For Knicks fans like I, who’ve had to endure a decade of mediocrity (that’s being nice), the arrival of Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to team up with Amar’e Stoudemire, has rejuvenated my fandom for the NBA. There are a slew of reasons why that is so; they are now exciting to watch as they are at least competitive, have two dominate players that can take over games on any given night at any given time, I get to break out my Knicks jerseys from the 90’s and can wear them proudly (maybe not), but most importantly the hope for an NBA title in my lifetime seems closer than ever.
For this I am happy. (And even happier for this video! Kids a genius.)
The NBA is not a hard league to understand. On any given night during a grueling 82 game season, any team can win, much like football, but the regular season is not that important. The playoffs are what matter. Does your team have enough fire power to beat another team in a seven game series and more importantly, could they do this four times in a row to achieve the NBA title?
Every decade has only so many superstars that can transcend the game and history has proven, that in the playoffs, to win consecutive seven game series and take your team to the title comes down to one glaring reality. Does your team have two of the top three players in the entire series?
Sure there are upsets in the NBA playoffs, the 1995 8th seed Denver Nuggets knocking off the #1 Seattle Supersonics and the Knicks of 99’ doing the same to the New Jersey Nets, but never, ever has those teams pulled the unthinkable and won the entire thing. There are one series upsets, maybe two, but to win four in a row is just plain hard. Talent always wins out when teams are able to practice only for each other and to prove that fact; here are the last 21 NBA Finals matchups (since 1990), who won and the three best players on the court in each.
1990 – Detroit Pistons beat Portland Trailblazers 4-1
Isaiah Thomas, Clyde Drexler, Joe Dumars
1991 – Chicago Bulls beat LA Lakers 4-1
Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Scottie Pippen
1992 – Chicago Bulls beat Portland Trailblazers 4-2
Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler, Scottie Pippen
1993 – Chicago Bulls beat Phoenix Suns 4-2
Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen
1994 – Houston Rockets beat NY Knicks 4-3
Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Kenny Smith
(Sorry Knick fans, as much I loved Oak, Mason, Starks and Harper...none were a solid #2....we should have traded for Mitch Richmond and we win this series!)
1995 – Houston Rockets beat Orlando Magic 4-0
Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal, Clyde Drexler
1996 – Chicago Bulls beat Seattle Supersonics 4-2
Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Gary Payton
1997 – Chicago Bulls beat Utah Jazz 4-2
Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen
1998 – Chicago Bulls beat Utah Jazz 4-2
Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen
1999 – San Antonio Spurs beat NY Knicks 4-1
Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Latrell Sprewell
2000 – LA Lakers beat Indiana Pacers 4-2
Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Reggie Miller
2001 – LA Lakers beat Philadelphia 76ers 4-1
Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson
2002 – LA Lakers beat NJ Nets 4-0
Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd
2003 – San Antonio Spurs beat NJ Nets 4-2
Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Jason Kidd
2004 – Detroit Pistons beat LA Lakers 4-1
Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, (One of the 4 Pistons stars)
2005 – San Antonio Spurs beat Detroit Pistons 4-3
Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Chauncey Billups
2006 – Miami Heat beat Dallas Mavericks 4-2
Dwayne Wade, Dirk Nowitski, Shaquille O’Neal
2007 – San Antonio Spurs beat Cleveland Cavaliers 4-0
Lebron James, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker
2008 – Boston Celtics beat LA Lakers 4-2
Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett
2009 – LA Lakers beat Orlando Magic 4-1
Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol
2010 – LA Lakers beat Boston Celtics 4-3
Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Pau Gasol
The trend is pretty obvious here. 2 of the best 3 players in every finals series were on the winning side. Sure there can be some debate like with the Bulls/Jazz matchups of the late 90’s. John Stockton was a phenomenal player, even with Pippen, but then going deeper into those rosters you’ll see that Dennis Rodman, Toni Kukoc, Steve Kerr and Ron Harper were much stouter than anyone else those Jazz teams had (Byron Russell, Jeff Hornacek and Greg Ostertag? Please). More recent, last year’s Lakers and Celtics teams were pretty even but that’s why the series went to a seventh game because both rosters were stout, no matter who won, they each had a slew of great NBA talent; hence why they got there in the first place.
The only exception to this rule is the 2004 Detroit Pistons, but looking back on those teams, one could argue that the Pistons had four all-star caliber players that were better than the third best player on the Lakers behind Shaq and Kobe. The Lakers were a mess that year yet still made the finals behind those two superstars. Shaq and Kobe were at odds and basically weren’t speaking to each other, they signed Karl Malone and Gary Payton who were far removed from the players they had been and Rick Fox and Robert Horry were in fast decline. The Pistons Ben Wallace, Rip Hamilton, Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace, none of whom could be considered superstars, were very good players who came out of a weak Eastern Conference and to their credit, were a dominating defensive team.
Basically though, having talented players at the top is the key to winning NBA championships and the Knicks acquiring Carmelo Anthony to pair with Amar’e Stoudemire is great start toward having an opportunity for that ultimate goal. The problem they face now is that they are one of a bunch of teams that also have multiple superstars. I think that Knicks fans have to temper expectations for this season and realize that this trade was not for immediate returns, but future rewards.
As a Knick fan, I think the best we should hope for this season would be a first round upset, but that will be no easy task. As we all know, the trade hasn’t seemed to help our defense that much; if at all, and again, it takes time to build chemistry within a team. Also, I don’t think Landry Fields, Shawne Williams or Ronny Turiaf make for good starters in this league. The Knicks will still need to add a center who can rebound and deter shots and a shooting guard who can defend the quicker guards in the league in the coming years (but where are they?).
So taking the NBA finals observation from above, I do think the Knicks could make noise in the playoffs this year and give us fans something to take with us leading into next year. Now which team would we love to face in the first round?
The obvious choice would be the Atlanta Hawks. After last night’s win in Atlanta, not only did we prove we could play with them, it appears like we would have home court advantage anyway seeing how the entire Atlanta crowd was chanting MVP for Stoudemire while he was shooting free throws and decimating the home team. The Hawks have a team of good players but none on the level of Amar’e and Carmelo but the only problem is, one of Boston, Chicago, Miami or Orlando will have to fall to the sixth seed…not happening. So basically, we will be facing one of the four best teams in the East and all seem to be pretty dominant (Yes, even crying Miami).
As of right now the Knicks at the 6th spot would face Miami who is in 3rd place in the first round. Sure we beat them the other day after another Lebron James missed shot, but this does not make me believe we could handle them for a seven game series. Doing my 2 of the best 3 players on the court analysis from above, it would easily be Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony. Over the course of seven games, I think they would figure out how to beat us by attacking our weakest links and run us out of the gym. Remember, a seven game series is much different than a random night in March.
If we were to somehow fall to the 8th spot, not only would D’Antoni be fired after the year, (which may be a good thing for this team as constructed, but that’s a whole different article) we would get to play Boston, than the analysis looks like this. Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, Paul Pierce. Yay, a win!?!? Not a chance Knick fans. Despite having the best two players in this one, Rondo, Pierce, Allen, and Garnett are right behind our two studs and Shaq, Davis, Green and Krystic destroy the two starters we currently have playing with Billups, Melo and Amar’e as well as our whole bench. We’d go down in 4, 5 if we’re lucky.
So honestly, I think our best shots would be against either Orlando or Chicago. Again, no easy task and we’d be the underdog of course, but having no pressure is never a bad thing. Doing the 2 out of 3 analysis for these matchups; versus Chicago its, Carmelo Anthony, Derrick Rose, Amar’e Stoudemire and versus Orlando it’s Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Amar’e Stoudemire. Now sure, the role players working around Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard are deeper than ours, but they aren’t superstars by any means.
This new Knicks team has yet to face Chicago but I think having Carmelo, Amar’e and Chauncey will give them a run for their money in a seven game series. I still think having a point guard who is your leading scorer, doesn’t make for a winning NBA team despite how great Derrick Rose is. Look at Allen Iverson with the 76ers. Sure they can get through a regular season and win tons of games, but a grueling playoff series is a whole different beast and if Derrick Rose brings his team to the promise land by winning the title this year, he’d be the first ever. I think having two guys who can blow up on any given night would give us a chance to pull off the upset here.
Now take the Magic. It’s a similar matchup for our Knicks like the Bulls would be. Honestly, I think the Magic were better with Vince Carter and Rashard Lewis and despite us blowing a big lead to them at home, again we are still only two weeks into this trade and since we are playing pretty much every night, with multiple back-to-back games, we haven’t had all that much practice. The Knicks could take a team like this the distance. I certainly think we could win 2 games, have a good chance at getting 3 wins and then anything can happen in a seventh game.
So basically Knick fans, we have a ton to look forward too. Even if we get ousted in the first round, the best is yet to come. We have a good amount of years to fill in the roster gaps around this team for the coming seasons. We have two megastars that can score at will, now we need to find our John Paxson, Robert Horry, Dennis Rodman, or Lamar Odom. Also, the Celtics might have one more year left in them and the Lakers probably two. Having the Celtics removed from this equation, should put the Knicks as one of the top four teams in the East and once again we can enjoy the beauty that is New York playoff basketball.
I am ready for the playoffs this year and hope this time OJ Simpson doesn’t jump in his Bronco and drive down the turnpike, because I still remember having to watch the Knicks game in the small little box on the upper left hand corner of my television…and it was still fantastic.
Go NY, Go NY, Go!
-Burl
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