Knicks' Jackson could've traded for Jae Crowder in 2014

In what ultimately turned out to be a disappointing trade for the New York Knicks, Phil Jackson's first big move as president nearly landed him a bona fide starting small forward.

"One of the first deals I engineered when I came back to New York was to trade Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton to Dallas for Shane Larkin, Jose Calderon, Wayne Ellington, Samuel Dalembert, plus a second-round pick that the Mavs owed to the Celtics," Jackson told Charley Rosen of todaysfastbreak.com. "In talking with Boston, I was given the option of taking that pick or else taking Jae Crowder. I liked Crowder but I thought he wouldn’t get much of a chance to play behind Carmelo, so I took the pick which turned out to be Cleanthony Early. While Cleanthony has missed lots of time in the past two seasons with us, he still has the potential to be a valuable player. Even so, I should have taken Crowder."

Although Crowder and Anthony share positions, the latter spent back-to-back seasons as the Knicks power forward from 2012-14, and likely would've fit seamlessly next to Crowder. While he was largely an afterthought in two-and-half-seasons in Dallas, Crowder enjoyed a breakout campaign for the Celtics in 2015-16, averaging career-highs in points (14.2), rebounds (5.1), and assists (1.8).

While choosing to acquire a second-rounder instead was clearly a poor decision by Jackson, the Knicks president believes that making a bad move early on wasn't the worst thing in the world.

"Anyway, for all of us, making mistakes are part of the learning process."