When Knicks fans look back on 2014, they’ll put their hands over their faces. When they look back on 2015, however, there will be a lot of words to be said. They may be words like: “That was the year we did terribly, but then drafted our future star/traded our pick for a star that led us to a title X years later.” There’s also a big chance that the words will be something like: “That was the year that our “savior” Phil Jackson ruined our team for many years to come and then drafted a bust in June.” At this point, it’s a toss up, but I’m leaning toward option A, just because I’m a diehard. But there is always the chance of a rebuild going wrong cough 2005 cough 2008*. What went wrong? There’s a list, and it’s not a small list. Here’s a few things:

1.  1. Carmelo Anthony got hurt.
2.  2. Amar’e Stoudemire was on his way out from game one.
3.  3. Tim Hardaway Jr. regressed.
4.  4. Iman Shumpert got hurt very early.
5.  5. J.R. Smith wasn’t making shots.
6.  6. We didn’t have a real center other than Samuel Dalembert (who was released.)
7.  7. Jose Calderon was hurt most of the season.
8.  8. No interior defense
9.  9. No perimeter defense
10.  10. In the games that WERE close, we didn’t hit shots at the right time
11.  11. Our draft pick, Cleanthony Early, did not work out the way we wished he would’ve this season.
12.  12. We traded Tyson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Iman Shumpert, JR Smith, 4 startersand our 6th man, all in a span of 5 months
14. Does that look like a short list? No. It hurt me to write that, in fact. Especially the last one. 4 starters and our 6th man. That’s nearly half of our roster, gone just like *that*. We’ve had upward of 40 different starting lineups this season. To think we had 54 wins just 2 years ago… What happened? We all thought last season was bad. We missed the playoffs by 1 game and that was on the last day of the season. This season we were eliminated from playoff contention on October 31. Maybe it is a good idea for us to be “tanking” and get a young player to help Melo shoulder some of the load, but that’s not a guarantee.
15. Who says we don’t get the next Andrea Bargnani (we still have the original Andrea Bargnani, by the way) or Greg Oden? We could trade that draft pick to a team like the Sacramento Kings for Demarcus Cousins, the already battle­tested 25 year old center who, while he does have his behavioral problems (14 technical fouls, leading the league) we’ve had that before. Patrick Ewing was always near the top in that category. In the 54 win season, Tyson Chandler led the league in technicals. He still puts up insane numbers, and is a perfect fit for the triangle offense, due to the fact that he’s possibly the best passing big man in the league and has around 3-­4 triple doubles this season.
16. If we’re offered this deal, take it on the spot. Maybe try and include Tim Hardaway Jr. and try to sway them into trading us the 7th pick in the draft, so maybe we can draft a player like Sam Dekker who doesn’t hate making 3 pointers (he led the NCAA in 3’s made during the tournament.) Just consider this, Knicks fans. Five years from now, we could: Be in contention for an NBA title, or still be a bottom­feeding team with a bust of a draft pick. Option A sounds great. Let’s do it, Phil Jackson. Bring New York back, but this time for good.