Let me state immediately that I wanted Carmello but in the off season. I felt that, barring the Collective Bargaining Agreement, we could have acquired him without giving up anybody. Anybody. Is he a future Hall of Famer? Potentially. Can he make your team better immediately? Certainly: he’s an impact player. My contention is we had a solid core (Felton, Chandler, Galinari) that could have brought us easily into the playoffs (it’s the Atlantic for crying out loud). Why feel forced about making a transaction? My take is that Donnie Walsh was operating from a position of strength: when a player states his expressed interest to specifically play for a team (along with his wife being from here and he being from Red Hook) that’s the sound of him weakening his position. That probably would have been taken advantage of (and shouldn’t the Knicks be in the drivers seat for a change) if Jimmy Dolan didn’t get involved. Instead of him ignoring Jersey and LA he jumped into the frenzy and forced Walsh’s hand. Yipes. So now we have him (and Chauncey too). The result? Ill chemistry, erratic play (check the record) and a guaranteed playoff berth for the first time in seven years. You have to love New York.