The New York Knicks have made plenty of unquestionable and even disastrous moves since James Dolan took over as owner. Before he arrived, the Knicks were one of the most successful franchises, but they have since been better known for their dysfunction than their dominance.
They are one of the founding members of the NBA, and the Knicks have played in the finals eight times and won two championships. All of that happened before 2000 when Dolan began running the show.
There have been some downright awful moves since their NBA Finals run in 1999. The Knicks have made the playoffs just eight times since 2000, and only three times in the last decade. Their lack of success has been the result of poor front office management, including multiple blunders with their roster. Here are the ten biggest offseason mistakes in Knicks’ history.
New York Knicks’ 10 biggest offseason blunders
10. Giving big money to declining Joakim
The Knicks were determined to make some win-now moves in the 2016 offseason after three straight years of missing the playoffs. Team President Phil Jackson traded for Derrick Rose and his big free agent splash was signing Joakim Noah.
Noah was a two-time All-Star, who won the Defensive Player of the Year in 2014. This is not a knock on the 6’11 big man, who was fantastic during his time in Chicago, but injuries were starting to catch up to him. Noah missed 15 games in 2014-15 before being limited to just 29 games total in his final season with the Bulls. Despite the injuries and missed time, the Knicks did not even get him on a discount as he inked a four-year, $72 million contract.
Noah played 53 games in New York over the next two seasons before being waived in 2018. The two-time All-Star played just 100 games over the next four years total, and he retired in 2020 after just five games with the Clippers.
The Knicks paid $72 million for just over 53 games, which was disastrous and part of the reason why New York failed to make the playoffs in each of those four years.