Phil Jackson’s tenure as the president of the New York Knicks has been an interesting one. Jackson has made some major moves since taking the job. This summer he traded for Derrick Rose and signed veterans Joakim Noah and Courtney Lee.
Time will tell how those decisions will work out for New York. But Jackson already knows what his biggest regret as the general manager of the team is.
Following via Charley Rosen of Today’s Fastbreak:
I think the biggest mistake I made was actually this…One of the first deals I engineered when I came back to New York was to trade Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to Dallas for Shane Larkin, Jose Calderon, Wayne Ellington, Samuel Dalembert, plus a second-round pick that the Mavs owed to the Celtics. In talking with Boston, I was given the option of taking that pick or else taking Jae Crowder. I liked Crowder but I thought he wouldn’t get much of a chance to play behind Carmelo, so I took the pick which turned out to be Cleanthony Early. While Cleanthony has missed lots of time in the past two seasons with us, he still has the potential to be a valuable player. Even so, I should have taken Crowder.
Well that’s obviously not great.
Jae Crowder is currently one of the best value players in the NBA. He’s a borderline all-star (probably a tier below) in the East earning on average $7 million per season over the next four years.
The Knicks have a dire need for young talent. While they would like to compete in the twilight of Carmelo Anthony’s career, they have to plan for the future. Crowder could have been a great balance between the two paths. He’s only 26 years old and has room to grow.
This is certainly a misstep by Jackson but to be fair, Crowder had not really come into his own in Dallas. Nevertheless, this is a pretty big “what if” for the Knicks.
