Posted by PresIke:
I know some people that felt that way even after the '99 playoff run. chelu2, a poster on the NY Times forum used to preach "blowing it up" right after the '99 season, suggesting that we should have retooled or "rebuilt" at least on the fly, because that run was almost fool's gold.
Grunfeld knew that the team was getting old when he made the deals for Spree & Camby, which kept the Knicks floating in the playoffs for as long as they did. Imagine if we had kept Starks, Oak, Terry Cummings, etc. We would have gotten worse even faster. I think Van Gundy knew it too, and was why he bolted. There was no true star to carry the team, and we were dependent upon two guards who played the same position to win, Camby and a broken down LJ.
[Edited by - PresIke on 02-07-2006 5:07 PM]
yeah, the 99 run was fool's gold in certain ways. We overpaid Houston, thought we could do it without Ewing, didn't realize how much the team relied on a breaking down tandem of Ewing and LJ.
Looking back, the best time to save the team would have been after the 2000 season. Just let Ewing hang on one more year and expire, don't re-sign Houston. Suck for 2002, 2003 and get a good crack at Yao/ Amare and then Lebron/Wade/Melo. But hindsight is indeed 20/20. Woulda been nice to draft Artest somewhere in there, too.
