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Heat, Knicks debut new faces in season opener

Oct 29, 2008 - 10:18 AM Miami at New York, 7:30 p.m. EDT

NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Once upon a time, they were heated Eastern Conference playoff rivals. Now they're a pair of retooled squads looking to establish new identities.

The Miami Heat and New York Knicks open up the 2008-09 season on Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, with both squads breaking in a slew of new parts.

They were both among the worst teams in the league last season, as the Heat - just two years removed from an NBA championship - stumbled to a league-worst 15-67 thanks to major injuries and a lack of depth. The Knicks, meanwhile, were still in the midst of the ill-fated Isiah Thomas era that sunk them to the bottom of the Atlantic Division.

Both franchises hope those kinds of seasons are behind them. Miami took advantage of its disastrous regular season with the selection of Kansas State forward Michael Beasley with the second overall pick. The 6-10, 235-pounder averaged 26.2 points, 12.4 boards and 1.6 blocks with the Wildcats in his only collegiate season.

He joins a Heat club eagerly anticipated the fully healthy return of superstar guard Dwyane Wade, who has been limited to 51 games in each of the last two seasons due to a litany of injuries. However, he looked better than ever for the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team this summer and now has Beasley and All-Star forward Shawn Marion - acquired in the February trade that sent Shaquille O'Neal to Phoenix - by his side.

The Knicks, meanwhile, tries to recover from the Thomas era by bringing in Mike D'Antoni - the architect of the high-powered Phoenix Suns of the last four seasons. While most of the faces remain the same, the system and the depth chart have both changed - and will likely leave Thomas' acquisitions such as Eddy Curry and Stephon Marbury largely out of the loop.

The backcourt is expected to be manned by Chris Duhon and Jamal Crawford, but both struggled significantly at times during the preseason - particularly Crawford. The Knicks have a lot of work to do in order to snap a streak of seven straight losing seasons.