Ian Thomsen believes in Knicks/Nets, not in Boston

[D Dub]

Wow. This guy is a moron. I dont understand the infatuation with the "New Look" Nets. This team was 22 and 44 last year and added a Mediocre "Star" in Joe Johnson. They have a roster of above average but way below average stars or role players.

Williams/No one
Johnson/Brooks
Wallace/Childress
Humphries/Evans
Lopez/Blatche

Plus Bogans and Stackhouse

What a terrible terrible bench to go along with an overrated starting lineup. I say they finish barely above 500.

The Knicks I could see as a team that could turn A LOT of heads...IF... everything goes right, and that would be a huge if. But they made good additions and I think Tyson Chandler is extremely undervalued as a player and can really bring a team together. I am not afraid to admit that I think Chandler is going to be a much better second fiddle to Melo this year than Amare.

However, neither are going to be able to beat the celtics.

i thought the Nets looked pretty tough once they got Wallace together with Williams. 

It didn't show up in their final record (probably played < 10 games together) but I saw enough to believe they're likely a 6 ish seed that could end up the 2nd round this year.

I can believe how well balanced and put together their starting unit is.  We'll see how well they play, but they look like the right pieces.

After that, it gets dicey, but if Brooks and Blatche can provide bench scoring and Childress can return to defensive form, they could have one heck of a bench, minus a couple of minimum guys.  It's well put together for a shot at a bench.

Reggie Evans is poised too.  One of the top box-out guys always impacting big games with physicality.

and wasn't CJ Watson the guy leading Chicago to all those wins with Rose out last year?

Figure those two, plus a scorer in Brooks, and their rotation should be pretty good.  Need more size, but who doesn't?

[colincb]

We're doomed.

Pretty bad analysis from SI.

[Who]

Wow. This guy is a moron. I dont understand the infatuation with the "New Look" Nets. This team was 22 and 44 last year and added a Mediocre "Star" in Joe Johnson. They have a roster of above average but way below average stars or role players.

Williams/No one
Johnson/Brooks
Wallace/Childress
Humphries/Evans
Lopez/Blatche

Plus Bogans and Stackhouse

What a terrible terrible bench to go along with an overrated starting lineup. I say they finish barely above 500.

The Knicks I could see as a team that could turn A LOT of heads...IF... everything goes right, and that would be a huge if. But they made good additions and I think Tyson Chandler is extremely undervalued as a player and can really bring a team together. I am not afraid to admit that I think Chandler is going to be a much better second fiddle to Melo this year than Amare.

However, neither are going to be able to beat the celtics.

i thought the Nets looked pretty tough once they got Wallace together with Williams. 

It didn't show up in their final record (probably played < 10 games together) but I saw enough to believe they're likely a 6 ish seed that could end up the 2nd round this year.

I can believe how well balanced and put together their starting unit is.  We'll see how well they play, but they look like the right pieces.

After that, it gets dicey, but if Brooks and Blatche can provide bench scoring and Childress can return to defensive form, they could have one heck of a bench, minus a couple of minimum guys.  It's well put together for a shot at a bench.

Lack a high level interior defender. A Varejao type to play alongside Brook Lopez. I think if Brooklyn could add someone like that, they could become a genuine title contender. 

Their backup bigs (R.Evans, A.Blatche) compound their starting bigs' (Kris Humphries, Brook Lopez) weaknesses defensively. Their interior defense is just too vulnerable right now.

Edit: On the starting lineup, Kris Humphries is the guy who is out of place there. He doesn't add enough offensively (to make up for his team's dodgy interior defense) or defensively (to fix their interior D) to justify his presence there. Brooklyn needs to bring in someone else in and make Humphries the backup PF.

[LarBrd33]

I don't really see anything special about the Knicks, but the Nets have a solid team over there.  On paper they can be great. 

On paper, we're mediocre.  Just a bunch of average players surrounding Rondo.

Let's hope the paper Nets and paper Celtics don't equal the real deal.

If KG plays like KG did at the tail end of last season, we have a team.  If Pierce is still Pierce, we'll be solid.  If Avery Bradley is as good as we hope, it could get interesting. If we get impact from Jeff Green and Sully... we could make a deep playoff run.

[indeedproceed]

The Knicks and Nets could conceivably pass the celtics in terms of regular season wins, but that's because for the NY teams, their 3 best players are all within or just outside their primes. The regular season favors the young and the healthy, and the Celtics are one 3 week injury to KG away from falling from a likely top 3 seed to a 4-6 seed.

That said, the Knicks and Nets both have giant question marks, significant injury concerns, and a succesful identity yet to be formed. The Sixers and Raptors will both likely be better than advertised, the Sixers especially are an Evan Turner leap froward away from challenging for the division in my mind.

The Cs have to be the favorite though.

[indeedproceed]

I will again reinterate that the Raptors and Sixers are gonna be just fun to watch some nights. Tons of talent on both teams, athleticism, and potential.

With the magic falling out of the playoffs completely, the Hawks likely a fringe playoff team at best, if the Sixers gel well with Bynum and the new leadership roles for Holiday, Bynum, and Turner, and the raptors rally around Lowry like the rockets did early last season, it's gonna be a good year for the off maligned Atlantic division.

[guava_wrench]

Very exaggerated title for this thread.

He didn't say much against Boston. He just said who he thinks will have a better record. Then the OP fixates on the word 'old' while Thomsen didn't explicitly focuses on age.

Why not pick those teams to have a better regular season record? We can be erratic in the regular season. Add to that further reduced PT for KG and likely the same for Pierce. NJ and NY will be trying to prove something all regular season, as will their coaches.

Thomsen's rankings are not at all unreasonable.

[indeedproceed]

Very exaggerated title for this thread.

He didn't say much against Boston. He just said who he thinks will have a better record. Then the OP fixates on the word 'old' while Thomsen didn't explicitly focuses on age.

Why not pick those teams to have a better regular season record? We can be erratic in the regular season. Add to that further reduced PT for KG and likely the same for Pierce. NJ and NY will be trying to prove something all regular season, as will their coaches.

Thomsen's rankings are not at all unreasonable.

The Nets in particular have a good shot at challenging for a pretty high seed along with the division. They need vintage and motivated Deron Williams to do it, and a decent step forward and healthy season from Brook Lopez to do it, but they've got some really interesting pieces.

[OsirusCeltics]

The Nets will be good, but not better than us. If some can convince Lopez to rebound again there starting lineup is among the best in the east. I expect 50 wins from that lineup. I'd say the east finishes like this:

1.)Miami
2.)Boston
3.)Indiana
4.)Brooklyn
5.)Knicks
6.)Chicago
7.)Philadelphia
8.)Who knows?

The atlantic division will be the toughest in the east.

Ahhh it reminds me of the days in 2000-2003 when the Atlantic Division was so dominant, all the teams in the playoffs. Celtics, Raptors, Knicks, Nets, Sixers. Good old days

[indeedproceed]

Quick name the Raptors' tough role playing F/C from those days from overseas. No cheating!!

[chambers]

He claimed that Carmelo was in fantastic shape after the Olympics...I only saw 10 minutes of the Knicks game the other day but Carmelo looke like marshmellow to me.
This guy has no clue.
If anything it's going to be a 3 horse race between the Celtics/Nets/Sixers.

[alley oop]

After Rondo was suspended the first time last season, Ian Thompson said the Celtics needed to trade him soon because his value was only going to go down as the skills of “the Big 3” kept going down.

[Edgar]

and I quote

Pulling all of this together is Rajon Rondo, the last of the pure point guards, who remains hungry to prove he is the league's best at his position. The Celtics will be leaning on him more than ever

soooo.......

I like this part

[Fan from VT]

Quick name the Raptors' tough role playing F/C from those days from overseas. No cheating!!

Valiceunakis

[Fan from VT]

Quick name the Raptors' tough role playing F/C from those days from overseas. No cheating!!

Valiceunakis

Ooooh, close. Kind of.

Jonas Valanciunas