Instead, it is the newly arrived Nets, another team that has embraced the model of throwing big money at big names, that seem best positioned to represent New York atop the Atlantic Division.

And if the Knicks and World Peace prove to be unproductive collaborators, the team will not find any help from the man they instead selected with the 15th pick of the 1999 draft: Frederic Weis, the 7-foot-2 victim of le dunk de la mort by Vince Carter in the 2000 Olympics, retired without ever playing in an N.B.A. game.

A. G. SULZBERGER

Chemistry Projects

We know the Knicks and the Nets have multiple individual characters, but does either team have enough purposeful collective character? On paper, the talent evaluation — based on age, past performance and relative health — is close. On court, the difference will be determined by which team develops a cohesion that will hold up under the pressure of increasingly formidable Eastern Conference competition.

The Knicks’ regular-season equation buckled in the postseason last spring when J. R. Smith regressed behaviorally and played erratically, leaving too much of the burden on Carmelo Anthony. Adding the volatile Metta World Peace and the fragile but talented Andrea Bargnani to an unsteady group under the Madison Square Garden roof of the mercurial James L. Dolan creates a highly flammable chemistry. If group performance flat-lines, Anthony’s pending free agency makes it an even more combustible mix.

The Nets at least addressed last season’s most troubling weakness — lack of a communal spine — when they acquired Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from Boston. But will Deron Williams avail himself of the former Celtics veterans’ savvy, or will he resist the psychic mentoring on what was supposed to be his team? Will Brook Lopez soar alongside the fiery Garnett, or will he shrink? Will Jason Kidd’s old point guard moxie outweigh his rookie coach immaturity? Will the team owner Mikhail D. Prokhorov, having spent a staggering sum in payroll and taxes, be a long-distance cheerleader or a looming and judgmental presence like Dolan?

The teams will be separated by only a few regular-season games. The Knicks would be smart not to let Smith or World Peace get in the way of the fearless Iman Shumpert’s development. But the Nets are better built for grueling half-court playoff battles as they will balance the floor around Lopez with the shooters (especially Pierce and Garnett) they did not have last season. They could make the conference finals. The Knicks again look like second-round losers.

HARVEY ARATON

Rivalries Start in the Playoffs

I think you have to give the Nets a lot of credit for their boldness. They traded for Deron Williams and then Joe Johnson, with a huge contract, and now they traded for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. You can agree with the moves, or disagree with them — whatever your perspective is. But mine is more in the bent of, I admire teams that go for it. And that’s exactly what Brooklyn is doing.