1. The last time we made the playoffs was 2004. We didn’t start missing out on the playoffs because Walsh traded away players. In the four years BEFORE Walsh came on, we alternated seasons of winning 33 and 23 games. All while we had one of the highest payrolls (if not THE highest at points), plus Isiah Thomas had traded away many of our first round picks, including the one in 2010.

2. That team in 2004 (and all the subsequent ones) had no potential to get better because we had no youth who’d be improving, no cap space to sign new players, and as mentioned, pretty much no draft picks. Now we may not have draft picks, but we do have youth that should improve significantly (Gallo and Randolph, plus even less prominent players like Toney Douglas, Bill Walker, Landry Fields, Timofey). Plus we will have a bunch of cap space again this summer, and there are other big names becoming available, like Tony Parker and Chris Paul. Plus with us having available cap space, we can make uneven trades, obtaining more salary than we give up.

3. Building through the draft can be a real crap shoot. Everyone cites say the Thunder as an example of how successful this can be, but if Portland had chosen Kevin Durant with the #1 pick, then the Thunder would have gotten Greg Oden. You swap the injured Oden for Durant and that team is one of the worst in the league. Or the other example people use is Portland, but they also had some luck. They had two draft day deals the same year where they swapped Randy Foye and Ty Thomas for Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. How awful would Portland be if they were built around that undynamic duo? In this past decade alone it’s been very clear that even if you get the first overall pick, it still doesn’t guarantee a player who can turn your franchise’s fortunes around (see Andrea Bargnani, Greg Oden, Andrew Bogut, Kwame Brown and Kenyon Martin).

It will be a bummer if Melo goes to the Nets, and that WILL be Walsh’s fault for trading away those first-rounders. But I don’t agree that it’s his fault we lost out on LeBron OR that he’s done a bad job up through now.

2. james dolan is and always has been the biggest problem with the knicks. second biggest current problem is d’antoni. he is an egotistical and foolish coach – he needs to hire an assistant who is not his brother – who is instead a great defensive strategist who he will actually listen to.

3. the most successful franchises over the last decade have built through the draft. this takes discipline and foresight, which we have been lacking – because of dolan and because ny fans are notoriously impatient. walsh’s plan takes a minimum of 5 years. these first 2 have been spent excavating the lot, now it’s time for a foundation, then a structure can rise.

4. carmelo is not the solution for the knicks. yes, it would be great to have him, yes, he is an alluring player. but he’s one-dimensional, a one-way player (all offense), who has yet to show the commitment and maturity to bring it consistently at the defensive end. putting him in an all offensive system is not going to win the knicks a championship.

5. there are many general managers that are better than walsh – pritchard would be an improvement. but more importantly, there are many franchises that have a better institutional model than the knicks, which we should attempt to copy. every team that has won a championship recently, or who will compete for a championship this season, built around their best player, whom they acquired through the draft. the only exception i can think of is boston (okay, maybe detroit, too). also, arguably miami this year, but only if you think lebron is better than d. wade.

6. thanks for reading.

This is just truly frustrating as a fan.

One question: wasn’t Walsh brought in to get LeBron James? Did that happen? How does he still have a job.

After flirting with Isiah Thomas this summer, the Knicks need to finally make a good front office move, hire Pritchard and really turn this team around.