Eddy trade and the Marbury trade as corrective moves to undo the Ewing decline/trade was awful.
The picks we gave for eddy became Aldridge and Noah.
Then, the next opportunity was undoing that group which by directive of the owner had us dumping contracts on discount that we paid a premium for. Larry and Isiah could not do much with them, nor could MDA who I assume was a draw at the time and hope for Lebron.
The Amare and Melo show dictated a "Win now" assumption and that made the gamble for Bargs interesting. Bargs biggest crime at that time was he got hurt a lot. Im not defending him, but that move, like any other you have to go to that exact moment in time and look at the team, and the options available. We can look back with the benefit of hindsight and be all so brilliant about things.
Biggest mistake was abandoning what ever Scott Layden had in his head before he was fired. The team was awfully boring at the time but Layden was not making panic moves after the Dice Disaster. That I fully blame on Dolan. At the time it had some logic, but it was a stretch. Layden after year had his picks and expiring contracts. That moment in time was prime for rebuilding. It was rumored that the marbury deal was on Laydens desk and he did not want to do it. Its why he was fired mid season (remember, no body fires GM's mid season but knicks!!!)and then Isiah did the deal QUICK! That of course made firing Chaney (CLumsey) and when Isiah botched hiring Fratello, he turned to Wilkens at the last moment.
Thus, you have to go back 12 years and say that the moment Isiah was hired, it set upon series of events that had ramifications for years after. There is not eddy trade without Isiah (remember, the phat phuck was taking ephedra and the Bulls forbid hiim to play basketball!!! They were ready to retire him!!! So Isiah gave them 2 no. 1 picks unprotected!!!)
Again, go back in time and think of the how Eddy left the Bulls. The stupidity at that moment is of course magnified over time. But it was insane then as well.