November 21,2008
"Eleven games into the regular season the NY Knicks send Jamal Crawford to the Golden State Warriors for Al Harrington. And trade Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins to the LA Clippers for Tim Thomas and Cuttino Mobley. In order to get salary cap space for the summer of Lebron, Donnie Walsh gets rid of two contracts that would have expired beyond the 2010-11 season."
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2008-11-21/sports/17911246_1_jamal-crawford-salary-cap-knicks
Most of us still question whether the Knicks would have made the playoffs had they held on to Zbo and JCraw. Both of these players are currently important pieces for contending teams. The question I have is whether the Knicks organization would have traded these guys after the 2008-09 season had they carried the Knicks to their first playoff appearence in 5 years.
Many Knick fans believe that Walsh didn't have to trade these players so soon since the Warriors and Clippers were able to trade them to other teams not so long after they left the Knicks. I don't think it was a bad trade at the time compared to the Tracy McGrady trade later on. Walsh had a plan and didn't want to take his chances on these players' trade value dropping.
Even if the Knicks would have made the playoffs in 2008-09 they would have gotten eliminated by either the Magic, Cavs or Celtics in the first round. The process to get to where the Knicks are right now wasn't an easy one to go through but you could say that it was worth it looking at the current situation that the Knicks are in.