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Was sent an article by my boy Drew written by Chad Ford where he talks about General Managers and executives’ take on 
prospects and highlighting Brandon Jennings.
“…In early June, there was anything but a consensus on what kind of NBA player he’d become, and NBA executives and scouts traveling to the Reebok Eurocamp were furious that Jennings was a last-minute scratch.
According to one veteran general manager:
“We all came to see whether this kid can really play. I’d heard the hype, watched the video and heard various opinions from my scouts. I wanted to see how he stacked up against other top kids his age. Then he doesn’t show. He sure isn’t making this easy on us. You want to like the kid, but he ain’t giving you a lot to go on…”
The Grizzlies (2nd), Thunder (3rd), Warriors (7th) and Raptors (9th) weren’t really in the hunt for a point guard. The Kings (4th) had ruled out Jennings after a shaky workout and were deciding between Tyreke Evans and Ricky Rubio. The Wolves (5th and 6th) were considering Jennings, but he was behind Jonny Flynn, Ricky Rubio and Stephen Curry on their board. The Knicks were set on taking Curry or Jordan Hill, whoever was left.Duffy couldn’t get a team to commit to Jennings and eventually decided to pull Jennings from the NBA green room to avoid a potential embarrasment.
Just hours before the draft, things started to turn Jennings’ way. The Bucks had been on the fence between Jennings and Jrue Holiday. For much of the past month they had been leaning toward Holiday, but in the final 24 hours they began to have a change of heart.
“Jennings has so much upside,” a Bucks source told me hours before the draft. “Sometimes you have to gamble a little. The great teams take calculated risks. I think we need to take a calculated risk.”
Two hours later the Bucks jumped in head first and drafted him with the 10th pick.
Had they passed on him, he could’ve been in freefall. Neither the Nets (11th), the Bobcats (12th) nor the Pacers (13th) had him high on their board. The Suns did at No. 14, but if they had passed, he would have fallen into a murky situation, because the Suns were the lowest-drafting team he had worked out for.
So far Jennings is giving a lot of teams regrets for passing on him. How great would he have looked in a Kings uniform? Could he have become a cornerstone for the Knicks? You get the picture…”
Bottom line is that a bunch of teams were down on Jennings and the Bucks admittedly gambled so, although it’s easy to kill the Knicks, the consensus on Jennings was pretty bleak. It’s way too early to tell, but the Jennings selection has paid immediate dividends. Interesting that Jennings, reportedly, could have fallen even further had the Bucks not taken him.
They only logical explanation I can draw is that to every executive the draft is a job interview and blowing off an interview, like Jennings did, does not go over well with potential employers.
I very much like the example someone else posted about this.
How in year one, Marbury was dominating and his draft mates Kobe and Nash was struggling…
Its year 1. Hindsight is 20/20…
Time to let this go.
AMEN
“Jennings has so much upside,” a Bucks source told me hours before the draft. “Sometimes you have to gamble a little. The great teams take calculated risks. I think we need to take a calculated risk.”
I agree. The GREAT TEAMS take calculated risks. That’s why the Knick’s management has always been a bunch of childish amateurs. Scared of their own shadow.
but hasnt knicks management been comprised of different groups throughtout the years ?
its pretty tough to make a blanket statement like that.
but whatevs, i guess youre just venting. and this as good a forum as any other to do that.
I think this line right here says it all “The Grizzlies (2nd), Thunder (3rd), Warriors (7th) and Raptors (9th) weren’t really in the hunt for a point guard.”
The Knicks were.
So much so that they worked out 30 something yr old retiree Jason Williams and headcase Jamaal Tinsley this summer, courted a career backup Ramon Sessions like he was the second coming of Oscar Robertson, and even went and wined and dined 34(?) yr old PG Jason Kidd to try and convince him to come here in July, to no avail.
The Knicks needed a PG to run this offense. I think Mike D’Antoni knew what he had in Chris Duhon, and knew it was time for an upgrade.
The Knicks needed a PG who could push the tempo, get his teammates easy baskets, and play his heart out, because you know Knicks fans wouldn’t settle for anything less.
That was Brandon Jennings. The kid is a warrior.
Now, some may say that Jennings would’ve been a project. Well if he’s a project, what’s Jordan Hill? In a way I’m glad the Knicks don’t have a pick next year because they’d find a way to screw it up.
This is a franchise historically known to pass on good players.They haven’t drafted an All Star since Mark Jackson, 20 + yrs ago. This is a team that passed on Danny Granger and Andrew Bynum in the same draft.
This is a franchise that passed on Ron Artest for Frederic Weis. This is a franchise that once had 3 picks in the mid to late first round, and every single one turned out to be a bust. I forget which year, but they had the 18th, 19th, and 21st pick one year.
You figure you know all 3 aren’t going to be good, but at least one, right? The Knicks picked John Wallace 18, Walter McCarty 19, and Dontae Jones 21.
Cleveland had the 20th pick and chose Zydrunas Ilgauskas!
This is a franchise that passed on Amare Stoudemire and traded the rights to Nene AND Marcus Camby, for the rights to watch Antonio McDyess sit on the sidelines in crutches for a yr, after blowing out his knee in a preseason game. What makes this even worse is that they traded for him even though he was just coming off major knee surgery on the other knee.
So it doesn’t surprise me they passed on Brandon Jennings. It’s just business as usual for the Knicks.
“Now, some may say that Jennings would’ve been a project. Well if he’s a project, what’s Jordan Hill?”
I can’t say I’ve gotten all the fuss and big deal over not picking Jennings, but I get it, now. And I agree with it. I, personally, still won’t make a fuss about it, but that was a mistake.
I actually like Hill, who I thought showed some flashes during the summer league games. However, the Knicks did not need a PF they needed a PG to run 7SOL for the present and/or the future. Donnie drafted Hill because he thought he might lose Lee (again Donnie’s fault) & probably because of the old adage you cant teach height.
It’s not that Jennings is the greatest thing since slice bread, he did take 23 shots the other night. It’s that Jennings represents something that this team desperately needs and that’s a playmaker.
Honestly, at this point if we had taken Lawson or Holliday (who I wasnt big on during the draft) it would be fine, at least we will have something to look forward to in the future.
Donnie drafted Gallo to be a PF and Chandler is viewed by D’antoni as a PF. We did not need to draft a PF.
I feel that Donnie panicked when the PG he wanted was not there and panicked by drafting for height only.
People blame D’antoni for but IMO Donnie is as much to blame if not more.
Its a stretch to say we envisioned Chandler to be our PF.
Wasn’t D’antoni the one who started him at 2 guard ?
We can’t just pick and choose the facts that make our current argument look better, guys.
Thats called misleading.
Yes he started him at SG because of our logjam of forwards and lack of backcourt players, not because he envisioned him as a future SG
There are times you draft for need and times you draft for best available talent and I’m sorry to say but Hill was neither, with Jennings and DeRozan still on the board.
Again we still don’t have a SG, C and PG and huge questions marks at F in Gallo, Will & Hill, and possibly with Lee leaving via free agency
Neither Chandler or Gallo will ever be a high level PF.
Besides, we already have a high level PF in Lee.
If you saw the Bulls game the other night, you’d know that he HAD TO take 23 shots. Michael Redd was out, and he was playing with guys like Charlie Bell, Luke Ridnour, Hakim Warrick, Ersan Ilyasova, Dan Gadzuric. Those guys suck.
He was actually the reason they dominated the Bulls for 3 quarters that night, on both ends. He seemed to run out of gas in the 4th quarter, but that’s because he had to carry the team on his back the whole night, while playing a much much better, playoff tested team in Chicago.
I didn’t see the game but if you did and that’s what happen, then that’s a good reason for the amount of shots.
Its easy when things don’t go your way to say hindsight is 20/20 but the truth is that the Knicks have needed to draft a PG for about 15-20 years now. Jennings was the second rated PG behind Rubio for a long time. There are no PGs on the horizon for a long time in D’Antoni’s PG centered offensive system. I would have rolled the dice but I understand that D’Antoni’s system is supposed to be run by a cerebral PG and the feeling was that Jennings didn’t have the smarts. Still though at some point Knicks management has to stop making excuses and stop passing on Bayless, Jennings and the like and be agressive about trading for a Mayo, Curry, Rubio or Evans. We have the worst PGs in the league in a PG dominated system. That is competely unacceptable . . . Curry’s back, let the winning begin.
Besides Rubio, these other guys are combo guards. This team needs a point guard who can distribute. Thats why we went to Sessions and Kidd. Jennings is putting up great numbers in the Marbury/Francis mold. We dont really need that. We already have Nate who is a SG in a PG body.
Jennings would have been exciting for this year but not for the future.
I absolutely agree.
Combo guards put up great numbers and great numbers can be misleading;.
how many combo guards consistently contribute to winning basketball?
Just because Jennings CAN score, doesn’t make him a combo guard. He’s a pass first PG. Steve Nash can drop 35 pts on any given night, doesn’t make him a “combo guard”. Chris Paul had 39 pts last night, doesn’t make him a “combo guard”.
I love how you all are talking about combo guards, but yet didn’t have a problem with the Knicks picking Stephen Curry. What is he?
I had a huge problem with the Knicks picking Curry for the same reasons I wasn’t sold on Jennings. With each player, I wouldnt have been upset with the pick, but I wouldn’t have been blown away.
And, no, Jennings is not a pass first point guard. I understand the Bucks are not exactly an offensive powerhouse, and I’m not faulting Jennings for scoring 20 points a game, its great, he’s a great player. But he’s not a pass first point guard and this system needs a distributer at the PG spot. Marbury and Francis averaged 6-9 assists a game too. I’m just saying.
I don’t hate on him, Id like to have him on this team, at least he’s a valuable asset. He’d be fun to watch. I just don’t blame Donnie for not taking him.
thats a good point. however, steph curry has somethign that would make him nash-like in this offense.
he has a perfect shooting stroke.
a perfect shooting stroke would make the pick and roll indefensible.
and the pick and roll is the bread and butter of d’antonis offense.
its what made nash mvp.
Jennings is not Stephon Marbury or Steve Francis, maybe some people think all black people look the same? Can’t help that they play the same position.
You’re an idiot. Obviously I wasn’t comparing Jennings to Marbury/Francis based on skin color. Its because they play similar style games. They are all undersized shooting guards forced to play PG in the pros. Jennings is even more undersized.
I do agree that Curry’s shooting stroke would have been perfect for this team, but he is nowhere near the floor general Nash is. Still, I wouldn’t have been upset with the pick, just like I wouldn’t have been upset with a Jennings pick. I just have way more problems with the Knicks management than this draft pick.
Jennings is a point guard. Everyone who has played with him has raved about his passing ability. Nash didn’t make the impact this kid has made in just a few games when he came into the league. The sky is the limit.
To put him in the Marbury/Francis conversation makes abslutely no sense. Francis was never the passer this kid is at any point in his career. Marbury was a talented passer, but he was more of a scorer first. This kid has to score playing without Redd and no real explosive scorers on the team.
He went into the McDonald’s All-amercan game wanting to break the assist record and probably would have got it if his team shot better. He enjoys passing and is probably the only pure point that came out in this draft (you could say Rubio, but he’s not playing).
There is no real reason to compare him to Marbury and especially not Francis, who was never a true point guard, other than the fact that they play the same position and that they are African-american (they’re not even the same height). So I’m not an idiot, but your claim is idiotic.
Peace.
its pretty weird to bring race into an argument about nba players.
was magic johnson white ? no.
was he a passfirst pointguard? yes
so i dont see what race has to with being either a passfirst or scoring pointguard.
HaS, your making us brown folk look silly when you say things like that.
Do you guys read?
I said that there is nothing about Jennings that should make people think he’s a MARBURY-type point guard (physically or mentally) and even less to equate him to Francis. THAT’S my point. I’m not bringing race into it LMAO, I’m saying other than them sharing a continent of birth and the same ethnicity there is nothing about Brandon that should make people compare them in a negative way.
Comprende?
I love how you guys are still talking about Ricky Rubio. Most of you have never even seen him play. FYI, he stunk it up a the World Games this summer, and he probably wouldn’t have beaten Jonny Flynn for the starting job in Minnesota.
Brandon Jennings is a pass first PG. Period. His teammates and coaches can’t stop raving about how good a passer he is and how much fun it is to play with him. When have those words ever been said about Marbury and Francis?
Plus the kid plays defense and is a leader. When was that ever said about Marbury?
I wasnt a big Jennings fan coming into the draft. He isnt exactly in the best situation surrounded by nothing so congrats to him for the success.
Befor the draft I saw the potential but bought into the theory that he was “volatile”.
I liked Jrue Holliday better. I was a proponent of doing whatever to get the 5 pick while trying to keep the 8 and liked Curry/Rubio/Evans/Holliday in that order. No problem trading Chandler as a part to get the 5.
But I agree with The_Guy that this team NEEDED a point guard in the worst way. I didnt understand the fascination with Jordan Hill and still dont. And I dont really buy that DW thought he was one of the three or four best players in the draft. I think Donnie had no other options once Curry, Flynn and Rubio were off the board.
I think he liked Lawson and Holliday, but like Hill more and had his sites on sessions…then July hit.
again, too early to tell.
My question is to the jennings supporters would be had we taken Lawson and he had a bad game would people still be clamoring for Jennings?
again, playing is key bc hill is not, but it’s not like Big men can’t still develop.
the celts will be very happy they have sheldon williams. marvin williams was awful in the beginning, i’ll take him.
He’s not a 7′0 goon like sene or patty O’ benchman
and he’s not balkman at 6′7
he’ll play in this league.
Ok Tommy, but wouldn’t you think that taking Hill would only make sense if he was a can’t miss prospect? If DW liked Lawson and Holiday, they were available and the team had a glaring need for a PG, why take a PF, even if in his mind he was slightly better than the guards mentioned.
It only makes sense if DW thinks we have a future star in Hill, but frankly, what are the odds?
Amazing how J Hill has gone from projected as the next Amare to the next PJ Brown…
Hill will be a serviceable bigman on a rookie scale contract for the next 3/4 years.
If you were to pick up a serviceable bigman in the freeagent market it would cost you upwards of 7 mill a year.
since we are trying to conserve as much money as possible in order to make a big free agent splash, it made sense to use a draft pick to avoid paying double for an equivalent bigman.
and then theres always the potential that he becomes better than serviceable.
At this point he could be a Skinny Mike Sweeney..
We just dont know yet.
But getting just serviceable players at the 8th pick is not really what you are looking for in a draft.
And we had plenty of big men on the roster when Stern announced our pick.
“Hill will be a serviceable bigman on a rookie scale contract for the next 3/4 years.” Starting when?
The point is the Knicks still don’t have a point. (weak pun not intended) You know how much a serviceable point guard is going to cost? Hint… Duhon is making 6 mil and some would argue that he’s less than serviceable.
Duhon was an obvious overpay. and we did that becuase we had him on such a short contract.
and well becuase we are the knicks and we can afford it.
he has no effect on our free agent shopping becuase his contract is so short. which was exactly the point.
And my point is when he’s gone they will still be shopping for a point guard.
To be serviceable (Hill) one has to be playing, hence the term SERVICEable.
Ty Lawson played on a loaded North Carolina team and didn’t project to be anything but a decent to good player in the league. In Denver, he’s playing on another team that’s loaded, and he’s doing well.
Would he be this good on the Knicks, where he’d have a much bigger role and alot more pressure to succeed? I don’t know.
I think everyone agreed Brandon Jennings had superstar upside. The problem was teams weren’t all that familiar with him, and were afraid to pull the trigger on him. I think had he gone to the Reebok Eurocamp and played well there, he would’ve been drafted alot higher, and wouldn’t have caught everyone by surprise.
If you remember, the Knicks flew their entire coaching and scouting staff over to Italy to watch him play at that camp, but he no-showed. I think that more than anything else is the reason the Knicks passed on him. Had they seen him in a 5 on 5 setting, they’d see that the talent is there. The toughness and killer instinct is there.
But then again, maybe so would have one of the teams picking ahead of the Knicks.
Im struggling with the point that someone with the experience of Donnie was so bowled over by Stern’s July salary cap memo.
Did anyone really believe the 50 mil number? I think it was done to show the Union that the future isnt rosey and they better get to the table on the CBA update.
Conventional wisdom now says it wont be lower than 53 and it will more than likely be closer to 55 when all is said and done. The economy just had its first quarter of positive growth in like 2 years.– the longest economic recession on record since 1929.
trading down for Lawson was something I didnt think of. I liked Patty Mills in the second round and wish DW bought some 2nd rounders for Budinger and Mills. Chase looks like he could be a better Chandler which goes to show Chandler type players are available. I like Chase as a 2 guard.
Speaking of Balkman I saw where Denver extended him for three years at 1.675 per. I always liked his game and would not have jettisoned him for a second rounder.
Personally I’m just sick and tired of Duhon and that’s where my frustration is coming from.
If we had Lawson he would automatically be the best PG on the team.
If we had Holliday, we probably would still complain about Jennings, lol.
At least with Holliday, you can picture a future starting PG.
With Hill I can only picture future trade bait.
I don’t have a problem with skipping over Jennings because he didn’t have much of a statistical track record to go by and also demonstrated some personality quirks that the organization has been trying to rid itself of.
On the flip side, they could have easily traded down for Ty Lawson (who was rated as the top PG in the draft by some stats guys, who fit well, and who fit a need) and came away with something else also. Instead they took Jordan Hill. He was rated very poorly by stats guys and we already have a glut at the forward position. There’s no way to excuse that pick. It wasted a entire year and didn’t help the team.
What makes it worse is that we’re handing over our (most likely) top 10 pick to Utah next June. So we had to get our pick right last year.
I have a problem with the Knicks passing on Jennings based strictly on his stats in a foreign country, where he doesn’t know the language and is playing against grown men.
Secondly @ ITALIAN stallion, he played in ITALY! Where’s _’antoni’s adopted home? I read somewhere HE fire the Knicks scouts because HE thought HE could do that job. Meanwhile a player that he should be able to find out anything and everything about from his favorite color to his favorite restaurant in ITALY slips right past his moustache?!
He convinced Walsh to draft his godson, why couldn’t he convince him to draft for a position the Knicks were lacking in. EVERYONE in the NBA is talking about Jennings! EVERYONE! The Knicks are the laughing stock again.
Yeah, Free agents are beating down the door to sign here.
same old knicks
If the kid had kept his mouth shut , not bad mouth Rubio and just let his game do the talking , another story. After going through a year + with the whole Marbury fiasco , I think the last thing NY needed was to take a gamble on a guy who already demonstrated that he has a big ego. Then add his anti NY tirade and that shows you a lot about his character. I dont care but I dont want that type of character running the point. Skiles is a perfect coach for him. Strict !
Way to early to start this type of talk but , one thing is for sure , NY has not made a solid 1 st round choice in a while. Gallo might just be the first one in a long time but we have a ways to go on that . Hill…??? I understand Lee was still not a lock but I might have preferred Jrue Holiday instead.
Sessions was also a great prospect.
Cap plan better work ……….. we passed on a lot of things that could have helped us
If only we had our pick next year, I’d be rooting for this team to implode in order for us to get a top 3 pick… sadly, I don’t even have that to look forward to.
It’s only a depressing game followed by another, while hoping LBJ or D-Wade lands in NY next year.
Basketball used to be fun…
They’ve already imploded, Eduardo.
So now it’s his “character” that worried you just because he said Rubio was over hyped? (can’t say I disagree with him) Caron Butler did time in jail for selling drugs, and he’s yet to have a single “character” issue in the NBA.
Allen Iverson went # 1 overall, even though he spent time in jail for his role in a brawl at a bowling alley. He had a great Hall of Fame caliber career in the NBA, with no major character issues.
If the kid can play, he can play. I don’t buy this character stuff. His coaches and teammates on every level he’s ever played on loved him. He never gotten in any trouble off the court, even though he grew up in Compton CA.
The kid spends most of his time with his mom and his little brother, his coaches in Italy and now in Milwaukee rave about how he’s a gym rat and they can’t keep him out of the gym at night, and you guys are saying none of that matters just because he’s a little cocky?
Brandon Jennings’ character was not why the Knicks didn’t draft him. If they were so concerned about character they wouldn’t have traded for Darko Milicic after this infamous YouTube rant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci3j363HWQM
Same with Artest. The Knicks management has a history of not wanting ‘bad character’ players on the team. That’s why Channing Frye was drafted a few years ago. IT kept raving about his character. The only exception was when they traded for Sprewell and that turned out fine. Give me 5 Ron Artests and Brandon Jennings anytime over 5 Channing Fryes or David Lees.
Excellent post BobbyfromBk! I forgot about Sprewell. He came here right after choking his coach and helped the team reach the NBA Finals. These guys making a big deal about Brandon Jennings calling Rubio overhyped are just reaching now.
Allen Iverson didn’t have major character issues? We’re talking PRACTICE! And there was the time he “allegedly” broke into his girlfriends apartment waving a gun and all his sponsors dropped him. I wouldn’t say he had no character issues. He also had numerous public spats with coaches – is the only “major character issue” you consider a brawl?
I’d never heard about the thing with the gun. The whole practice issue didn’t keep him from taking a team full of role players to the NBA Finals, becoming MVP, a perennial All Star, scoring champ, and having a Hall Of Fame career.
And again, the Sixers picked him anyway, even though he did time in jail. My point is, this whole argument of Brandon Jennings being called a “headcase” or my favorite “Another Marbury” is ridiculous.
There are other guys who have gone on to have great NBA careers having done much much worse than calling someone overhyped before the draft.
Most of these fans who are on here dissing Jennings were just upset because he said something about a guy in Ricky Rubio who they’d fallen in love with because he was a media darling, that they’d only seen in the Olympics or on YouTube. Not knowing that there were plenty of guys who shined in the Olympics vs. Team USA who were busts in the NBA.
Like Sarunas Jasikevicius, Sofoklis “Greek Baby Shaq” Schortinides, I can go on and on.
@ paulempson
“f the kid had kept his mouth shut , not bad mouth Rubio and just let his game do the talking, another story.”
So because he said Rubio was overhyped it made drafting him “another story”? WTF? Give me a break. Hey it is hard to argue with that statement. I think Rubio was overhyped, people compared him to Magic Johnson and he hadn’t even played (because he refused to) against the other draft prospects or play in an NBA game. Now that’s hype.
“I think the last thing NY needed was to take a gamble on a guy who already demonstrated that he has a big ego. ”
To play in NY you have to have to have a big ego, you have to have extreme confidence in your game and yourself as a person because being in the media capital of the US it can be like living in a fish bowl for a celebrity or professional athlete. I’d argue that he was perfect for this town.
“After going through a year + with the whole Marbury fiasco,”
I know he’s African-American and he’s a point guard, but they do not share the same DNA. Not to mention part of that fiasco was _’antoni’s doing.
i get the notion that DW drafted HILL cuz he didn’t know if keepin LEE was possible BUT OUR #1 CONCERN WAS & STILL IS PG!!!! NOT JUST THIS YR. BUT BEYOND…I think DW got tunnel vision and once Rubio & Curry got picked up he paniced just like someone mentioned…hind sight is 20/20 but we could’ve had Jennings (who is a PASS 1ST PG, all that combo talk fans don’t know what they’re talkin about) & BLAIR…but like someone said the Knicks have a hystory of terrible drafts so it’s stupid to get angry…ALL IN ALL, NOT PICKIN UP A LOTTERY CALIBUR PG IN A PG STACKED DRAFT W/ OUR #1 NEED IS PG WAS IRRESPONSIBLE…David Kahn made a fool of himself this summer but at least he acknowledged his mistakes and made a move for Sessions and now has a Blue Chip in Rubio…so yea he embarassed himself BUT he didn’t bury himself…THE ONLY WAY TO RIGHT THIS WRONG IS TO GET RID OF DUHON…THE WORST PG IN THE NGA!!!!!!!!
if he didnt think Lee was coming back Donnie still had Harrington, Chandler and Gallo on the roster.
Chandler — as MDA said — is a 4 and so is Harrington. He traded for Darko to fill the C spot.. And Eddy was working out and looking like he was going to get minutes (at least enough to get himself traded) and I didnt even mention Jeffries.
So IF Lee walked — a BIG IF — Donnie still had
PF — Harrington/Chandler
SF — Gallo/Jeffries
C — Darko/Curry
Not gonna win any Chips but the “roles” are filled — especially with MDAs short rotation.
good point Biggie…which makes the fact that we didn’t draft a top 10 PG in a PG stacked draft when our #1 need was a PG even more irresponsible…thx Biggie…i’d love to hear your insight on how to get rid of garbage ass DUHON…I SAY…
NATE & ANYONE IT TAKES TO MAKE IT WORK FOR BAYLESS
&
CHANDLER, HILL, & JEFFRIES FOR AMARE
OK,we need a point guard,what are we gonna do NOW?
Pray that John Wall, Willie Warren, and Tyshawn Taylor all decide to return to school at the end of this year, and then pray some more for the Knicks to stink next year, and then pray that we get a high draft pick, and then pray again that we don’t pass on one of these guys.
Yeah, that should do it.
The only way to right our point guard problem is to release our starting point guard? Brilliant.
Some of you people. Jesus. Stop overreacting. Duhon far and away exceeded expectations last year until he broke down due to injuries. The guys having trouble getting into the swing of things, so is practically the whole team. Don’t call for his head. Whats the point of just cutting ties with him? Im sorry but from what Ive seen, I dont want Tony Douglas playing more than garbage time just yet.
There is still hope. If Gallo can score 15-20 points a game at age 21 he is a tradeable asset. Chandler is an asset. Jordan Hill is an asset. We still have Lee and Nate. There are gonna be point guards available via trade. We all know the huge long shot of CP3 but we must still hope. More realistically, I’m sure the Andre Miller/Portland relationship will not last. Some more names are bound to pop up. We dont need to make an immediate move, Duhon will come around. Despite the struggles he’s putting up top-10 assist numbers and 2.4 turnovers per game is lowest among PGs despite Rondo’s 2.3. So, he could be much morse.
Who said anything about releasing Duhon? I see people saying he should be traded or others on the team should be traded for a potential starting point guard of the future. So you propose to cut into the precious cap that Walsh would dip 3.5 mil into with a player (Andre Miller) who is making almost double that?
You go ahead and wait for Duhon to come around. I don’t know how he could be “much morse”, but he can’t get much worse.
Tommy, does anyone know why Jennings blew off the Eurocamp? Was there something more to it (i.e. agent decision, travel issues,etc.) ?
@ bockersORbriefs – Jennings had spent the year in Italy, getting inconsistent playing time. One night he’d play 20 minutes, the next night 5, the next 2 games he wouldn’t play at all.
Then they tried using him as a SG off the bench, when he was clearly the best passer on the team. Then his coach quit on the team, and the new coach under pressure to win, didn’t want to risk giving the 18 yr old American minutes.
So all this frustrated him. He kept his mouth shut, and spent hrs upon hrs working with his assistant coaches, but he still wouldn’t get regular minutes.
Around the first week of June, he was homesick, his team had just been bumped in the first round of the playoffs, and the coach didn’t put him on the playoff roster because he didn’t think Jennings was going to be there next year, so what’s the point of playing him just to showcase him for an NBA GM?
So when his season ended he had a choice. He can stay in Italy for another 2-3 weeks and play at the Reebok Eurocamp and play against some of the best European prospects in the world, or he can go home to L.A. and start training for the draft, and working out for teams against Jonny Flynn, Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry, etc.
He chose to go home.
@ bockersORbriefs – Here’s a great piece on Jennings by Jonathan Givony from Draft Express from back in May.
http://www.draftexpress.com/article/Brandon-Jennings-Biding-his-Time-in-Rome-3212/
The_Guy, you are The_MAN ! Thanks for some great insight on factors that played a part in Jennings “blowing off his job interview” in front of scouts. Sounds like there was alot more to this than just BJ3 being irresponsible as was implied by the earlier posts. Also, seems like lots of folks didn’t do their homework like the Draftexpress people did. It’s strange that D’Antoni supposedly has such links into the Italian/Euro b-ball scene but he, or the Knicks scouts, seem to have blown this bigtime. Guess Jennings didn’t rate high level due dilligence cause he didn’t have a family member who played with D’Ant !
You’re welcome. I don’t know why Tommy Dee is being so negative about Jennings. I noticed that too how he took a shot at him saying he just “blew off” the interview.
I think he’s just upset his boy Ricky Rubio isn’t getting the love Jennings is getting right now.
Here’s another fantastic piece by Chad Ford that he wrote a few weeks before the draft. when he went out to Italy to do a piece on Jennings.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft2009/insider/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=brandonjennings-090609&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fdraft2009%2finsider%2fcolumns%2fstory%3fcolumnist%3dford_chad%26page%3dbrandonjennings-090609
JCMONEY i have to STRONGLY DISAGREE…you think that our beef w/ DUHON is cuz of a bad game?!?!? My beef w/ DUHON is that in D’Antoni, uptempo offense, he does not push the TEMPO…he hesitates on P&R and makes it so obvious…he can’t lead fast breaks…he can’t break down opposing defenses…he’s slow as shit…and he makes the stupidest TO’s…Even in the NO game where he ‘played good’ all he did was put up STATS, NOT RUN AN OFFENSE, he hesitated on the P&R(the only reason they pulled it off was cuz of LEE’s athleticism & NO bad transition D), he didn’t push the tempo, couldn’t run a fast break, and played subpar D (w/ the exception of the late steal)…We won the game cuz everyone else was on the same page and we shot well and played good D…NOT BECAUSE DUHON WAS OUR FEARLESS GENERAL…WE NEED A PG PLAIN AND SIMPLE CUZ DUHON IS NOT AN EXTENTION OF D’ANTONI ON THE COURT
THEY SHOULD HAVE MADE ISAIAH STAY UNTIL AFTER THE DRAFT!!!! IF HE COULDN’T DO ANYTHING ELSE, ALTHOUGH NOT ALWAYS PERFECT, BUT DARN WAS HE ON POINT (PARDON THE PUN) WITH MOST OF HIS PICKS
Jordan Hill will be a good player – but considering the fact that he’s a prospect – the Knicks should have picked a point guard, period.
I can’t lie, I wasn’t a Brandon Jennings fan so I can’t blame Walsh because he passed on him. But we needed a f*cking point guard!
I wanted JRUE HOLIDAY at 8 and DEJUAN BLAIR at 29.
Holiday could have been in Hill’s situation here because he’s a prospect as well – but at least he’s a point guard!
I like Hill though, but the fact that they want him to become a jumpshooter is ridiculous in my opinion.