'Melo Finally Traded; Knicks Now 4th Best Team in the East

What can I say? I'm a fan of throwback videogames.

After an entire season of anticipation, Carmelo Anthony finally got traded on Monday, and will be a New York Knickerbocker for the next few months. Cool, I guess. 'Melo (F) will be heading to NYC along with Chauncey Billups (G), Shelden Williams (F), Anthony Carter (G), and Renaldo Balkman (F). The Knicks had to give up Raymond Felton (G), Danilo Gallinari (F), Wilson Chandler (F), Timofey Mozgov (F/C), $3 million, a 2011 first-round pick, a 2011 second-round pick, and a 2012 second-round pick.

Now let's take a look at the Knicks starting five:
PG: Chauncey Billups
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar'e Stoudemire
C: Renaldo Balkman/Ronny Turiaf (?)

Knicks fans are loving their chances. There was even a Black and Yellow Remix made about the trade (real original). But why? While the East may not be as deep as the West is, it is very talented at the top. Compare the Knicks starting five to that of some of the other top teams in the East:
              Celtics                    Heat                    Bulls                  Magic                 Hawks
PG   Rajon Rondo       Mario Chalmers      Derrick Rose      Jameer Nelson       Mike Bibby
SG   Ray Allen             Dwayne Wade       Keith Bogans    Jason Richardson     Joe Johnson
SF   Paul Pierce            LeBron James         Luol Deng        Hedo Turkoglu        Josh Smith
PF   Kevin Garnett         Chris Bosh         Carlos Boozer       Brandon Bass        Al Horford
C   Kendrick Perkins  Zdyrunas Ilgauskas   Joakim Noah     Dwight Howard     Zaza Pachulia

Now after seeing all this, how much better to the Knicks look than the rest of these teams? The answer is not much. Also, consider that the Knicks now have very little depth coming off of the bench, much like the Heat. I'm not saying that they won't be good, but to expect the Knicks to come back from being a team barely over .500 (28-26, 12GB of the Celtics for the Atlantic Division/Eastern Conference) to a favorite is nonsense. Have fun with 'Melo while he's in New York, but don't get too excited for the first or second round exit.