When the Knicks traded away Felton, Gallo, and Chandler last year, I shed a tear.

Now, I am shedding tears of joy. Our front office is on quite a run. I thought the Melo trade was kind of a blemish on that, but now even that is looking good.

I said after the trade last year that the Knicks might be in trouble because (a) They fucked with their defensive culture by trading a bunch of guys that bought into defense for a guy that had questionable defensive committment, and (b) they traded their young, improving floor general for an older one that wasn't going to be able to grow with the team (something that hurt the 90's Knicks after the Mark Jackson trade, I always thought.)

"Now," I thought, "We are going to have to get lucky to pick up a good defensive, rebounding center and a point guard for the future."

BAM!

We drafted Shump and Jorts, two guys that buy into defense and seem good at it, and also have offensive skills.

We turned Chauncey and Turiaf (and Andy) into Chandler, one of the top defensive and rebounding centers, who also is a great finisher around the basket.

And we picked up Jeremy Lin off the scrap heap and gave him a chance to run the team. He is 23 and, the eyes don't lie, this guy is looking like a Felton level floor general and distributor. He might even be better than that.

This are the kind of breaks that make a championship run, fellows.

It's kind of like when we plucked Starks and Mason off the scrap heap. Things really took off after that.

Now - if our luck can continue, and Baron can come back and contribute, and Amar'e and Melo and Chandler can stay relatively healthy, I am liking our chances for multiple deep playoff runs.

But either way, I'm appreciating this, Knick fans.