Posted by TheloniusMonk:

I still say it goes back to your sadness that Layden is gone. Has to be. Anything else would have to be considered delusional.

Posted by Panos:

Check out this blast from the past: August 11, 2001
This was what we dealt with from Layden.



Funny thing about the Knicks. While the rest of the NBA (OK, not Paul Allen) runs away from the noxious payroll tax, the Knicks use a steam shovel to get deeper.


Jeff Van Gundy will have his work cut out for him in years to come.
Glen Rice and Muggsy Bogues for Shandon Anderson and Howard Eisley is only the latest case in point, leaving the team payroll at $82.37 million for next season, but hiking it to $88 million in 2002-03 and $89.2 million in 2003-04. We're talking an estimated $65 to $70 million in payroll taxes here. Why, that's enough to fund the budgets for how many towns? How many school boards?

The problem isn't simply the Dolans, who run the team; or Scott Layden, the general manager who pulled the trigger; or Jeff Van Gundy, who is charged with putting the pieces together.

The problem is the desperate need for perception in a city where four newspapers go to war every day and sports talk radio runs from vile to vindictive.

The problem is the highest ticket prices in the league and the hunger for cable TV dollars made even more acute by the failure of the NHL's Rangers and the simple fact that the cable company owns the team.

The problem is expectation. The Knicks can't miss the playoffs. Fear of the lottery drives excessive spending for minor talents. Lottery phobia and the woes of the Rangers drove Dave Checketts out of Madison Square Garden. However, word is he did a terrific job with MSG's Radio City Rockettes.

But who's to say if Checketts had not been broomed, he doesn't do this deal. He was already in deep conversation with Houston for the contract that made the team's top scorer the highest-paid shooting guard in the league while arguably the sixth-best talent behind Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Ray Allen, Tracy McGrady and Reggie Miller. Would Checketts have sanctioned $27 million to Clarence Weatherspoon? Let's hope not.

The Knicks aren't afraid to spend. Instead, they are afraid not to spend. It gives them status, as if Woody Allen and Jerry Seinfeld aren't going to come watch an act that makes less money than they do.

Look at this trade.

The Knicks had gotten Rice from the Lakers to do a job he wasn't equipped to handle. Rice wilted in the hot lights on Broadway. Crushed by the weight of expectation, he is shunted off to Houston. Texas, that is. Muggsy Bogues, a broken down throw-in, goes to Dallas. In return, the Knicks pick up $77 million in salaries through 2007 (they owed Rice and Bogues a combined $30 million).

Layden complicated the point guard situation for Van Gundy by making Eisley the third wheel with virtually unswappable Charlie Ward and Mark Jackson. Anderson gets leftover minutes from Latrell Sprewell at small forward and Mr. Big Budget Houston at shooting guard. Sprewell played 39.2 minutes a night last season, Houston 36.6.

Are Anderson and Eisley going to step up in New York? Doubtful.

Anderson is a slasher, not a shooter -- and the new defensive rules mitigate against him. Eisley is a career sub-40 percent shooter in the playoffs. He became expendable in Dallas when he shot .358 in postseason last spring. While teams such as the Hawks stayed clear of Eisley because he makes $7 million in 2005-06 when he turns 35, the Knicks shrugged. They see him as an improvement on Jackson and Ward, but there is no market for Jackson, who will be 35 in April, and Ward, who offended the Jewish population in New York with fundamentalist Christian doctrine.

The truth is the Knicks have a terrific bench. But they have only average starters and they are basically cap dead forever because the rules have changed and they're on a treadmill.

The Knicks even found a rabbi who agreed to rehabilitate Ward. After counseling, the rabbi pronounced Ward free of bias. Still, the Knicks aren't in love with Ward the player. The stir in New York had Ward going to the Warriors for Adonal Foyle, but the Warriors said they don't want him. In fact, GM Garry St. Jean told the San Francisco Chronicle he hasn't talked to the Knicks about Ward for Foyle. On top of that, Foyle is a base year compensation player and Ward has a 15 percent trade kicker.

Maybe the Warriors are wise to Ward's game as well as his prejudices. Imagine selling Ward to the gay and lesbian population of the Bay Area?

So, these are your Knicks:


Larry Johnson ($11.3 million this season), with terrible back problems, has a contract that goes on and on.


Luc Longley says his ankle is bad and he doesn't want to play anymore, but the Knicks owe him more than $20 million and he does want to be paid.


Sprewell, who is the Knicks' best player, believes he is working out of position and wants to be the starting big guard, but the Knicks only owe Spree $50 million over the next four years. But they are into Houston at triple digits through his 36th birthday.


Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas, Othella Harrington, scraps from Johnson ... Travis Knight? Please.

The truth is the Knicks have a terrific bench. But they have only average starters and they are basically cap dead forever because the rules have changed and they're on a treadmill.

Used to be in the NBA, you could trade away your financial excesses. So, when Stan Kasten gave Steve Smith $50 million in Atlanta he warned his newly-rich guard that he would not finish his career with the Hawks. Simply, they did not want to be stuck with a faded talent who was a cap burden late in his career. In Portland, Smith eventually became a bench player. The Blazers got lucky when Derek Anderson pushed San Antonio into a corner and forced the Spurs to take Smith in a deal.

Who is going to help the Knicks? They need a pocketful of miracles.

Jeffrey Denberg, who covers the NBA for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.

Good article.

And I'll say it again.....anyone questioning where we are now compared to where we were then either just misses the Scott Layden era or is delusional.