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Chandler on Knicks' lost season: 'I didn't necessarily think it was going to be this bad'

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Tyson Chandler got out of New York at the right time. 

Traded from the Knicks to the Dallas Mavericks in a six-player deal during the offseason, Chandler is enjoying the last laugh as New York sputters through an embarrassing season. With its 2014-15 campaign now firmly in the rearview mirror after dropping its 12th consecutive game, the Knicks have decided to look ahead to next season. 

The Phil Jackson-run Knicks busted up their roster Monday in a firesale three-team deal that witnessed guards J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert get shipped off to the Cleveland Cavaliers, in an effort to gain financial flexibility. It's the second big trade Jackson has made since being lured to New York, coming months after he moved the defensive-minded Chandler in a deal that landed New York Jose Calderon and Samuel Dalembert. 

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Dalembert was waived by the 5-32 Knicks after the trade was completed to save additional money, while Calderon has two more years left on his deal. 

The transition to New York has been anything but smooth for Jackson and head coach Derek Fisher, both in their first years with the organization. 

"I think any time you go through that (much change), you're going to go through some growing pains," Chandler said, according to Brain Lewis of the New York Post, after his Mavericks downed the Brooklyn Nets in overtime Monday to improve to 26-10.

"I didn't necessarily think it was going to be this bad. But you're going to always go through some growing pains."

Chandler is excelling with the Mavericks, enjoying his second stint with the team after helping Dallas win its first championship in franchise history in 2011. The 7-foot-1 center is averaging 10.9 points on 66.7 percent shooting from the field, while hauling in 12 rebounds per game, the third-best mark in the NBA. 

When Jackson moved Chandler, along with Raymond Felton, he talked about changing the team's culture, comments that bothered the former defensive player of the year. 

While Chandler chases another title with the Mavericks and watches from the outside as the Knicks have become the laughing stock of the league, he insists his former team's abysmal season isn't vindication for the trade or Jackson's comments. 

"No, no, I didn't pay too much attention to any of that stuff, to be honest with you," Chandler said. "I know my value, I know who I am as a player. I won't allow someone else to dictate that. It was what it was."

Either way, Chandler can rest easy not being a member of the worst Knicks team in franchise history.

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