MaTT4281 wrote:Nalod wrote:Lets face it, If not for Isiah Thomas taking us to the depths of despair we'd never know what the bottom felt like.
We were getting there with Layden - Isiah just found a short cut!
I always defend Layden to the extent he was put in at the height of Dolans meddle era and was under instructions to starphuch by Dolan. The Mycdeyess injury was tragic. But………Layden was clearing cap letting Witherspoon and others contracts just expire. MOre importantly he was not trading picks!!!
It was Layden that pushed back on the marbury trade. It was on his desk when Isiah took over.
Layden was Dolans patsy. Remember Vin Baker recovering from alcohol addiction about the time Dolan was? There was this vision that an in shape and healthy front line if Dyess at SF, baker at PF and Mutumbo in the middle. Never happend as perhaps hoped.
Isiah was Rasputin filling Dolans head with ideas. Very bad ideas as it turned out.
If DOlan let Layden alone perhaps history might have been different? Layden is credited with having to unwind the Ewing debacle but SHandon and Eisley did not step up to prime time as he might have hoped.
Dolan wanted Magic Johnson and when he refused (thank goodness) he recommended Isiah.
Isiah impatience and applying Leverage to dump contracts with picks and taking on salary that was 40% higher than the next team in the infamous 23 win season was an epic colossal failure, Perhaps no team spent for so little in the history of the NBA!
Layden was bought in to transform Earnies modern team back to the JVG slog it out team and thus fell behind the times. Then Jeff quit. Don Chaney, a former COY did a reasonable job given what he had. Since we went now where after Isiah idiocy of firing in the most embarrassing manor on the Letterman show, and botching up negotiations with Fratello only to hire Lenny who was an afterthought to reduce Isiah’s public humiliation