The Nets will be the NBA’s most improved team this season and the Knicks are fun to watch. And while both teams are given an equal chance to serve as second-place doormats to the Celtics in the Atlantic Division, neither team is given a shot to bring the championship home to New York.
So say the NBA’s 30 general managers in their annual preseason survey, which overwhelmingly forecasts the Heat to win a second straight title. The Heat are the landslide choice to repeat as Eastern Conference champion: Twenty-nine of 30 GMs pick Miami with one lone voice selecting Boston. In the Western Conference, 60 percent opt for the re-made Lakers with 36.7 percent staying with 2011-12 finalist Oklahoma City. One GM selected the Nuggets.
For the Finals, 70 percent pick the Heat to win and 23.3 percent go with the Lakers.
The Heat’s LeBron James (66.7) is favored to win the MVP ahead of Kevin Durant (30.0) — down from 37 percent of the vote last year — and the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony (3.3), who received one vote. James also was the hands-down choice in the categories of the first player picked for a new franchise and the player who forces the most adjustments.
The divison winners, in the eyes of the GMs: Celtics, Pacers, Heat, Spurs, Thunder, Lakers.
The Nets, who posted a 22-44 (.333) record in the lockout-shortened season, are the choice of 62.1 percent of the execs to show the biggest gains, followed by the Lakers and Timberwolves in a tie for second. New Orleans, with No. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis in the fold, is fourth.
The Lakers’ offseason moves are seen as the best with the Nets’ maneuverings a distant second. The Thunder are the most fun team with the Knicks seventh.
The Knicks placed in several categories, one not especially favorable. GMs saw the team’s reluctance to match Jeremy Lin’s offer sheet as the third-most surprising move of the offseason, right behind Steve Nash landing with the Lakers and the mega-trade involving Dwight Howard (now a Laker), Andrew Bynum (now a Sixer) and Andre Iguodala (now a Nugget). The GMs voted equally on Ray Allen to Miami and Joe Johnson to the Nets as the fourth biggest surprise.
Iguodala (16.7 percent) was voted as the most underrated player acquisition in a category that had 17 different responses, including Marcus Camby to the Knicks.
GMs rated Tyson Chandler (10 percent) as the NBA’s third best interior defender behind runaway leader Howard and the Thunder’s Serge Ibaka. Carmelo Anthony was tied for fourth — with Dwyane Wade of Miami — at being the best creating his own shot, behind the trinity of Kobe Bryant (40 percent), Durant (30 percent) and James (16.7 percent). Anthony also was a distant third, behind Durant and Bryant, as being the choice to shoot with the game on the line.
Elsewhere, Brooklyn’s Reggie Evans tied for third in the tough-guy category, Knick Steve Novak placed third for pure shooting and new Knick Jason Kidd finished as fourth most likely to become a head coach.
The best by position: Chris Paul replaces the injured Derrick Rose at point guard, Bryant at shooting guard, James at small forward, Minnesota’s Kevin Love at power forward over last year’s co-selections, San Antonio’s Tim Duncan and Laker Pau Gasol, and Howard at center. Paul was tabbed the best leader, Nash the best passer and San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich the best coach.