A lot has changed in the Atlantic Division, not only in terms of faces but also in terms of places. New Jersey is no longer hosting the Nets; Brooklyn is the new home of the Nets that look ready for the play-offs after acquiring Joe Johnson and retaining the services of their star point-guard Deron Williams. Are they ready though to contend for, at least, the title of the division? I think yes but the competition will be great in the division I think is going to be represented by the most teams in the Eastern Conference play-offs.
Nets seem to have their best team since the 2002-03 season, when they reached the NBA Finals, only to lose to the San Antonio Spurs. But, does this mean that they are better than their New York rivals, or the new-look Philadelphia, which is building its own contender around its newly arrived tower – Andrew Bynum – or even from the aged but dangerous and experienced, Allen-less Celtics? I think not yet. In my view the final ranking of the teams in the Atlantic Division at the end of the 2012-13 season will look like this:
1) New York Knicks
2) Boston Celtics
3) Brooklyn Nets
4) Philadelphia 76ers
5) Toronto Raptors
I also believe that the first four teams will qualify for the play-offs, which means only the Raptors will go for early summer vacations. The Raptors are obviously the weaker team in the division even though they made a great move in acquiring Kyle Lowry from the Rockets. Lowry, if they can re-sign him, can be their franchise player. I like their future prospects, except from Lowry; they have DeRozan, who can become a future all-star if he works more on his shoot; they got Landry Fields from New York, another tall guard with defensive virtues; their Italian star Bargnani, who can only become better; and a new great prospect in Jonas Valanciunas, a super talented European-style center that can develop to an all-star if he gains some muscle and work on his post-game.
The Raptors can wait for better days in the future, just like the Philadelphia 76ers that made a radical change in their roster by acquiring arguably the top center of the game. Trading for Bynum was a bolt move that Sixers had to do, to change their fate. But, even if Bynum stays healthy, which I hope, the Sixers need more than him. They made some controversial moves during the summer and they now seem to be packed in the guard positions, while lacking a real power forward that will create, alongside Bynum, a truly powerful frontline for them. Jrue Holiday will probably be their point guard for years, and they are lucky to have him, and Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young are good investments. But, they definitely need to trade one/some of their wing players (Richardson, Nick Young, Wright, Wilkins) for a strong big man that will take some of the load off of Bynum’s shoulders.
If the Sixers get a real power forward, during the season, they will be able to change the balance of power in the Atlantic Division. But until that happens, the Brooklyn Nets seem better equipped to finish above them. With a starting line-up that most teams would envy the Nets look good; Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries, and Brook Lopez. If Lopez stays healthy he can be a top-5 center and dominate the paint many nights. The acquisition of Andray Blatche was a risky move that may be turn out as a steal if the man’s performance comes close to his 2010-11 season (16.8ppg, 8.2rpg.). The only other player that stands out from the otherwise weak Nets’ bench is the second-year guard MarShon Brooks that had a promising rookie year (12.6ppg.,3.6rpg.,2.3apg).
Brooklyn despite not being able to land Dwight Howard has a paly-offs-ready team, but with Howard in its roster would be able to finish above the Celtics and the Knicks. Celtics are, for now, a stronger team than the Nets, based on their experienced stars but mostly on their Rajon Rondo, who will be running the show again from the point guard position. They will definitely have to adjust to life without Ray Allen that moved to the rival Miami, but this is going to be easier having Jason Terry and Courtney Lee in the roster. I believe that the key points for the success of the Celtics will be a healthy Rondo, without him the Celtics are hardly a play-off team and a Garnett playing the center position with similar success as last year (15.8ppg, 8.2rpg). Of course I consider Paul Pierce able to play as Paul Pierce for one more year. Brandon Bass, Jeff Green and Avery Bradley, when he returns, will also be valuable members of 2012-13 Celtics’ team.
This means that the Atlantic-Division title is not, just yet, entirely a New York issue, as the Celtics still have some gas left in their tanks and the Nets some miles to go. But, the other New York team, the Knicks, seems to be more ready than even in the last decade to become the champion of the Atlantic Division. I think they have the right mixture of veterans, maybe a bit too many of them, young players and stars. Their roster contains players such as Jason Kidd, Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas and Rasheed Wallace, who came back from retirement, that have more than 15 years of NBA experience on their shoulders. But, they also have their own ‘Big-Three’ in Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler, from which I expect this year to see what the New York fans were expecting last year; to cooperate and dominate the game in both ends. If they do not make it this year then the only way for New York will be to break the trio.
They just can’t go wrong this year. Stoudemire has been working out, during the summer, with the best big-man of the 90s, Hakeem ‘the Dream’ Olajuwon; Mike Woodson is coaching the team from the beginning of a full season, Anthony and Chandler are coming from a summer where they won the gold medal at London’s Olympics; and they have players like Iman Shumpert, Raymond Felton and J.R. Smith making their backcourt as competent as it could be. For all these reasons I would be very surprised if the Knicks do not finish the season first in their division recording well above 50 wins.
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