It wasn’t like the New York Knicks were in first place Friday when they decided to trade away their two leading scorers. On the contrary, the Knicks haven’t been to the playoffs since 2004, and new team president Donnie Walsh has his hands full trying to dig out from the wreckage of the Isiah Thomas regime.

Friday’s trades sent Zach Randolph to the Los Angeles Clippers and Jamal Crawford to the Golden State Warriors for three players with contracts that expire in 2010, creating salary cap space to go after LeBron James and other prominent free agents then.

Still, when one of the most prominent franchises in sports dumps its two — arguably — best players in hopes of making a splash in the free-agent market not this summer but next summer, it ranks among the most notable salary-dumping trades of recent years, weighing in at No. 5 in Tuesday’s Top Five.

5. Friday’s trades put the Knicks in position to go after the free-agent class of 2010, which could potentially include James, Dwyane Wade and Steve Nash.

4. Wayne Rooney grew up in Liverpool rooting for his hometown team, Everton, where, at 16, he became the youngest player in English Premier League history to score a goal and the youngest player ever to play for England’s national team.

But after he was England’s star at the 2004 European Championships, Rooney’s loyalty to Everton waned. When Everton couldn’t match his demands, his agent forced his sale to powerhouse Manchester United that August for more than $50 million.

Now 23, Rooney remains one of Manchester United’s stars.

3. Shrewd drafting and solid development gave the Florida Marlins one of the most powerful young rosters in Baseball, and the Marlins reached the big time ahead of schedule by winning the World Series in 1997.

Tight-fisted Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga didn’t bother trying to keep the band together.

Moises Alou, Bobby Bonilla, Kevin Brown, Jim Eisenreich, Charles Johnson and Gary Sheffield were traded before the next All-Star Game, and the Marlins finished with the worst record in the major leagues.

2. The Minnesota Vikings didn’t mean to restore the Dallas Cowboys to preeminence. They just wanted a running back.

The 1989 trade that sent Herschel Walker and four draft picks, none better than a third-rounder, to the Land of 10,000 Lakes shipped five players and eight draft picks the other way, including three first-rounders.

Those picks, either directly or through trades, turned into names familiar to anyone who watched the Super Bowl from XXVII to XXX: Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson and Russell Maryland, among others.

1. In Canada, Aug. 9 is still an unofficial national holiday, 20 years after the Edmonton Oilers shipped the country’s most famous native son to the hockey wasteland of Los Angeles. The Wayne Gretzky trade still rankles Canadians, who blame cash-strapped Oilers owner Peter Pocklington for the loss of a national treasure.

In return for Gretzky, the Oilers received Jimmy Carson, future Carolina Hurricanes forward Martin Gelinas, three first-round picks — and $15 million.

But the Gretzky trade was good for hockey, we can see now, in hindsight. Getting The Great One into a non-hockey, high-profile market like L.A. helped pave the way for NHL hockey in places like Raleigh.

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