How fast people forget.
Wilson Chandler wouldn't be on the Knicks unless he took a paycut.
Gallinari was inconsistent, still is.
Mozgov? We have Tyson Chandler.
Felton? Was not playing good after two months. REMEMBER? Even if it was D'Antoni's fault for playing him that much, the fact remains he was not playing that good, and maybe it wouldn't have mattered one way or another the amount he played him.
If it wasn't for the new CBA, we'd have Billups, Melo, Amar'e. When healthy they were good, and with an off-season and practice camp, they would have been better.
That didn't happen, we got an amnesty to use, we used it on Billups, and got the rare and highly sought after good defensive center. Our backcourt is bad now, but we have Shumpert who seems to be a two-way player with a lot of upside, Baron Davis coming back soon whom we only spent the vet. min. on, power forward-wise Kenyon Martin might be joining us whom would make our bench and entire team tougher, andddddddddddddddddd
we have the MLE to spend next season.
Our situation is great for building a deep team. We have been terrible, but depth is not far away.
Could we have won a couple of games or so in the Playoffs last season if we didn't make a trade? I think so. Could we have BEATEN the Celtics if Amar'e, Billups, and Melo were all healthy? I think so.
Oh, yeah, we also got Anthony Carter in that Melo trade, tough and very skilled player on both ends of the court. We should bring him back.
Actually, next off-season:
Anthony Carter - vet. min.
Ronny Turiaf less than MLE (I think he's on less than MLE now, so we might be able to)
AC could START on our team, but if we bring Davis back, he'd be a great back-up.
Turiaf....back-up C, PF...having him and Tyson, yeah, that'd be damn good.
Let's also not forget we couldn't have predicted Fields slump, and hey, he's been getting out of it the last two games. We kept him for his IQ, off-the-ball play, and hustle. If he's back into the groove, then we're another step closer to being deep.
If you think we made the wrong decisions in the drafts, hate the reason why we made the Melo trade, etc., fine, but do NOT forget how this team was actually playing before the trade.