FanPost

The Battle of New York

This is gonna be THE topic for the entire year for both the Nets and the Knicks(expect mabye the Dwightmare) whether it is the standings, the head to head records, the superstar comparisons etc. Lets look at the rosters.

Knicks:(on 7/20)

PG: Raymond Felton, Jason Kidd

SG: J.R Smith, Iman Shumpert, James White

SF: Carmelo Anthony, Steve Novak, Chris Copeland

PF: Amar'e Stoudemire......

C: Tyson Chandler, Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas

Nets:(on 7/20)

PG: D-Will (Deron Williams), C.J Watson, Tyshon Taylor

SG: JJ (Joe Johnson), Swag (Marshon Brooks),Keith Bogans, Jerry Stackhouse

SF: Crash (Gerald Wallace), Tokomotive (Tornike Shengelia)

PF: Hump (Kris Humphries), Mirza Teletovic, Reggie Evans

C: Brook Lopez, Nazr Mohammed

I'll admit I'm a biased Nets fan but I honestly do think the Nets have the better team. Looking at the numbers(which I will say don't mean much for the nets since they haven't played together)

Nets Starting 5(last three seasons numbers)

Deron Williams 19.8 PPG 43.9% FG% 9.9 APG

Joe Johnson 20.7 PPG 45.2% FG% 35.3% 3P%

Gerald Wallace 16.1 PPG 46.5 FG% 1.5 STL

Kris Humphries 10.8 PPG 48.9% FG% 9.6 RPG

Brook Lopez 19.6 PPG 50.0% FG% 7.2 RPG

Knicks Starting 5(last three seasons numbers)

Raymond Felton 13.1 PPG 43.2% FG% 7.1 APG

J.R Smith 13.6 PPG 42.0% FG% 35.7% 3P%

Carmelo Anthony 25.7 PPG 45.0% FG% 34.6% 3P%

Amar'e Stoudemire 21.7 PPG 51.9% FG% 8.0 RPG

Tyson Chandler 9.5 PPG 8.7 RPG 1.2 BPG

As both the numbers and common knowlage tell you both teams will have big time offenses and middle of the pack at best defenses. The Nets have the better backcourt the Knick have the better fontcourt. The Nets have D-Will, a three time all star and a two time All-NBA second teamer, and Joe Johnson , a six time all star and in 2010 was an All-NBA third teamer, in "The Brooklyn Backcourt". The Knicks have Carmelo Anthony, STAT, and Tyson Chandler in thier frontcourt. Melo is a five time all star, a three time All-NBA third teamer, and an All-NBA second teamer in 2010. STAT is a six time all star and in 2007 was an all NBA first teamer. Chandler was this years defensive player of the year and had a major impact on the Dallas' 2011 NBA title run.

The reason I and many other people think the nets will be better is because their players mesh better than the Knicks. The Nets have an elite playmaker(D-Will), an elite scorer(JJ), a tough winger(Crash), a bigman scorer(Lopez) and a bigman rebounder(Hump). The Knicks have playmaker(Felton), scorer(Smith), an elite scorer(Melo) an elite scorer(STAT) and an good defender(Chandler).

In my opinion, the Nets are a deeper team than the Knicks. With Tele and Marshon coming off the bench along with Watson and possibly Toko(not sure how much playing time he will get) compared to Novak, Kidd(no disrespect to J-Kidd he's my favorite player of all time), and Camby the Knicks do have a little more size but the Nets have a multitude of options and specialists coming off the bench whether it is Evans as a defensive and rebounding specialist, Marshon a scorer, or Bogans as a perimeter defender. The Nets can also purley outscore a team with their outside shooting with JJ, D-Will, Marshon, Tele, Crash to an extent,and while the Knicks also have a great offense I belive we have the defensive players to help contain them in Crash, Bogans, and Evans.

I can't say anything with absoulute insurance because we haven't seen the new look Nets play together but I think that the battle of New York will go to the Brooklyn Nets.