The Knicks...

Tonight we will find out who runs New York... The Knicks or the Nets.  Both teams have some new acquisitions, and have had about 20 or so games to get used to the new line-ups.  The Nets now sporting point guard superstar Deron Williams, and the Knicks have scoring machine Carmelo Anthony to help out with Amare Stoudemire, not to mention old faithful, Chauncey Billups.  The Knicks definitly have the better roster, however they have been struggling as of late, and their win against the Magic doesn't quite make them whole again.  So what is the reason for their recent slump?

Miami Heat

When the NBA season began, all eyes were on the Miami Heat and how they were going to perform with the new arrivals of all-stars Lebron James and Chris Bosh.  Many people figured these guys would win an astounding number of games and even Jeff Van Gundy said they would break the wins mark for a single season.  Eventually the season started and they came out of the gates very slow starting 9-8 and that had people talking and wondering what was going wrong.  Many people thought Pat Riley was going to wind up on the bench coaching these guys. After the rough start they went on an impressive run winning 12 in a row and 21 of 22 games.  As the season has progressed they have turned into the team I thought they would.  They are a good team but not a great team.  I am going to discuss a few reasons why I think they are still just good and not great.

NBA Trades

The NBA trade deadline ended last Thursday resulting in a shift of power.  The East is starting to become stronger, while the west begins to slide.  This power shift was expected eventually, but many of the trades that occurred last weekend were anything but expected.  Ask Deron Williams, former Utah Jazz, now playing for the New Jersey Nets.  He found out Thursday morning from SportsCenter on ESPN in the training room at the Jazz practice facility while getting tapped up. 

Melo going to the Knicks wasn't a surprise, as it ranked second next to Brett Favre's "to play or not to play" episodes as most annoying SportsCenter repeat story.  However, Billups joining him in NY was a surprise.  Billups had been a Denver hero since his high school days at Denver's George Washington High School. 

Another big name to hire movers this past week was Kendrick Perkins.  He was such an intricate part of the Celtics "team-oriented" chemistry that it was surprising to see him leave.  The question is will he still be able to preform at the same level with the OK Thunder without having his Celtic buddies with him? How long till he develops similar chemistry and relationships with his new Thunder?

Mo Williams is now a Clipper.  Baron Davis now a Cav.

The Jazz and Nuggets seems to be hanging in there despite having lost their big players, however don't expect to see them come May.