something James Dolan wasn’t willing to pay.

Linsanity was a crazy 20 game stretch but management decided that this was too much to pay for an unproven star and decided to give up their young upside talent to obtain two veteran point guards instead. They obtained one via free-agency and other other via the sign and trade with Portland.

They added Jason Kidd as an unrestricted free agent in a two-year deal. Kidd has had a pretty sharp decline in his skills, He averaged career lows in the 2011-2012 season (6.2ppg, 5.5 apg season vs. 13.0 ppg 9.0 apg career) and seemed much slower than his previous days. He’ll play backup to felton and provide as a solid chemistry player to the team.

In the frontcourt they added veteran, and yes very, very veteran, big men in Kurt Thomas and Marcus Camby. Camby should be a solid backup to Tyson Chandler. Chandler has had some knee issues but Camby can slide right in and play tough defense as well. It’ll be interesting to see how many minutes Thomas will be able to log at age 40.

Russell should see less playing time than Camby, but with Amar’e Stoudemire out for at least six weeks with his recurring knee issue we’ll have to see how Woodson decides to use him.

The Knicks lost Landry Fields to Toronto by not matching their massive offer sheet to him. The Raptors wanted to block the Knicks from getting Steve Nash by taking away the Knicks ability to use fields as trade considerations. Toronto hugely overpaid for a player that became an afterthought in New York after the Anthony trade. It was a good decision for the Knicks to to mach.

Overall, the off-season was highlighted by the decision to let Jeremy Lin go even though he sparked the middle of the season after the playoff outlook was grim. Linsanity was a great period for the Knicks, but I agree with their decision to let him go. It was just too much money to keep someone who had only performed well for 15-20 games. After his late season knee injury we’re not sure where Lin even is. He had 12 points and 8 assists in his Rockets debut.

I expect Raymond Felton to return to the form which he was in previously on the Knicks and be able to lead the offense effectively.

Injuries

The Knicks season hasn’t even started yet and already there are some serious injury issues that  need to be looked at realistically. The Knicks gave Amar’e a giant contract even though his knees are that of an old man. He re-injured his left knee recently and according to ESPN he’s going to be out for at least six weeks. The article goes on to say they don’t know whether he’ll undergo a procedure or just rehab the knee. Either way it isn’t good and Amar’e will most likely be nagged by this all season, harboring his production for the 2nd year in a row.

Tyson Chandler has also had some knee issues and had a collision with Gerald Wallace

Tyson Chandler grimaces in pain after suffering a knee injury early in their pre-season game against the Nets. (Credit NY Daily News)

last week in the Knicks pre-season game against the Brooklyn Nets.  If this nags him throughout the season it could be a long year for the Knicks who desperately need the defense of the returning Defensive Player of the Year 2011-2012. He’ll supposedly be ready for the opener, but keep an eye out on Chandler’s knee.

What to expect/Predictions

First let’s just start with an overall season overview and where NYKnicksTape predicts the Knicks to finish in their conference, division and overall record. The eastern conference will most likely be run-away with by the returning champion Miami Heat. Here’s our prediction for the end of the regular season standings by record in the Eastern Conference, along with a brief explanation:

1. Miami Heat – Returning NBA Champs are just ahead of everyone else in the Eastern conference, with the Celtics aging I don’t think anyone will unseat the Heat, especially with Lebron James in prime form.
2. Boston Celtics- Losing Ray Allen hurts the Celtics, but they still have significant talent with Rondo, Pierce and Garnett. Those three are more than enough to get them to second in the conference. Their bench arguably got better this year too, and Doc Rivers is one of the best coaches at managing his bench.
3. Indiana Pacers-They have a lot of pieces and will be a very good regular season team. Good enough to win their division and place third in the conference.
4. Chicago Bulls-No Derrick Rose, so what? This team played very well without Rose in the previous season and I don’t see them playing that much worse. Yes they lost Omar Asik, Ronnie Brewer and Kyle Korver, but those pieces shouldn’t matter too much as long as Luol Deng can be the all-star caliber player he has shown himself to be.
5. New York Knicks- The Knicks won’t win their division, but will play well under the leadership of Carmelo Anthony, and with so many veteran players they’ll be much more consistent. This will lead to the ability to put together some good stretches of play. No Linsanity this year, but consistency will help them to fifth place.
6. Brooklyn Nets- From last in the division to making the playoffs is a huge leap, but they’ve added heaps of talent this off-season and will make their first playoff appearance in their first year in Brooklyn under the superstar talents of Deron Williams.
7. Philadelphia 76ers- Although they lost some pieces, they have Andrew Bynum who is an offensive beast. The East drops off talent-wise around here so it shouldn’t be to rough for the 76ers to make it back to the playoffs.
8. Milwaukee Bucks-My surprise playoff team. Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings are a dynamic duo that with some improved play from some role-playing big men can make a run at the eighth seed in the Eastern conference. This 8th seed is up for grabs though, another team that could make a strong run is the Raptors, but we’ll have to see their first few games to see how good they actually are.

Atlantic Division

1. Boston Celtics
2. New York Knicks
3. Brooklyn Nets
4. Philadelphia 76ers
5. Toronto Raptors

The division is more set in place than the conference I believe, the most believe change in this prediction would be the flipping of the Nets and Knicks or the flipping of the Raptors and 76ers. The Raptors could be a stealthy good team with some of their additions and the maturing of their better players. The Celtics are pretty much a lock for the division title, although we’ll have to see how the Knicks and Nets fare in the begging of the season before citing them a total lock.

Knicks predicted record: 48-34

50 wins probably aren’t in the cards this year, but the Knicks will be close. They’re improving year by year, but the time to win is now.  Although getting better yearly certainly can’t hurt, the division is only getting better talent wise, so the Knicks will have to match or do better than this record to prove they can be a dominant force not only in the division but also the East.

Melo will have to lead this charge to the fifth seed in the East if they want to get out of the bottom two seeds rut they’ve been in the last two years. Melo is certainly capable as we saw at the end of last season, but someone else is going to have to step up offensively as well. Melo can be the man, but the team has to be firing on all cylinders to win playoff games.

I think that person that steps up will be Raymond Felton, Felton was in all-star level form during his first stint with the Knicks, and running the pick and roll again he can be the facilitator the Knicks have been looking for since the Melo trade.

The dark horse bench player to step up would be Chris Copeland, who performed well during the pre-season,with the Amar’e Stoudemire injury will probably see some decent minutes at the beginning of the season and have the ability to prove himself. He exploded for more than 20 points multiple times during the pre-season and was very aggressive with his offensive game. If he can fill the void of Stoudemire, the Knicks will be a much better off. The Knicks need some youth to step on the oldest team in the history of the NBA.

This season should end at best in the second round though. If they can avoid the Heat or Celtics in the first round a playoff series could be winnable, but after that it seems pretty bleak for them to make it past the second round. The second round would be a step forward, but this team needs to show serious improvement before we can come close to talking about an upset over the Heat or Celtics in a seven game playoff series.

This has been your season preview for the 2012-2013 Knicks. We’ll be bringing you coverage after every game with a game recap and analysis looking forward. including returning our picture of the day posts as well. We’ll also be introducing a few new types of posts: 1) Social Media Update post in which you can get the previous few days talk on twitter in just a few short minutes, 2) What if’s for the Knicks because who doesn’t like wondering about the what if’s? 3)D-League update will provide a quick update of the Knicks d-league talent and how they’re developing.

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The NBA has decided to postpone the Thursday opener between the in-town rival New York Knicks at the brand new Barclays Center of the Brooklyn Nets. The make-up date has not been announced yet, but the NBA stated that they would announce it at a later date.

Jumping right into analysis, I think that this is bad for the Knicks. They just defeated the Nets a week ago in overtime and would have played confident. They finally would be the team with some chemistry going after not making too huge of changes over the off-season.

The Nets are only going to get better with time, and this game will most likely be scheduled later in the season. This means the Knicks will have to play the Nets at a time when they will have their legs under them, right now they could catch them off-guard and in the emotion of playing in a new arena.

More to come when it is announced. For now the Knicks are planning to open on November 2nd against the Miami Heat at Madison Square Garden. The game will air at 8:00 PM ET on national television on ESPN.