Worst Move of Phil Jackson's Tenure?

Let's list them out?

Option 1: Trading Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton for Jose Calderon, Shane Larkin, Samuel Dalembert, Wayne Ellington, and two second-round picks (Cleanthony Early and the Greek Freak's brother).

It didn't seem like a bad deal at the time. Tyson Chandler wanted out of New York and looked bad last year, Felton was a cancer off the court and a terrible player on the court, and Calderon was a pass-first PG, Larkin was a young player with potential, Dalembert might be able to rebound and defend still, and Ellington was a throw-in. Not that bad. Instead, Tyson Chandler returns to form, Calderon sucks and struggles with injuries, AND, to top it all off, this move gave them 2.8 million dollars less in cap room for 2015. Calderon is also under contract through the 2016-17 NBA season, so we're stuck with him at point guard. This trade did get the Knicks two second-rounders with some potential, but the biggest question remains - if Phil had held off and traded Chandler later on in the season, could he have gotten something better for him? (Dragic, Reggie Jackson, maybe?)

Option 2: Trading J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert for Lou Amundson, Lance Thomas, Alex Kirk, and a 2nd rounder in the 2019 Draft.

This one actually made some sense. We all loved Shump, but this one was about getting J.R's contract off the books and getting rid of the 6.4 million dollars in cap space he was taking up. To do that, we had to get rid of Shump. However, this looks bad for the Knicks now for the simple fact that J.R. and Shump are playing very well in Cleveland, and the bigger question is whether they could have gotten more back in return from the Cavaliers. A point of comparison may be the Timofey Mozgov trade - the Cavaliers gave up two first-round picks to get him, but Phil couldn't get one for J.R.

Option 3: Re-signing Carmelo Anthony to a 5 year, 124 million dollar deal.

This one doesn't look so good now either. A few months after he re-signs with New York, Carmelo undergoes surgery on his left knee. While he is expected to be ready to play by training camp in the Fall, Carmelo stirred headlines when he mentioned that he will be injury free, but, at the same time, he "doesn't think he'll ever be a hundred percent." So the Knicks signed a player through his age 35 season, and in year one of the contract, he's already claiming that he'll never play to the level he originally did.

All three of these moves are questionable, but some of them have some silver lining. In your opinion, which move is the worst one?

Option 1 - it set the stage for this being a season of tanking (even if we didn't know it at the time). People continue to exaggerate the greatness of JR and Shump on the Cavs and we'll see once Cleveland loses the finals, that those guys will continue to be nothing special in the long run heading into next season. So long as Melo comes back healthy next year, the idea of signing a regular All-star game starter to a contract that will be nowhere near a max deal with the expanded cap in two years being a bad idea seems silly. Without Melo on this squad, we are literally irrelevant. No free agents come here and we have no idea how to rebuild.

Let me add a 4th option hiring Phil Jackson himself and to top it off paying him an absurd amount of money.

He wasn't qualified which he said himself when he admitted he learned a few things in his first year as a club president and GM.

He's shown no ability to judge talent or build a team yet and his deals have obviously all been busts.

Giving Melo a no-trade clause is questionable, especially with the money he offered him.

We got to see if he can flip anything for Calderon. Honestly if Early doesn't develop and and Calderon isn't part of a package for something decent. I would of preferred he had just let Tyson's Contract expire.

Wargames said:

We got to see if he can flip anything for Calderon. Honestly if Early doesn't develop and and Calderon isn't part of a package for something decent. I would of preferred he had just let Tyson's Contract expire.

Click to expand...

Calderons trade value is zero right now. He's got to turn around that terrible year before PJ can think about trading him. Anybody got any thoughts on using the stretch provision in him, I would think its better to use it earlier rather than later on JC if the Knicks are going to.

One thing I found out is that he has to be waived before Sept. 1 to stretch his whole two years over 5. If they keep him past Sept.1 they can only stretch his remaining year over 3 which probably means if he's on the team Sept. 1 he stays.

Jerry West critical of job Jackson has done with Knicks

It sounds like NBA legend Jerry West has some serious doubts about Phil Jackson's ability to turn things around for the New York Knicks.

In an interview on Sunday, West, who wasn't on good terms with Jackson when both men worked for the Los Angeles Lakers, took a few thinly-veiled shots at the Zen Master. West questioned the trades Jackson has made with the Knicks and wondered about his ability to succeed in a front office role.

“It’s a little easier for (Heat president and former Knicks and Lakers coach Pat Riley)," West said in an interview on Sirius XM Bleacher Report Radio’s “NBA Sunday Tip” co-hosted by Howard Beck and Ethan Skolnick.

“He’s had a lot more experience on both sides in coaching and now in the front office. With Phil, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens back there. They didn’t have the kind of year I’m sure they wanted to have. Everyone in the league feels like they made two trades that helped Cleveland tremendously and one that helped Dallas this year."

Jackson sent J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to Cleveland in early January in a 3-team trade that gave the Knicks two second-round picks, two trade exceptions and two players they would cut and later re-sign.

Smith and Shumpert have been key contributors in the Cavs' run to the NBA Finals, leading some, including West, to question the deal.

Last June, Jackson traded Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to the Dallas Mavericks for a package that included Jose Calderon and Samuel Dalembert.

New York released Dalembert in January and Calderon had a sub-par season. In Dallas, Chandler helped the Mavs reach the playoffs. Again, Jackson received plenty of criticism for the trade.
The Knicks finished with a franchise-low 17 victories last season. Jackson hopes to turn things around this summer. New York will pick fourth in the NBA Draft and has approximately $27-million to spend in free agency. West wonders whether Jackson will be able to attract top talent to New York.

"He wants to have a team that will have his identity on it," West said. “A lot of people want to be critical. I wouldn’t be so critical because they need a fresh infusion of talent there and also people that will be able to play the way they want to play.

“Phil was fortunate. He’s made a lot of money in this league," West added in a reference to Jackson's $60 million salary with the Knicks. "Even though he’s making a lot of money today, he wants to win. He’s a competitor. It will remain to be seen whether they’ll be able to turn their fortunes around. They have a lot of money to spend on free agents, but a lot of times people don’t want to play certain places for different reasons.

“What he’s done there would be easy to criticize," West added. “He understood that team would be pretty good, but not at the level he’s won. If you’re not successful in getting free agents it will set their progress back. It’s a completely different challenge for him. He’s had teams with enormous talent. He’s coached them brilliantly and won championships, but it’s a different challenge for him."

West and Jackson weren't exactly best friends when both worked for the Los Angeles Lakers. Jackson famously asked a group of people, including West, to leave the Lakers locker room following a playoff loss. So West's opinion of Jackson should be viewed with that in mind.

Gary Payton said he hated playing in the triangle when he played for PJ in LA.

Want to bet that's one of the reasons that West mentions that players don't come to the Knicks.

Didn't know where to put this at, so I decided to put it here. Man this was like a punch in the gut. Phil is molesting us something fierce by this statement

I don't think any of Phil's moves were bad at the time. In fact I praised his moves because he was dumping dead weight. You also did not mention how he got two second round picks for Prigioni who will probably retire soon.

No one expected Calderon and Dalembert to be so crappy. Calderon will either have a better season or get traded for cap space. The worst thing Phil did was taking on Calderons 7 mil that will effect free agency this year.

If he cant get rid of Calderon, and the dude keeps getting hurt than we avoided a chance of getting two max players this summer.

He has drafted well...Early and Thanasis still have a lot of potential and were good picks for 2nd round.

Phil is getting picks, even if they are 2nd round...we just need multiple picks.

His grade is still an INCOMPLETE.

This offseason will say alot about Phil.

Option 1: this was to dump felons contract while getting some value that was left for tyson...if early and antentakoumpo become decent role players than this is ok but calderon and dalembert flopped. We all expected more from them...calderons 7 mil is phils worse move because it effects cap space.

Option 2: we could have had way more for shump years ago but these two were bad fits in ny...and to be honest I was glad to see them gone...they had terrible attitudes and didn't always bring it on the court...jr is a PR disaster and idiot while shump is over rated

Option 3: only problem with this is that every other move has been long term...however I'd rather resign Melo, stay relevant and trade him for assets rather than lose him for nothing....


As I wrote in a thread about Jackson you cant give him bad grades because his moves are mostly incomplete. We don't know who these draft picks are right now.

He has to earn his money in the offfseason and build a team.

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