Walsh: 'I'll second-guess myself forever'

via: espnnewyork.com

GREENBURGH, N.Y. -- If Donnie Walsh hadn't traded a 2012 first-round draft pick to Houston last February when he was in salary-dump mode, he might have possessed enough assets to acquire Carmelo Anthony before the start of training camp.
But that pick is gone, and the president of the New York Knicks can't stop wondering whether he made a monumental mistake.
"I'll second-guess myself forever on that," Walsh said Wednesday in a sitdown with reporters who regularly cover the team.
Walsh sent the Knicks' 2012 first-round pick, plus the right to swap first-round picks in 2011, to the Rockets along with Jared Jeffries and Jordan Hill in the deal that brought Tracy McGrady to the Knicks.
Walsh made the trade to clear enough cap space to make a run at two max-salary free agents, but the Knicks struck out in their attempts to land LeBron James and Chris Bosh, settling instead for Amare Stoudemire and Raymond Felton.
With Anthony now on the trade market, and with the Knicks one of his preferred destinations as ESPN.com's Mark Stein and Chad Ford are reporting, Walsh has all the assets the Nuggets are seeking -- a large, expiring contract, belonging to Eddy Curry, and young talent such as Anthony Randolph, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Toney Douglas -- except for the future No. 1 pick(s) that Denver desires.
(New York cannot trade its 2011 or 2013 picks because of an NBA rule prohibiting teams from going consecutive years without a first-rounder, so the best Walsh can offer right now is a 2014 first-round pick.)
"I think we got something out of it that allowed us to bring in 10 new players. But I didn't like it when I did it. I don't like doing financial trades. They're not basketball trades," Walsh said.



"I was going back and forth on that deal, and I guess I thought the ability to have enough money to get two stars, or get one star and one or two other players, that worked. We got Amare and Felton, so that worked," Walsh said.
"But you always want to keep first-round picks. The '12 pick I didn't like doing. I remember the night before we did it, thinking, 'I don't like doing this, but we're going to do it.' And I'll second-guess myself forever on that."

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