Knicks appear to be the best of the Atlantic Division with uncertainty in Boston and Philadelphia

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Knicks see an opportunity and aren’t shy about their intentions of taking it.

“Knicks will be the No. 1 seed in the East,” Carmelo Anthony said.

OK, so it’s former players who are talking big. The current Knicks won’t say much about the expectations on them for this season, leaving that to others such as Anthony, the Hall of Famer who is now an NBC Sports studio analyst.

And he’s right to like their chances. For the first time since Anthony led the NBA in scoring for a team that won 54 games in 2012-13, the Knicks should be the best team in the Atlantic Division.

With Jayson Tatum sidelined and other key players gone, the Boston Celtics look nothing like the team that won the NBA title just two seasons ago. The Philadelphia 76ers, too reliant on players such as Joel Embiid and Paul George who can’t be counted on to stay healthy, are too risky a pick.

The Toronto Raptors are too far away, though much closer than the Brooklyn Nets. That leaves the Knicks, with All-Stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns in their starting five and a bench that’s been upgraded, as the class of the division.

They have been building smartly under Leon Rose and had their big breakthrough in May when they upset the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals, when Tatum went down with a ruptured right Achilles tendon that will keep him sidelined for at least some of this season. That sent the Knicks to the East finals for the first time since 2000, where they lost to Indiana.

They fired Tom Thibodeau after that series and replaced him with Mike Brown, a fellow two-time winner of the NBA Coach of the Year award. They also signed Jordan Clarkson, the 2020-21 Sixth Man of the Year award winner.

The Knicks have won at least 50 games each of the last two seasons, but finished well behind Boston in the Atlantic both times. But with Tatum hurt and Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford all playing elsewhere, the Celtics’ four-year run atop the division will likely be over.

“We’re not as talented as we were. So we have to have an edge to us,” Celtics star Jaylen Brown said. “We have to have a mentality to us. We’ve got to play and bring the fight to teams a little more than we have in the past. So, I don’t think we have a choice.”

The Knicks, whose division title in that 2012-13 season is their only one in the last 30 years, are best positioned to replace Boston at the top.

“We’re excited with what this team has and what this team can be,” swingman Josh Hart said.

Here’s a look at each Atlantic Division team in a predicted order of finish:

New York Knicks

Brown wants the Knicks to play faster than they did under Thibodeau and create more situations where Brunson doesn’t need to have the ball in his hands as often, so the offense can be less predictable. He also needs to decide whether Hart returns to the starting lineup or New York stays with center Mitchell Robinson and has Towns playing as a power forward. Whatever he decides, the Knicks have the experience and firepower to make it work.

Philadelphia 76ers

With Embiid limited to 19 games, George 41 and Tyrese Maxey 52 last season, the 76ers went from a team with high expectations to a dismal 24-58 finish, near the bottom of the East. The good news is Philadelphia ended up getting the No. 3 pick in the draft and took VJ Edgecombe from Baylor, who could be an impact rookie and help them persevere whenever the injuries do pop up.

Boston Celtics

It’s unknown if or when Tatum could play this season. In the meantime, the Celtics still have Brown and Derrick White from the team that won the 2024 NBA championship, along with Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard to anchor a youthful roster that president of basketball operation Brad Stevens and coach Joe Mazzulla believe can keep the Celtics competitive while Tatum is on the mend. So a good season is still possible in Boston, though it won’t be easy with how much the Celtics have lost.

Toronto Raptors

The Raptors will finally get Brandon Ingram on the floor this season after he was unable to play after they acquired him from New Orleans last season because of a sprained left ankle. Adding the former All-Star and Most Improved Player award winner to a lineup headlined by Scottie Barnes should help the Raptors be much better than their 30-52 finish in 2024-25.

Brooklyn Nets

The Nets became the first team in NBA history to make five first-round picks in the draft, and their five rookies (No. 8 Egor Demin, No. 19 Nolan Traore, No. 21 Drake Powell, No. 26 Ben Saraf and No. 27 Danny Wolf) are all expected to play. So the Nets, who didn’t have a single player 30 or older when they opened camp, should be one of the worst teams in the league, no matter how much scoring they get from Cam Thomas or Michael Porter Jr., the former starting forward for the Denver Nuggets’ 2023 championship team they acquired in an offseason trade.

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AP Sports Writer Kyle Hightower in Boston contributed to this report.

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