I'm gonna answer it billups and stat were injured last year, so off top no felton and stat....you tell me where the pre melo knicks are getting with out stat and felton
against miami they lost two point gards and the 2 guard and the pf for at least two game.
You gotta take injuries in consideration
55 games of Melo and 47 games of Amare if they are both the franchise guys that they have been purported to be should be enough for better than a 7th seed. It was Amare's fault he missed those games vs. MIA, it's not like he got hurt playing. Maybe the team would have been in a better position to deal with those injuries if they had added Melo to the group that was playing well together rather than traded everybody but Amare for him instead.