Celtics still better than Knicks?

[RyNye]

i truly believe that the loss of Green this year, is a huge blow to Banner 18. Not blaming JG or Danny. our Bench could have been great, now its just ok...and yes i think it could be

1 Bulls
2 Heat
3 Knicks
4 Celtics
5 Orlando

I really just don't see the Knicks being good. I don't know why people are so enthusiastic about them. Melo and Amare are good offensively (Melo, though, is an overrated volume scorer ... sure, he puts up the points, but he does so little else for the team that it actually hurts their officiency), but don't do anything defensively. They have no PG (Baron Davis is out for 8-10 weeks, and when he comes back is a long shot to be decent). They have a defensively minded center who had one great season and a bunch of below averages ones, so he is a bit of an unknown; but, even so, Chandler is only going to help so much if there's essentially zero defense going on at every other roster spot. Unless D'Antoni, Melo, and Amare COMPLETELY change their respective styles that they have previously adhered to, I don't see them improving noticeably.

Also, I think Orlando is going to be floating around the 7 or 8 seed. They look awful going into this year, and there's little to no guarantee Dwight is going to be playing that hard if he is just trying to leave. In fact, he has shown himself to be such a primadonna he might even intentionally play worse so they will trade him quicker and for less.

[Evantime34]

I think good defense always beats good offense.  Which is why the Celtics will be better this year. Chandler is a good defender but he's the only one on their team.

Although, if Baron Davis decides to get in shape and plays like he is capable of that could shift the balance.

[slamtheking]

I think the Knicks will be better than expected but I think the C's will put in just enough effort this year to win the division.  They may not care about getting the #1 seed (which I still think will bite them in the butt since I think it was the deciding factor in the title loss to LA) but I think they'll see the benefits of winning the division and put in the effort to get it.

In a 7-game playoff, I'll take the C's in 5 based on current rosters.