Knicks draft: Redrafting first-round picks from 2017-21

RJ Barrett, Julius Randle, Derrick Rose, New York Knicks. (Photo by Nelson Chenault/USA TODAY Sports)

From the mid 2000s until the Amar’e Stoudemire-Carmelo Anthony era, the New York Knicks were always bad enough to miss the playoffs, yet not bad enough to land a top-five pick.

Or, if the Knicks were terrible, those first rounders were most likely packaged nicely and sent to the Chicago Bulls to trade for the eventual 2012 NBA champion Eddy Curry.

Those picks ended up becoming LaMarcus Aldridge and Joakim Noah. New York did manage to bring Noah on the squad years down the line, only to cut him and pay his salary up until the end of this season. That seems like a sound financial decision, doesn’t it?

That brought me to this question:

What if the Knicks had a competent front office in the last five years?

What if Steve Mills was never given the keys to the team from Mr. James L. Dolan? What would the team’s roster look like today?

Here’s what the New York Knicks should’ve done in past NBA drafts

Let me break down the potential moves that New York’s front office should’ve made, knowing all that we know now. In what seemed like the right move at the moment, some of these misses have brought massive consequences to the franchise.

With that being said, these are the assumptions/rules set in place for this exercise:

1. If the drafted players have been traded, then we’ll still have them traded but perhaps adjust the receiving players to make the trade realistic.
2. We’ll only focus on first-round picks and also only select other first rounders.
3. Second-round picks will remain the same.