Not trading Childs to move up into the lottery to take Andre Miller was a huge mistake. Jeff Van Gundy didn't want the Knicks to do that and basically made Checketts pick between JVG and Grunfeld. JVG is a top 10 coach in the league and Ernie Grunfeld is a top 10 GM in the league. It's a shame that basically that draft day lost out on a great point guard in Andre Miller and also lost Grunfeld which led to the Layden hiring which led to both JVG and Checketts resigning which of course put Dolan in the position he is in today which is not a good thing.

You mentioned the Ewing deal and I really believe if we traded Ewing a season or a halfseason earlier we could have gotten both Bonzi Wells and Jermaine O'Neal in a package with a bad contract. That would have been the best trade ever made.

The Houston signing and the Rice for Anderson/Eisley deal were also just horrible.

Well... I had a post a long while back on how the Knicks rebuilt on the fly several times during the 90s, from the Mark Jackson early 90s Knicks, to the Riley/Starks/Mason Knicks, to the JVG/LJ/Houston/Childs Knicks... to the Sprewell/Houston/LJ/Camby Knicks.

Within the span of a season we traded Ewing, LJ retired, and JVG left. The players we got for Ewing (Longley/Rice) were both damaged goods, esp. Longley, who retired very young. Childs also aged and got chubby before our very eyes... and we made matters worse by acquiring Mark Jackson.

Things got even worse when we traded Camby for McDyess, who bested Camby's injury record by missing his whole first season and more. That trade was a huge blow because it set us back 2 seasons... and basically got Chaney fired this season.

I think Artest would have been a great draft pick back then, but when you have Sprewell/Houston signed to long term deals, where are you gonna play him? The Knicks were looking for a Ewing replacement and Euro-centers were en vogue.

But hey... it's not as if Artest hasn't been traded during his career. He's also gotten into trouble with his coaches, teammates, and the league during his time in the NBA.

I do wonder if the Marbury trade hurts us in the long run. Our biggest problem over the last 2 or 3 seasons is that our defense has become soft. It also seems as if our team IQ has dropped. We've acquired losers all around, from our draft picks (Sweetney's Georgetown teams had losing records in spite of his college dominance)... Marbury's teams have been mediocre, DerMarr/Nazr both came from Atlanta (nuff said), Baker's life has been in shambles. Tim Thomas still hasn't figured it out after all of these years... (he talks tough from the bench in street clothes, tho!)

Imagine if we had just kept our picks and not made the Marbury or Thomas trades.

We'd have FW as our starting PG... Lampe, with a year of Herb Williams seasoning could have been ready to play minutes. Sweetney would have had a season under his belt. Vranes would be a year closer to playing 5 fan-fave minutes per game. We STILL could have signed DerMarr Johnson... and we could still have ended up with Vin Baker.

Going into the playoffs, our depth chart could have looked like:
Mutombo/Doleac/Lampe/Vranes
K.Thomas/Baker/Sweetney
Van Horn/Anderson
DerMarr (Houston)
FW/Eisley

AND we could have had a first rounder this year--- and an appearance by Vujanic. Of course... we would have had to make some decisions on Ward/Witherspoon to get room on the roster.

The big difference between this lineup and what we finished with is the very good perimeter shooters in KVH/Doleac/Lampe... compared to no shooters at all.

We gained athleticism in Marbury/Thomas/Mohammed, but somehow it didn't translate into defense.

we can think that the biggest mistake in the past ten years is not getting reggie miller at the height of his and ewing's career in 96. we did get houston and childs who were younger but reggie no doubt would have propelled that team ( with a recently acquired lj) to a championship. no doubt. wiht ewing and reggie, you have the best inside/ outside game of that time.

or you can really be analytical and said if only houston missed THE SHOT in 99. van gundy would have been fired and we would have received phil jackson. the roster would have been gutted and ewing at the time would have been traded for something far better than the mess in 2000.

well, we can always dwell but i have faith, first time in years, that we will be going into the right direction soon.

Techno,

There are some true fans whom felt while Laydog was to blame for some of the mess, there was a long term plan to rebuild. Unfortunalty it cost Dolan the ability to raise prices, and lack of revenue. That is what happens when you rebuild. THe press busts you up.

Laydog was under increased pressure to Star Phuch, and rebuild. Perhaps that is why his trade tactic became imbicile. If your gonna take on big numbers, at least low ball. Maybe that is not so silly and the market would have come to him as the season went on. The press really blew away Laydog, and incited the fans to revolt against him. Laydog does not have the extrovert ability to be open and sell the team. I said along time ago, he never should have been promoted to the top spot. A fine assistant GM, but not top dog.

Lampe, and MIlos need a few seasons to gel, and there is not guarantee they would pan out, thus in the NY market you must go for the sure thing.

All I know is Isiah must continue to look at the future. The balance of power will shift east over time as the teams with losing records draft better prospects with the higher picks.

obviously everything Layden touched turned to poopoo, but the real breaking point for this franchise was NOT trading Houston or Sprewell after the finals. Our two best and most valued players played the same position. Our franchise center was breaking down, they knew LJ's back was going south and going south fast.

It would have been incredibly unpopular at first but trading Houston or Spree then could have gotten us a franchise caliber (or close to) bigman and we would have been set for another 10 years.

Look at what the Bulls gave up to get Jalen Rose.. we killed ourselves with no vision. Checkets fired the wrong guy. He should have kept Ernie and dumped JVG.

You can rectify a coaching mistake in a year (see Don Nelson). When your GM makes mistakes it can hurt your franchise for years at a time. Just look at Layden now.

Ernie was a great GM. Yes, the Weiss pick backfired but they saw a 20 year old 7 footer with some skills and took a chance. With a 34 year old Ewing you can at least understand that move. Look at how popular Oakly was, but Ernie knew we needed athleticism and he went out and got Camby. Spree was a nice gamble we could afford to take.

The only move I understood from Layden was McDyess. It didnt work out but we also got Lampe and Frank out of that deal so in hindsight it wasnt that bad. Giving Spoon and Houston the money they earned was demonstrating a level of idiocy I didnt know existed up to that point. Then you can lump in using #1 picks in trades to get players like Mark Jackson, Erick Strickland and Othella Harrington and you can see why we are where we are.

Another big blow was right after the Ewing trade, the knicks had 3 first round picks, somehow they traded 2 of them, I know one went in the childs/Jackson deal which was assinine.... The knicks should have traded all 3 picks to at least move up to a lottery spot.....

Another stupid move.. trading picks in deals for aging veterans like Jackson.....

Laydog gave Allan the money Checketts promised him. We would have overpaid someone else.

Grunfeld hired Nelson and together they would have remade the team.

Dolan panicked fear of losing Ewing, his meal ticket and catered to Ewing. That was the moment JVG was over Grunfeld. When JVG made the finals, earnie was toast.

Ernie bought in Camby against the wishes of JVG. Ewing was reason JVG got promoted. It was Dolan pullin the strings, not Grunfeld, and likely not Laydog. Laydog did a bad job translating the job.

That is why I pointed to Nelsons firing as paramount turning event that was a chain to other changes.

I am just hoping Thomas is doing his thing, not getting a kings ransom to do Dolans thing.

Tapscott was there but it was Ernie's pick. I'm sure of this because I actually remember Ernie talking about Weiss on the radio with Mike and the dumb dog about Weiss. It was "insurance" as Ewing gets older, and he talked about Weiss having an upside on offense that Dudley didnt have.

The only truly wrong thing was Layden. We rebuilt fine with Spree and Camby. Should have done the same when Ewing was gone, gotten a better deal, or just let him retire. But Layden was the GM, and that about sums it all up. All you guys who keep moaning about mismanagement in the last 25 years, we went to the finals at least 2 times. Most team can't even claim that. So stop bitching.