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I hate to stir this pot, but I have to give credit where credit is due. Brandon Jennings dropped 55 points tonight against the Warriors. Let me repeat that. Brandon Jennings dropped 55 points tonight against the Warriors. 55 POINTS. Oh, and to show that I am not just enthralled with that statistic, Brandon Jennings put his Bucks team on his back tonight and led them in a win against the Warriors.
I am not going to retract what I said after the draft. At the time, I was not sold on Hill, but I understood the thought process behind drafting him. At that point, Jennings was a bit of a question mark, mostly due to his own actions. There is no denying that he had a big mouth during the pre-draft process. But now about 3 weeks into the NBA season, Brandon Jennings is proving that he can back up his big mouth. He is proving doubters wrong thus far and has been without a doubt the most impressive rookie to hit the NBA this season. He wanted to be a Knick, and Walsh did not pull the trigger. I ask all Knicks fans to be patient with Hill, but as we all watch this kid explode in Milwaukee, I will understand everyone’s frustration.
*Blank stare*
“Be patient”
x(
After that 55pt performance there really isn’t that much to say anymore. At this point I think all Knick fans just want to see Hill play.
The future is NOW!! play Hill, Douglas, Will & give Gallo is 12-15 shots a game
Enough excuses. If the Knicks don’t draft a PG with their next draft pick I’ll never go to the Garden again. And I don’t want to hear what’s done is done, draft a PG in 2010 (if we trade for a pick) or 2011. No more forwards, no more combo guards, draft a PG. End the Patrick Ewing Curse once and for all.
We passed on Rondo, Augustine, Bayless, Jennings, Lawson, Maynor and countless others over the years to draft forward after forward. It wasn’t just IT, Layden and Walsh have also done the inexplicable and passed on floor general after floor general. Even the Hawks, as inept as they are finally traded for Bibby and had some success. Maybe IT thought he found his PG in Marbury, but Marbury is a certifiable nut and was never a pass first PG anyway.
As for this season trade for Telfair. Show some pride.
Still waiting for TD’s mea culpa blog on Jennings and the awful prediction on the Knicks record this year. There really isn’t much bad you can say about Jennings game. The Bucks are winning (without Redd by the way) and he is playing really unselfish basketball for one of the most demanding coaches in the league. He would not have made us a playoff team this year but what a building block this kid could have been. But yeah what’s done is done, Walsh knows how to build championships, just look at Indiana.
“Walsh knows how to build championships, just look at Indiana.”
Indiana won a championship? I don’t think the ABA counts, I know Walsh is old but he couldn’t have been the GM way back then was he?
Donnie bumbles again, I just want to see when he gets it right. Yea yea the cap moves he is making are important but lets see when he has us competeting again with players that want to play. Plus a real coach
The real MD, without Nash he is going to have to prove he can coach or is it just smoke and mirrors as some have suggested
D’Antoni’s NBA head coaching career began the following year, when he led the Nuggets to a 14-36 mark in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 campaign.
You forgot to mention the guys we passed over for Balkman. Rajon Rondo, anyone?
I mentioned Rondo first.
Just watched the 8 minute clip that Tommy put up showing the pick and roll. Because of the time difference over here I’ll comment here and tie in what you wrote about Jennings. We ran two versions of of what you diagrammed. We started both sets in a 1-4 flat with the 4 and 5 men below the blocks and both the 2 and 3 in the corners. We let our 1 penetrate and when help stepped up he dished off to either the 4 or 5. We drew a lot of fouls from that set. We also floated the 2 and 3 men along the 3 point line as penetration occurred and sometimes kicked out for a 3 if the defense sagged in on us. Our 2nd set was more like what was shown. We got the 1 dribbling to a side and that keyed the big on that side stepping up and setting a high screen and then rolling on the switch. Our big down low gapped. His job was to get open and be available if his defender came across and helped. The 2 and 3 men did what they did in the previous play. Either play would work for Robinson or Douglas. They are both quick enough to take their man off the dribble. These two plays got us to the free throw line regularly. Penetration produces fouls. I’m at the disadvantage of not being able to watch the Knicks play over here. I see brief clips and that’s been it so far this season. We do get 5 live games a week but the Knicks haven’t been on yet. As for Jennings, hindsight is always 20/20. After all the crap with Marbury, the last thing that I would want is another player who was already waving red flags prior to the draft. Milwaukee rolled the dice and so far it has paid off. Good luck to them. However, I don’t see the criticism of Walsh’s two drafts as legitimate complaints. Gallinari is definitely someone who can play. You can’t forecast injuries. I’m happy with that pick. As for Hill, he is the best fit for this system that we have in our bigs. He’s just not ready yet. Douglas is a very solid player at both ends of the floor. And Walsh went after him by buying that pick from the Lakers. It always easy to be an armchair expert and sit back and say yeah but this guy is playing so much better and we could have had him. We have who we have. However, the five on the floor need to be giving complete effort and apparently that’s not happening at present. Hopefully this little break helps sort that problem out.
Good post. You can’t blame donnie for this.
And I want to know how many of you knew Jennings would be this good this early?
The only thing most of you had on Jennings was a Mcdonalds game and you tube clips. And by all accounts his play in Europe was less than stellar.
The Bucks took a huge gamble and admittedly so.
What idiots everyone was for not drafting Kobe, Dirk, Redd, Amare, etc.
Who knew?
Its so easy to look back on things after someone blows up and everyone says told you so. BS
[...] Original post by Chris Alvino [...]
Start Douglas and Nate. Trade Chandler and Duhon for Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw. Both expiring contracts… Much better 3 guard rotation.
That is not a bad idea but be even better if we could fanagle a first rounder for 2010
Congrats, to Jennings. Happy to see he’s playing well. Maybe if our rookies got the opportunity to do something, they would be able to build their play and confidence like Jennings. But this is the Knicks. There’s no such thing as challenging your rookies. Or you just make them sit for the year and bring in the next year, hoping they would be the next thing..just look at Chandler(Sat all of ‘07 and we thought he was going to be a stud, when he didn’t have any confidence to build of off.) Congrats to Jennings. And congrats toTD too..21,23 and 15.
wow…he’s playing like a man on a mission (right in front of the guy that drafted stephen curry over him). congrats to jennings and the bucks management for taking the risk….looks like its going to pay off
We weren’t the only ones that passed on BJ. Milwaukee passed on him twice and Golden State passed on him as well. So don’t sit there saying O The Knicks blew another one, When all they did was draft smart because they didn’t have a 2010 pick.
Im, still trying to figure out why people have the nerve to call J Hill is a bust and every time he plays he shows us something.
I don’t see the point of obsessing over this whole Brandon Jennings situation for the rest of this year (or for the rest of our lives).
Assuming that Blake Griffin was the concensus #1 overall pick regardless, there were seven teams besides the Knicks that passed on Jennings before he was picked by the Bucks.
It just seems like scouting information just wasn’t sufficient to take Jennings. And honestly, you can understand Donnie Walsh’s cautiousness in this situation. In a demanding sports market (i.e. New York) if Jennings was a disappointment there would be a hell of a lot of scrutiny over it. Milwaukee is nothing like New York–you can afford to take the riskier player with lots of upside and just hope for the best .
And let’s be honest: as good as Jennings has been, would he have been the right guy for the Knicks? One the one hand, he’s definitely a player with superstar attributes that would have instantly made the Knicks more interesting. But floor leader? He has 36 assists and 24 assists so far this season–not very good. And based on his slight build he doesn’t look like he’d be much of a defender. But I will give him credit because the Bucks are 5-2 and he’s obviously been a huge part of that. Gotta figure the Knicks would have 3 or 4 wins right now if you could plug him into the PG spot instead of Chris Duhon.
By now, Knicks fans should be used to the fact that this franchise doesn’t really take many chances when it comes to the draft. Over the years we’ve missed out on Rajon Rondo and Andrew Bynum and Leandro Barbosa and a bunch of really good players in the draft because of the philosophy of drafting known commodities. The one year the Knicks strayed from that philosophy, we ended up with the rights to Frederic Weis. How’d that turn out?
7 teams may have passed on Jennings, but most of them took guards in a guard heavy draft.
The Knicks took a power forward.
Minnesota took Rubio and Flynn. Golden State took Curry. Sacramento took Tyreke Evans. OK City took Harden, but they drafted a pg in Westbrook last year. Memphis has their pg and took the big man Thabeet. Griffin was a lock obviously.
The Knicks had plenty of guards to choose from, with Jennings and Demar Derozan still on board.
Jennings was an obvious fit. A pg who actually is PASS first. I’ve been watching the guy since he was in 8th grade. He was the point guard at Oak HIll after Ty Lawson. Any decent scouting department would know who he was.
I think people get way too caught up on personalities and act accordingly. If a guy doesn’t say much in public he’s a good guy. If a guy comes off as confident, he’s a bad guy.
So what Jennings has a “big mouth”. He has always been conceited.
But the dude just scored 55 points as a rookie.
Duhon is a good guy. So I guess he’s the best guy for this team. A guy who struggles to score 5 points.
My opinion from the little I saw of Brandon I liked his brashness and his swagger with a good game to boot. I thought they picked Hill becuase they were going to sign and trade David Lee. But obviously they didnt which makes it the more strange. No one really knows what to expect from Jennings truly but you can mark it down he is going to be an All Star this year in his 1st year. If not the starter. Which will make Donnie and Mike look real real bad and if Hill doesnt reach that level as an All Star Knick fans will hate Hill when its not fault.
Ughh what happened to Derrick Rose, Rondo, and mo williams.
I’m so sad right now. Like a commenter mentioned, I just want to see our rooks get playing time.
Did any one see what D wade did to anderson varajao in the dunks of the year vid?? He’s who i covet in 2010!!!
I hope that D’Antoni understands that Knicks fans can’t wait anymore : Jordan Hill has to play, period. And not to take contested jumpers… He was a high-energy player in Arizona, let him play his game.
I’m so sick of the excuse “well I didn’t know, you didn’t know, so how should Donnie know that ____ would be this good?” Well for one, I don’t have a TEAM OF SCOUTS IN MY BEDROOM. We’re all Monday Morning Quarterbacks (or maybe Mid Season Draft Scouts), I don’t expect us to know who is good and who isn’t, but this guy is paying people to find that out and then he is getting paid to draft accordingly. Well, he blew it here.
@ Crysis, Solid insight and perspective of Brandon Jennings’s recent history and of his talent. He came to my attention three years ago, and back then I said that this cat will not only be a one and done guy but he should also be the #1 pick when he comes out! Though I knew Blake Griffin had supplanted him I still felt if the Knicks was drafting #1 they should have drafted him! When I first saw him play I put him on my short list of young ballers who upon first sight the word “PRODIGY” came to mind (LBJ and Durant the other 2), and for Walsh and DA to not draft this Cat is not only bad foresight, but bad insight, bad basketball sight,bad sight for what a wise, crafty, skilled, talented, point guard looks like, but also scandalous, and shameful! To continue to take one step forward and three steps backwards will have the Knicks mgmt., their players, and this mgmt.’s defenders scratching their head until their “hair fall out”, repeating the same lines: “BLA BLA BLA Lebron James, BLA BLA BLA 2010, BLA BLA BLA we just need to play hard, When every basketball connoieseur knows you win with talented STARS and not with talented role players ie. Tony Douglas and Jordan Hill!!! Pathetic, absolutely pathetic!
OAk!!! and all you other haters where you waiting on me!?! OMG!!! please one of you haters say something slick please please please PLEASEEEE say anything!!! (ALL CAPS FOR YOU HATERS!) JENNINGS IS A BEAST AND YOUR MR.PERFECT DO NO WRONG GM BLEW IT!!!!! JENNINGS IS A.I. IN HIS PRIME WITH BETTER COURT VISION!!! EVERY GM KNEW HIM SINCE HIGH SCHOOL!!! HE WANTED NOTHING MORE THEN TO BE A KNICK!! AND HE IS STILL JUST A KID AND GETTING BETTER EVERY DAY!!! EVERY KNICK FAN WHO MAKES EXCUSES FOR THIS OLD FAT WASHED UP GM WHO IS JUST HEAR TO GET A CHECK AND HAS HIS FINGERS CROSSED HE CAN LAND LBJ OR WADE IS BLIND TO SUPERSTAR TALENT!! FYI YOU HAD NOT 1 DAMN THING TO LOSE ROLLING THE DICE ON THIS KID BECAUSE THE TEAM SUCK BUTT HOLE ASS IS!!! THERE IS NO EXCUSE SAYING HOW WOULD U KNOW HE WOULD BE THIS GOOD TO A FAN WHILE THERES SOME FAT OLD DUDE GETTING MILLZ TO KNOW MORE THEN ME IS A CLOWN MOVE!!! HILL IS JUST A REG DUDE NOTHING ABOUT HIM SAYS SPECIAL TO TAKE HIM THERE WAS CRAZY WHEN ALL WE GOT IS A GANG OF HALF ASS FORWARDS!! THE PLAN IS 2010 THE PLAN IS 2010 BLAAAH IM A AASK YOU AGAIN IF YOUR LBJ OR WAD OR BOSH IN 2010 AND THE KNICKS STEP TO U WHO WOULD U RATHER BE PLAYING WITH JENNINGS AND LOPEZ OR GORDEN? OR GALLO AND HILL? COMMMMME ON!!!! ITS NOT EVEN A QUESTION THAT DONNIE SSET US BACK 2 YEARS WITH CRAP DRAFTING ON A TEAM THAT HAD NOTHING TO LOSE BY ROLLING THE DICE ON UP SIDE IF THE WHOLE PLAN WAS 2010!! BECAUSE LIKE IT OR NOT THIS TEAM COULD NOT BE MUCH WORSE AS IS!!! THANK YOU JENNINGS FOR BREAKING YOUR NIKE OFF IN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE SILL “DONNIE ZOMBIES” BUTTS!!! I DONT EVEN WANT “OK HE IS BETTER THEN I THOUGHT” FROM YOU GUYS I WANT TO HEAR “DAMN DONNIE REALLY BLEW THESE 2 DRAFTS 08 DOING A FAV FOR A FRIEND AND 09 FOR BEING OLD AND OUT OF TOUCH” GO JENNINGS GO!!! MAKE THIS OLD GUY THROW UP IN HIS ROOM ALONE FOR BEING A MAJOR SCREW UP BECAUSE THE MEDIA AND IS ZOMBIES SURE WONT!!! FYI WHAT WOULD OF HAPPENED IF ZEEK WOULD OF DONE THAT?? FYI RONDO PLAYS WITH KG PAUL PEIRCE AND RAY ALLEN!! WHO CAN WIN WITH THAT? NOT THAT HE IS A BUM BUT HE IS NOT EVEN ON THE SAM PLANET AS JENNINGS!!!