I feel you Bank, but seems like the anomalies of this season affected everyone equally.
Covid suspensions. Injuries without a summer off, months long training camps and preseasons. If anything, the Knicks started even farther behind he 8-Ball, with no bubble, no post-season, very limited pre-season prep.
Knicks have had their share of injuries and Covid afflictions and protocols: Robinson, Rose, Burks.
Celtics: Smart, Walker....Tatum had Covid, right?
Heat: I forget, but Herro came down to Earth.
Hawks: Tonight, Gallo, Snell, Reddish, Hunter and Dunn are out.
My friend seems to think that makes it a gimme for the Knicks. I BEG TO DIFFER. Trae, Capella, Bogdonavich are hitting on all cylinders.
This is THE MOST IMPACTFUL game of our season.
The factors affected everyone, but I'm not sure it impacted teams equally, for example some teams played bubble ball until September and October, while other team seasons were over in July. So some players had to get ready for '20-21 in 2 months, while other players had twice as long to recover/prepare.
Taking a look at the pre-season predictions and comparing them to current results in the East 5 of the highest win totals prediction teams appear to be on their way to winning 27 fewer games than predicted.
I don't think its surprising that of the last 4 teams out of the bubble from last year, 3 of the 4 have underperformed predictions.
Celts (45.5 projected wins) using current win % projected to win 38 games or 7.5 less than expected
Heat (44.5) using current win % projected to win 37 games or 7.5 less than expected
Lakers (46.5) using current win % projected to win 43 games or 3 less than expected
Nuggets (44.5) using current win % projected to win 46.5 games or 2 more than expected
here's the link if you want to check.
https://www.vegasinsider.com/nba/odds/win-totals/The Knicks (.542 winning %) appear to be on track to win about 16.5 more games than the original 22.5 projection.
Taking nothing away from the knicks, but there is a connection and correaltion to the higher prediction teams under performing by an estimated 27 games and their exceeding expectations by an estimated 16-17 games.
As to the Celts, I posted something pre-season and re-posted here a couple of months ago, that the Celts would use the first 20+ games to play recent draftees and see what Teague and TT could do in Kemba's and others absence. Basically treat the first 2 months as a pre-season to see who could play in the post-season and contribute.
It seemed pretty clear that Brad was going to have to deal with new rotations. Unfortunately for the Celts, my 20+ game preseason turned into almost 60, as they can't keep guys on the court. And they still can't they had 4 rotation guys miss their last game (Kemba, Smart, TL, Fournier). There has been no continuity. Biggest issue is Kemba. I still hope they will get a rotation healthy enough to have a half-decent post-season run.