With rosters pretty much getting set except for a few final pieces around the NBA — save for one big shakeup still to come out of Orlando… eventually — we can start to get a serious look at how rosters are shaking out.
And after all the moves the Nets made so they could open the new Barclays center — re-signing Deron Williams, trading for Joe Johnson, bringing back Brook Lopez, Kris Humphries and Gerald Henderson — you can start to ask a question:
Who will be better, the Knicks or the Nets?
The fantastic Tom Haberstroh at ESPN ran some advanced stats projections and the stats liked Brooklyn.
Haberstroh is right, Williams is the best player on either team — before you start saying Carmelo Anthony know the Knicks are not playing Nigeria this season. In the NBA Carmelo scores a lot of points but takes a lot of shots to do it, he takes a lot of contested jumpers.
The stats don’t love Amare Stoudemire, they like Humphries better. And the Knicks bench additions of Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas and Jason Kidd are not game changers.
I think the two teams will be close in record. The Nets are going to score a lot of points but it is going to take years off Avery Johnson’s life as he tries to get them to defend. Mike Woodson did get the Knicks to defend but unless they find a way to get ‘Melo and Stoudemire to play together seamlessly they have a ceiling. One that isn’t dramatically better than the seventh seed they were last year, maybe a four or five seed.
And it is possible that the first round four/five matchup in the Eastern Conference playoffs next year would be Brooklyn and New York. And then the battle for New York would really be on.
