Vecsey Is All Wrong

Tommy Dee says: Apologies to Peter Vecsey that we misspelled his name several times, but the point of the post is accurate in my opinion. What we do here is try to be balanced and it’s my stance that because this team’s situation was such a mess, there should be plenty of leeway given to the new regime. I fully support the trades of Crawford and Z-Bo (and by “support” I mean “did several cartwheels”) and have to say that the Marbury situation was what it was. It’s hard to sympathize with a guy who ran several coaches out of town and the Brown/Isiah situation was ridiculous. I appreciate Steph for coming out and saying he had personal issues and that could have been the cause, but his time here was a wrap. All you had to do was be at Media Day, which I don’t remember seeing Vecsey at, to notice that the players were fed up with Steph as a distraction.
With that said, I respect a man who’s made a living in this business for so long, and who represents the CHSAA (Archbishop Molloy), but in this case his criticisms are unfair. As was his hit against Alan Hahn when the very next day he reported a trade that didn’t happen.
I normally don’t give much credence to what Peter Vecsey and Marc Berman write, because in my opinion, Berman’s infatuation with Stephon Marbury hinders his ability to approach analysis of this team from an unbiased standpoint, and Vecsey proved to me today he has no clue what he’s talking about.
“IN 14 months as Knicks president, Donnie Walsh‘s claim to fame is erasing two bloated salaries belonging to Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford ($27.4M) from New York’s 2010 payroll, therefore giving the team roughly $34M in “additional” cap space to charm a couple collector items whose names escape me to forsake their franchises.
The operative word is additional. In all this time, not a single media mope (me, too) ever mentioned the Knicks already were $7M under the cap in 2010 when Walsh superseded Isiah Thomas.”
His claim to fame has been dealing Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph, but that’s not something to simply brush off. People labeled Zach Randolph as virtually unmovable, and he was able to deal the two on the same day. And what are we supposed to do with $7 million in cap space? In a season, Walsh made that $40 million and gave Knicks fans hope that signing not one, but two major free agents in 2010 is a plausible goal. To simply make Walsh look like some one-hit wonder who gets a pass by Knick fans for merely carrying out his plan meticulously and still keeping this team competitive after dealing their top two scorers is unfair.
“I remain convinced the Knicks could’ve pressed for a playoff spot had the pair not been sent packing early on for Cuttino Mobley’s sick ticker and Al Harrington‘s leading-man mentality, and Mike D’Antoni had done right by Stephon Marbury.”
It’s really just beating a dead horse to bring up the Marbury situation in June 2009. It was probably mishandled, but it didn’t affect the team at all. Let’s not forget how Marbury declined to play against Milwaukee.
“Still, there’s no depreciating the fact Walsh has excelled in unloading the majority of Thomas’ personnel monstrosities (the above, plus Jerome James, Malik Rose and Quentin Richardson — dispatched to the Grizzlies for Darko Milicic on the sixth anniversary of Milicic being drafted behind LeBron James and ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, David West, Kirk Hinrich, T.J. Ford, Kendrick Perkins, Josh Howard, Chris Kaman, Nick Collision, Boris Diaw, Luke Ridnour, Travis Outlaw, Leandro Barbosa and Michael Pietrus, to name 15).”
Just to address this, all Knick fans know Darko Milicic is a bust. That’s not Walsh’s fault. We basically got Darko for free, and it’s a low risk/high reward situation. John Hollinger said that Milicic won’t be “cured by a system.” This system has done a lot more for a lot of other players. Quentin Richardson lead the league in threes, Steve Nash won 2 consecutive MVPs, and Shawn Marion had some years he would never have had on any other team. All of those guys are talented, but you can’t tell me that Darko can’t be a 10 point, 7 rebound, 2 block type of player in the best case in D’Antoni’s system. And if he doesn’t produce, he’s gone after this year.
“So much for faintly praising Walsh. Anybody can put a franchise on hold for two years while LeJesus decides whether he wants to flat-leave the Cavaliers, who have never said no to anything he’s asked for (his words to me in late March) in owner Dan Gilbert’s spendthrift pursuit of a championship.
What Walsh has done in the meantime made 41 nights at the Garden scarcely bearable for beaten-down season-ticket holders and figure to stay that insufferable in spite of the surfacing of Milicic: He paid a coach $24M for four seasons based on a system that prospers when its conductor is an MVP maestro and orchestra is in unqualified harmony . . . sat still when D’Antoni commanded little if any defensive accountability and didn’t insist Nate Robinson, at the very least, act like a para-professional.”
We’ll ignore the fact that D’Antoni has immense appeal to free agents and draft prospects, and he is respected as one of the best coaches in the game. We’ll ignore what D’Antoni did with an inconsistent and mostly inept roster, including the 6’9 David Lee at center, and improved the Knicks win total by 9 games. The team not only scored 108 ppg and set a record for threes made in a season, but D’Antoni helped Wilson Chandler mature and have a breakout sophomore season. You also can’t blame Walsh for not “commanding defensive accountability” from D’Antoni. Walsh made moves that were financial but still kept the Knicks in the playoff hunt deep into the season. D’Antoni can only work with the roster, and he can’t really coach interior defense with Jared Jeffries being his defensive stopper. Walsh inherited a roster that was a mess and after a year he’s supposed to have a championship contender?
“He passed on Eric Gordon and Brook Lopez — despite Curry exceeding the calorie cap and not owning a defensive stance — and drafted the son of D’Antoni’s former Italian teammate, a 19-year-old with a recurrently ailing back.”
Lopez could never fit this system and Eric Gordon’s a one dimensional guy who is a lot like Nate Robinson. There are a lot of guys the Knicks could have taken, but they took a 6’10 forward, who doctors predict will end up at 6’11, who shot 44% from three and 96% from the free throw line his rookie year. If he’s healthy, he’s going to be Hedo Turkoglu 2.0.
“He imported Harrington — allowed to stunt the growth of Wilson Chandler for far too long — Larry Hughes, who confirmed why coaches quickly lose patience with him, and under-utilized Chris Wilcox.
Then, last Thursday, Walsh whiffed on Brandon Jennings. Instead he selected Jordan Hill after failing to intercept the Warriors for Stephen Curry or vaguely tempt the Timberwolves to part with No. 5 — Ricky Rubio.
Talent scouts tell me Hill is solid and runs the floor well. In other words, he does what Wilcox does, only not as good, but definitely works cheaper; gotta save as much money for the following summer, even at the cost of Ws … and very possibly one of the team’s precious few assets in Lee, a restricted free agent midnight July 1.”
Harrington didn’t stunt Wilson Chandler’s growth anymore than Kobe Bryant stunted Trevor Ariza’s growth. Just because they play the same position doesn’t mean Harrington is necessarily hindering with Chandler’s development. Walsh “whiffed on Brandon Jennings.” OK, Jennings has one of the worst attitudes of all time, and he recently bashed the Knicks during an interview with Joe Budden. He has a ton of potential but no work ethic which leads me to believe that potential will remain untapped. If we did pick him, I guarantee Vescey says we drafted the next Marbury. Jordan Hill resembles Chris Wilcox in no way other than the fact that they both have dreads. Hill is a better rebounder, shooter, and shot-blocker than Wilcox ever has. Hill has better footwork and post moves.
“Conversely, “God created Jennings for D’Antoni’s system … minus the jump shot that needs improvement.” That’s straight from a friend of mine who knows a little basketball and has seen the kid play no less than 100 times throughout high school/AAU.
“Every year he was the best guard in his class,” said a Western Conference GM who tried to obtain a second No. 1 to get him before the Bucks did at No. 10. “Then he went to Italy to play. You know how it works, out of sight, out of mind.”
“Brandon is a freak athlete with a superior feel for the game and unteachable passing ability. He flaunts Pistol Pete flair, Isiah Thomas toughness with a nasty streak to match, doesn’t take crap from anybody and always has the backs of teammates. Plus he loves New York. Used to come to the city to play at Rucker Playground and in other outdoor leagues. He would’ve reinvigorated the Garden.”
Minus the jump shot that needs improvement” is an understatement. His jump shot is terrible. Chad Ford thinks Hill will fit in perfectly with the Knicks system, but Vescey’s friend differs. Peter Vescey’s friend or Chad Ford? You choose. He’s not close to as tough as Zeke was, and other than passing, Jennings has little skill. He’s athletic but 6’1 and extremely skinny.
All in all, Vecsey just makes opinionated statements that are flat-out false. He clearly wanted Brandon Jennings, and bashes the Hill pick because he knows nothing about him. Jennings shot 35% from the field and Hill averaged 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks in the Pac-10. He bashes Walsh for the Gallinari pick when Gallo hasn’t even had the chance to prove himself for a whole year, and he fails to appropriately extol Walsh for the cost-cutting moves he pulled off on November 21st and at the trade deadline.
About Myles A. Mills
Myles is a sophomore at The Browning School, an all-boys private school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He's been a Knick fan as long as he can remember, and 02-03 was the last season he could remember in entirety. He hopes to one day see the Knicks in the playoffs. Myles is also fond of the Mets, and follows them vehemently, but his the bulk of his time goes to the Knicks. Myles wants to be a radio hosts on WFAN or ESPN 1050 radio, and he hopes to write for theknicksblog.com for years to come. View all posts by Myles A. Mills →-
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