Why it's now -- or maybe never -- for the Cavaliers and Knicks - ESPN

TEX WINTER, ONE of the 20th century's great basketball coaches, once summed up a classic NBA paradox with five words: Everything turns on a trifle.

The league's best teams often teeter on a knife's edge, thriving thanks to continuity but in a constant state of fragility, which explains the current state of the weakened Eastern Conference.

The two favorites, who meet in a made-for-television opener Wednesday in New York, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Knicks (7 p.m. ET on ESPN), are in this place because of the consistency of their rosters and misfortune of fellow contenders.

The gut-churning images of Damian Lillard, then Jayson Tatum, and then Tyrese Haliburton, each taking fateful missteps and tearing their Achilles tendons in a matter of weeks in a painful playoff stretch has provided these two teams with the most precious of NBA opportunities.

The window to reach the Finals for the Cavs and Knicks, who return all of their key players with additional depth down their roster, is wide open.

For now.

«We have a target on our backs,» new Knicks coach Mike Brown said. «We better bring it.»

The Cavs have been accelerating toward this moment for five years, amassing a team with two All-NBA players, Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland, four players who have All-Star appearances on their résumés, and an impressive spread of depth that has ballooned their payroll to just under $400 million this season, including luxury taxes.

But because of that, they have entered the nether world known as the second apron, and they are the only team currently living there.

Last season, three teams — the Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns and Minnesota Timberwolves — were in this penal zone of tax and roster restriction, and all three fled this