How far are we away from being a contender? What pieces do we need and what is the likelihood that we get them?
I'd say not that far. The East's most intimidating frontline right now is probably the Bulls', perhaps still the Celtics but even then the key guys are KG and Big Baby followed by Shaq. Miami's got dick up front and the Celtics weakened their front line. NYK is seriously lacking in depth and at the C position but both should probably be improved somewhat in the offseason. I'd still rank them behind all of the aforementioned teams for now but I'm a big Billups fan and obviously you're set at SG, SF, and PF as well. They'll have cap room this offseason but do they wait until 2012 to offer big contracts? I think adding vets at the one year min and maybe offering a big(ish) one year deal this offseason could make them a contender in the east. How much better would they be by adding a few guys like Kurt Thomas, Ben Wallace, Anthony Parker, Grant Hill on minimum deals? Those guys want to win and won't get big deals and they'll probably get more burn on the Knicks than other contenders. Or how about offering a sizeable 1 year deal to guys who may not get long term deals as big as they want like Big Baby, Jason Richardson, Caron Butler, Dalembert, Carl Landry, Barbosa, Kirilenko, Willie Green, etc.?
We've lost 10 straight to the Cavs. It seems like more of a match up problem. There's something about Cleveland.
