Atlantic Division

New York Knicks Power Rankings - 2011-12

Power Ranking
WEEKRECORDRANKCOMMENT
Week 1734-3010Expounding on our Heat thoughts: Miami's road back to the Finals gets infinitely easier if the Knicks finish sixth and thus spare the Heaters from having to beat New York and Indy just to get to Chicago. Not that the Knicks can spend too much time thinking about all that when Amare's return is causing such angst.
Week 1631-2911They've withstood the injuries to Amare and J-Lin, but Tyson Chandler is another matter. If the Knicks' defensive anchor can't shake this knee problem, go ahead and ditch any of those fantasies you have about these Knicks recreating what they did in 1999 as a No. 8 seed in a lockout-shortened season.
Week 1529-2711Quite an Easter Sunday for the Knicks. Spoiled D-Rose's return, moved to 11-3 (8-0 at home) under Woody, generated Melo's happiest headlines in months and even coaxed the reclusive Larry Johnson back to the organization to get some of that 1999 Finals mojo in the fold from the last lockout-shortened season.
Week 1427-2616Linsanity launched, peaked and cratered in a total of 57 days. Can the Knicks get higher than the dreaded seventh or eighth spot without J-Lin or Amare? For all the good things happening under Woodson, they can't get any lasting separation from the .500 mark, which they've seen 10 times already this season.
Week 1324-2515After another thud in the Knicks' roller-coaster season, they've got an immediate opportunity to avenge the Toronto setback in a huge home game Monday night against their closest pursuer in the standings. The Bucks won the season's first two meetings, but this is an all-new team defensively under Woodson.
Week 1221-2417They're clearly playing harder/looking happier under Woodson already. Just be advised that only two teams in the 16-team playoff era (starting in 1983-84) have changed coaches after the All-Star break and still won a playoff series: Dallas in '04-05 and New York in '95-96 ... and Don Nelson was the outgoing coach both times.
Week 1118-2320If you're going to crash, there's nowhere worse to do it than Gotham, where Linsanity suddenly feels like it happened under Red Holzman. The Knicks are 2-7 since Melo returned on Feb. 20 ... and no one at MSG seems terribly interested in hearing about a harder schedule or the impact of Chandler's ill health.
Week 1018-1916Not totally sure I can get away with saying this after Rondo abused them at Sunday brunch, but here goes: Still think the Knicks, at playoff time, can be the East's most dangerous team outside of the Miami-Chicago duopoly. At the very least you must agree no team in the East has more in-season room to improve.
Week 917-1815Jeremy Lin, as predicted, couldn't divert any All-Star spotlight from Dwight. But the fairy-tale ride Lin has taken the formerly 8-15 Knicks on sure made the Magic's February more tolerable. Let's just hope Lin isn't as weary as he looked over the weekend. You don't have to be a Knicks fan to want to see this saga continue.
Week 816-1610K-Mart's right in a way: All this skepticism about how Melo's going to "fit" isn't fair for a scorer of his stature. But it's also still unavoidable if you watched the way J-Lin's Knicks were flying around against Dallas. The confident kiddies are playing true D'Antoni Ball now. Must-see TV when Iso Melo joins in.
Week 713-1517Not surprised at all to hear that Spike Lee has been texting Mark Jackson to thank the Dubs' new coach for not keeping Jeremy Lin. Very surprised to hear, after the fairy-tale week Lin and the Knicks just had, that Spike hasn't already started production on some sort of Linsanity movie or documentary.
Week 69-1525Really don't think the Knicks can/will fire D'Antoni when he has no vet PGs and no reliable shooters. So it says here that Jeremy Lin's 25-point eruption against the Nets, though painted as the coach's salvation, did more for Lin than anyone else, given that his contract isn't guaranteed unless he's on the roster past 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Week 57-1327Whoever came up with Baron Or Bust was dead on. The Knicks have no PG and are shooting the ball worse than any Knicks team (41.4 percent) since the 1960-61 Knicks (41.0 percent) ... and this is all D'Antoni's fault? Of course, it wasn't all Flip's fault in Washington, either, and we all know what happened there.
Week 46-1025As rough as things are with no real PG and Amare and Melo meshing worse than the loudest naysayers projected, I'd still have done the Melo deal. The Knicks clearly surrendered more than anyone thought at the time, but it's still harder than anything to get players that good.
Week 36-616Baron is likely still out until the end of the month, Melo has a bad ankle and Amare isn't quite right, either. After five seasons in a row averaging better than 20 ppg and shooting at least 50 percent from the floor, STAT's at 18.7 ppg on 41.4 percent shooting so far.
Week 24-417A mere six days after the humiliation of surrendering 118 points at home to Charlotte, New York has the privilege of hosting the Bobs again at MSG on Monday night. No less worrisome than a no-show outing like that: Amare and Melo are already banged up.
Week 12-213You already knew that the Knicks desperately need someone with a dependable floor game who can make the game easier. You simply know it better now after the ups and downs of their first four games. Baron Davis can't get healthy soon enough.
Preseason42-406To pick the Knicks to trump Boston in the Atlantic Division, you have to truly believe that Tyson Chandler will have a transformative impact defensively and that Baron Davis will soon be reborn playing in the arena of his dreams. Guilty and guilty.
Training Camp16-160K-Mart's right in a way: All this skepticism about how Melo's going to "fit" isn't fair for a scorer of his stature. But it's also still unavoidable if you watched the way J-Lin's Knicks were flying around against Dallas. The confident kiddies are playing true D'Antoni Ball now. Must-see TV when Iso Melo joins in.

New York Knicks