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Here’s what I know about Mike D’Antoni’s offense: In 2007, when the Suns were essentially robbed of advancing past the second 
round of the playoffs, they were at their collective best, offensively, with Shawn Marion at the power forward position.But Marion struggled to guard the opposing team’s four, causing for the Suns to really have to open up the game and not make it a halfcourt battle, something that the playoffs naturally become.
People like to reference the amazing play of Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire, but Marion may have been the team’s most important player. Second to him may have been Boris Diaw, whom the Suns acquired from Atlanta along with draft picks for the disgruntled Joe Johnson.
Diaw allowed Marion to move off guarding the four position, and focus more on spotting and perimeter defense, where his length was more effective in getting out in transition on tips and steals.
I mention this as background because the Knicks have not had a power forward that could effectively guard the four-spot and shoot from the perimeter since Zach Randolph. Again, in this offense, the power forward must have range to extend from the perimeter, thus moving his man away from the basket and giving the lane to a driving player who can get to the basket or kick to the perimeter.
Many people would often wonder why Randolph resigned to shooting so many 3’s. In his 80 games with the Knicks — his first 69 being with Isiah Thomas — Randolph hoisted up 104 3-point attempts. Under D’Antoni, which saw the Knicks winning early, Randolph was on pace to shoot 160.
Now don’t get me wrong, there is no chance on earth I’d take Randolph back, and Donnie Walsh’s ability to shed Randolph’s contract is the reason LeBron James‘ name can be in discussions. To me, though, the loss of Randolph exposes the idea that David Lee is not the four that D’Antoni is looking for either. It was a question that I posed several weeks at practice in terms of the coach pairing Lee at the four and Darko Milicic at the five. His response?
“No.” More.
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Tommy: how is it possible for a slow footed big who cannot rebound and cannot defend flourishes on a D’Antoni style Phoenix Suns. His name is Channing Frye. I thought “bigs” from Arizona just could not play??
What I want to know is: before D’Antoni coached in Phoenix, I heard he was the head coach in Denver. What did he do there? Did they win? If not, then who cares about “The D’Antoni System”. If he doesn’t have the right players, it ain’t gonna work.
Re: The New York Zombies.
No Tommy you dont get to run from you being a donnie zombie!! im a post what I just posted under your other guy talking about Jennings and his 55 pt performance to go along with the rest of what he has done out of the gate!! Tommy list who else has put up 55 point games for wins in there rookie year please!! Stop making excuses for an old guy who is narrow minded and cant see theres nothing to lose rolling the dice on major upside on a team that is trash as is because if it pans out the bif 2010 guys would love to be along side it!! that being said here is my post from before!!
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!!!
uh, stop yelling at me.
thanks.
Sorry Tee but geez you guy give Donnie more shade then he deserves!! Can we at least get a “your right donnie screwed up!) on this one? lol if it was Zeek we would be lynching him from a lamp post! This kid campaigned to be a Knick! what GM worth his salt did not know about Jennings? And how was Hill (another forward) a better risk then a splash superstar upside PG (position of need) in Jennings!?! It was a screw up and for once Knick fans want to hear you say “donnnie screwed up” come on just once! The guy is not perfect nobody is but lets break the thought pattern that some how this guy is above having his feet held to the fire for his wrongs! Its almost the same as being cald a racist when you point out an Obama screw up!! lol
Jennings did NOT have superstar upside….he was FAR from can’t miss.
again, I like jennings, but jury is still out.
thx.
This blackwood guy is just dumb. “He is like AI in his prime, only better!”. Shut up. The guys putting up points for the Bucks. I can’t even pronounce half their starting lineups names. I could go drop 30 points for the Bucks right now.
No one is saying he isn’t good, but if he was the cant miss prospect that every GM knew about like you say he was, he would have been drafted higher than Stephen Curry and Tyreke Evans.
He’s a great player but our problem right now is not scoring. We need a lot of the things Jordan Hill might become – a guy to protect the basket and cover the other guys big, finish around the basket with high percentage shots, and rebounds.
This blackwood guy is just dumb
Now now.. didnt we talk about calling people who disagree with Donnie and MDA names?
Not advancing the debate.
Yes, we are all friends here.
No more name calling.
I could use a little less of TALKING IN CAPS too.
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude, I’m just sick of these caps lock rants.
I am just as critical of our front office as anyone – the first thing I ever wrote on this site months ago was a column called “We Could Be Watching Zach Randolph and Jamal Crawford Right Now”.
I was never fully on board the 2010 train because how can you ask fans to just forget about two seasons? (Quick answer 9 games into the season: you can’t)
But, these rants just go nowhere. No matter what the topic of the original post, this guy gives as an all caps rant about how Brandon Jennings is Allen Iverson and we missed out on Hall of Fame talent and we should trade for players we can’t possibly acquire.
But, I am sorry to be rude, I have just already thoughtfully responded to this guys post the first 5 times he posted it in every other topic on the site.
Who asked you to reply to me anyway my friend?? You dont like what I have to say scroll on by!! and dont cower now that Tommy had to put you in your place…who made you god of the blog? As soon as Tommy checks you your quick to misquote me in order to justify your behavior. I Only capped once and for a reason, because there’s a bias and double standered that ends up stinking up the blog and I like fair and balanced weather I agree with whats said or not so in closing grow up and lets return to being friendly adult Knick fans who can agree to disagree because I wont convince you that donnie is not mr.perfect as much as you ride his pine, and you wont convince me that Jennings is a bum that score 55 because he plays for the bucks.
The only one who sounds dumb are the ones who try to reword what I have said because they cant deal with the truth!! Show me where I said he was “cant miss”!! and watch the name calling jerk!! What I said was that he had a way higher upside superstar upside since high school and he plays a spot OF NEED!! So let me get this right A.I. was trash and you can score 30 in the NBA? lmao then what the hell are you doing here?? I twice posted what both coach’s said about him and how he did what he did while still being a pure PG…so before you choice to hate and bash urban ball players because u have an issue with them go check this kids stats across the board for the start of the season! then go check there win column after that look at who they beat then go look at who he is playing with and tell me all ur bashing is not baseless and pure hate!
I hate losing the idiots always come out when we do.
Good morning itzyung1…..Am I wrong or where you the one that said Hill would end up being better then Jennings?? lmao how did you like him the other night? that being said let me ask how fantastic would he look in the MD system that where still waiting to see kick in? shoot waithing on LBJ what system wont work with him running it?? lol
Excuse Me did I miss something? Is BJ and J Hill getting ready to retire?
You’re right, the fact that Jennings has to play even one more game before they enshrine him in the HOF is just peeps straight hatin on a young cat, ya heard? (Because I did. I totally heard!!) I mean, 50+ points! In one game! That puts him up there with legends like Jim Jackson, Cedric Ceballos, Dana Barros, Tracy Murray, and Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf! I don’t want to jinx the young man, but dare I say, with some hard work and luck, he may just MAY, have a shot at reaching the heights reserved for basketball gods like…Tony Delk (WHO ALSO SCOREEED FIFTEEE OMGGGGGZZZ).
Run along now.
in fairness, this is the best post i’ve seen in a long time and again, this is not to knock jennings.
time will tell of walsh “blew it”
In there rookie year really? I will need to re check that because as far as I know only there are only 3 but im sure you cant name them!!
but let me step back and let others shed light….
“Holy smokes,” Warriors coach Don Nelson said. “I think that’s probably the best rookie performance I’ve ever witnessed in thirty-some years of coaching. We tried to handle him every possible way, really. He had quite a game.”
Skiles- “It’s hard to say this when he gets 29 points in a quarter, but it’s not greedy,” Skiles said. “He’s open, he’s knocking down shots. He hit three or four in a row and yet they came off and helped and he pitched it to Charlie Bell in the corner.
“He’s still playing basketball out there. He’s not out there searching for his own. He’s trying to help us win the game.”
– He scored all of his 55 points in the final three quarters after going scoreless in the opening period, with 29 of them coming in the third quarter when he outscored the entire Golden State team, 29-26.
– He broke the Bucks’ rookie scoring record of 51 set by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) on Feb. 21, 1970 in a game against Seattle SuperSonics that was played in Portland, Ore.
— He fell just three points short of the league record for points by a rookie set twice in 1960 by Wilt Chamberlain.
More important to him, though, he led the Bucks (5-2) to their fourth-straight victory, and on a night where they seemed all but dead in the first half.
I am sure Hill has a few games like that in him!! LMAO!! “THANKS DONNIE”
50 as a rookie? I think Pearl did it…
Wilt?
You know what’s funny, I would have preferred Jennings over Hill as well. Truthfully? I’d have preferred several players over Hill. But we got Hill.
So what do you want? To gloat on behalf of a player who not only doesn’t play for the team you claim to root for, but went on the record saying “f-ck the Knicks”? You’re honestly going to come in here puffing up your chest because the point guard for the Bucks had a nice game?
Or do you want to level personal attacks at the GM who has us in position to have cap space for the first time in a decade, because he, along with nine other GMs, passed on a player that you (and I) liked?
Or do you want to hit the CAPS LOCK key and bray like a senseless donkey?
I may be a donkey if that makes you feel better but I will demand that our GM be held accountable for his errors and not be stroked for making some cap space alone! bottom line all we can offer is money not a team which we could have if our GM would of done what was required of him and that is “DRAFT PLAYERS FOR NEED POSITIONS” & “RECOGNIZE TALENT”.
Now that being said yes I am going to beat on him because it is not fair that this man gets a free pass on huge blunders but Zeek got bashed for every and anything he ever did! Once again you want to bring up what other GM’s before him created but I never heard anyone use that very same defense for Zeek!! So if we are willing to torch Zeek then donnie should be held to the same standard not a double standard. Stuff like that leads people to wonder what is the real reason for that!!
As for him saying F the Knicks why would he not be bitter and hurt when the whole time the whole world knew he wanted to to be a Knick and was dissed for what will end up being an average Joe!!
I am a true Knicks fan not a programed zombie making excuses for an old washed up dude who cant see whats right in front of him and blew upgrading my team in a major way 2 years str8!!
One again when all you have is the same amount of money other teams have to offer what is the sweetener? Its not the talent on the team because if you look at the other teams who can match us buck for buck they have more talent which would not be the case if we drafted like we had a GM who had a clue.
Gee, if Jennings is the next coming of AI, then I’m really said we passed on him. AI is one of those that was blessed with a lot of ability to get a shot. However, he used it to its max and became a very INEFFICIENT SCORER. That’s why every team he does to gets worse and every team he leaves gets better. The man never learned how to play basketball properly.
Talent and playing properly are two very different things.
Scoring a lot because you take a lot of shots is not as good as scoring a little less on much fewer shots.
“really happy” we passed on him
That same bum (A.I.) that your talking about took Philly to the championship game with no real help at all!! So if you can have the scoring abilities of A.I. and still be a true PG I will take that in a heartbeat!! But dont take my word for it listen to the pros!….
“Holy smokes,” Warriors coach Don Nelson said. “I think that’s probably the best rookie performance I’ve ever witnessed in thirty-some years of coaching. We tried to handle him every possible way, really. He had quite a game.”
Skiles- “It’s hard to say this when he gets 29 points in a quarter, but it’s not greedy,” Skiles said. “He’s open, he’s knocking down shots. He hit three or four in a row and yet they came off and helped and he pitched it to Charlie Bell in the corner.
“He’s still playing basketball out there. He’s not out there searching for his own. He’s trying to help us win the game.”
ya dont like walsh?
I’m tired of hearing about “_’antoni’s offense” what is his defensive philosophy? What are the basic principles of the defense he likes to run? All I’ve seen is a bunch of switching and then more switching. Then I got to see some zone and then back to switching, more switching and going under screens.
Break out the chalkboard Tommy Dee.
I think you have to WANT to stop someone first.
these are NBA players. they know how to play defense.
I got a kick out of steph saying the didn’t coach Defense.
NOW you want to learn?
Tommy, that’s still on the coach. If a coach preaches defense and certain players don’t give an effort on D, then the coach benches them. By the way, who cares what Stephon has to say? He’s an idiot.
Marbury was notorious for his play defense with his offense mentality, but his last full year of basketball he was playing excellent defense! It was quite shocking actually. Remember? He even did an admirable job competing with Kobe defensively, getting him to work for everything he got.
You’re right about players having to WANT to play defense, but EVERY player WANTS to play. Demand defense and directly ration out minutes accordingly and you’ll get results. At any level.
Guys don’t want to give effort? Hey, throw Toney, Hughes, Landry, Chandler, Jeffries, Nate, Gallo and Darko for the bulk of the minutes. They’ll get the message. Al was heralded as a good defender coming out of college, he can do better. The other guys need to at least try to get better, I don’t care if you foul out.
What college did Al go to I thought he was one of those high school kids and he stayed with Antonio Davis his first year?
Sorry Mal, meant to say coming into the league. Not coming out of college. Thanks.
Every NBA player can play defense. It about them having heart, and their coaching motivating them to play defense.
Our coach does not promote defense whatsoever and the team has no heart. thus no defense
Okay next can we not waste our time talking Dee!!! What MD team has ever played that?? He plays a Euro ball high score wins system! Thats cool but he needs an assistant who can inject Dee because he is lost on that lol. #2 explain to me how trying to trade for CP3 can even come close to being a bad thing?? Stay the course my butt!! if u can get him u get him by any means necessary!! Of course in the trade you need to mix in EC or JJ so in turn it still leaves us in a spot to Get a top free agent.
And what about Rudy Gaye!?! on a 1 year flyer? if we could why not? The kid has a lot of growing to do but he attacks the hoop and gets to the strip, something all our players are allergic to!!
ROFLMAO. Every NBA player “knows defense”? That is exactly what D’Antoni acts like. . . .
Believe it or not, every champion will tell you that Championship coaches not only preach defense, they teach defense and have defensive philosophies. Defense is a team proposition, stopping a man may be an individual proposition, but there is more to stopping an offense than trying to stop a man.
You defend systems, players, tendencies and situations. You consider matchups and mismatches. Everyone has different roles in different defenses with different players. Most NBA teams cannot defend the pick and roll which is one reason people were lulled into believing the myth that Duhon ws playing well until he ran into the Lakers, Cavaliers and Boston during hell(o) week last season. He was exposed where the Warriors (no D) allowed him to roam free and break a Knicks assist record.
Does your defensive philosophy trap, pressure the ball, deny star players at key points, have strategies against the post up or isolations. Is someone put in charge of communicating on and for switches (Gallo is nice at communicating although his defense sucks). Does your offense defend the same for sideline and baseline out of bounds plays. Does your defense control for pace and late game adjustments.
NBA players know how to defend? I can’t think of anything that isn’t snarky to say, so I’ll let you guys end this one for me. NBA players know how to defend and D’Antoni. . . . .
obviously, playoff SERIES and ADJUSTMENTS are different sir.
we’re talking about a team that isn’t .500.
defense wins championships right?
then does that mean offense wins in the regular season?
you HAVE TO WANT TO STOP SOMEONE.
Read SSOL and tell me that Mike doesn’t know how to make Defensive adjustments.
he did it against KOBE, whom he beat TWICE in the playoffs
thanks
Are you o.k. Tommy. Why are you screaming at me when you just asked Blackwood to stop. . . . LOL. Just kidding.
Now, are you going to tell me that those Championship teams didn’t start playing defense until the playoffs?
Yes, I will tell you that D’Antoni does not have a clue about defense which is why is no longer with Phoenix. The clue about defense came from Marc Iavoroni. I know you’re just reaching (which is bad defense by the way) because I know as smart as you are that you already read “Seven Seconds or Less,” and learned that defense was the province of Mr. Iavoroni.
I feel for you man. Defending the indefensible is hard isn’t it?
Wasn’t all Iavoroni.
that’s just silly. they talked every day!
and mike hired him so does he not get credit for that?
Tommy Dee please pull out your copy of SSOL and read it. Start with page 33 where D’Antoni discusses his dream of how much more organized Iavoroni is and the part about how D’Antoni is a feel the game (as opposed to X’s and O’s) kind of guy. Read it.
(I’ll throw you some other cites when I get a moment.)
Then go to page 38 (paperback) which describes the bigs meeting held by Iavoroni and happens to mention that D’Antoni does not get credit for hiring Iavoroni — so happens they both arrived at the same time as assistants.
I’m telling you, that reaching is tough. D’Antoni’s mess is hard to defend even if you WANT to defend. But I gotta give you credit, you are relentless. Silly, huh?
LOL i’ve read the book sir.
So you give zero credit to d’antoni?
okay. that’s enough..
No Mas? LOL
Have a wonderful day.
OK Brandon Jennings is a stud, I didn’t know that, Donnie Walsh didn’t know that, Brian Colangelo didn’t know that, David Kahn didn’t know that, Don Nelson didn’t know that and Chris Wallace didn’t know that.
It is what it is blackwood, they should have found a way to pick a point guard but IT’S OVER NOW. The only thing we can objectively complain about is Jordan Hill’s lack of playing time.
No way!! I dont want to hear about those other GM’s Kahn is a moron the who world knows that because nobody understood what he did!! Nelson took Curry who anybody would of taken and been happy with including me! Bottom line everybody taken before Hill (besides trash Thabeet ) has way more upside!! But donnies are GM who should of drafted a need not another in the fine line of forwards we seem to enjoy amassing screwed it up for the second year in a row!! So dont water down donnie being wrong by name dropping other GM’s because none of them are sorry with there picks (except the grizz lol) So if your going to say donnie was wrong say it and dont try to water it down and we can move on! But i will be damned if its ok to ignore the fact that he threw away two years of draft picks and then everyone wants to name drop Zeek because the 2010 pick is gone!! its not fair! and leads to the question “what is the reason donnie gets treated differently or better then Zeek”
Now back to asking why a GM and a coach who never won anything are struggling!! lol well the GM blows drafts is one and the coach is all about jump shots no Dee and does not have the players to work in a system like that.
We get it..
D’Antoni doesnt have the prototypical players to run his “system” that takes players more than a year to “adjust to”./
So ADAPT your philosophies to fit the players you HAVE.. That is what ALL good coaches do.
See Riley, Pat.
I agree.
This is not a jumpshooting team.
By the way, I was asking for Courtney Lee and a first round draft pick for David Lee last year.
Of course everybody was laughing (“Lee’s an All-Star” etc) but today… I guess everybody would give DW the green light.
I would….
I mean we need the Cap but what about Richard Hamilton? Just match him with Lebron, Amare, or Bosh.
No to R. Hamilton.
No disrespect but he’s really getting older and he’s not particularly enticing.
I was going to change it I just looked at the numbers and we actually save some money with Monta Ellis and he fills a need.
as a matter of fact this is for all of you…
Read SSOL and tell me that Mike doesn’t know how to make Defensive adjustments.
he did it against KOBE, whom he beat TWICE in the playoffs 2006 and 2007
game 7 2006 held him to 8 of 16 shooting 24 points…held the lakers to 90.
thanks
Gee Tommy, that’s not very good. That actually looks like a great game for Kobe.
8 for 16 is 50% plus it looks like he made a few free throws. That’s an extremely efficient game. You have to assume that his shot volume was down because he was passing to open teammates that were then scoring at least some of the time.
If I was playing against Kobe I’d much rather him go 13 for 32 and score 40. That’s the kind of thing he used to do when he didn’t know how to play basketball.
24 points from the Best Offensive Player In The League in a win sounds good to me.
Tommy is that the game that they where lucky to win because Tim Thomas hit a last second hail Mary from 3? is that the game?
See my response above. Nice try though.
Did you see what they just traded Steven Jackson for!?!
I dont think you understand the word upside. Upside is used to describe potential, as in, how much better can this player get in the future? Because of his body and style of play, Jordan Hill has tremendous upside and could one day be come much, much better than he is right now. He just needs to adjust to the NBA game and add some size to his frame.
Conversely, Brandon Jennings or Stephen Curry have less upside, as they both are pretty good players right now and are limited in how much better they can actually get. BJ is averaging 20 ppg. He’s gonna do this, with small fluxuations, for the rest of his career. He is going to be a 20 point scorer who can somewhat get his team involved in the offense. He is a great player but I wouldnt say he had more upside.
And, again, WE DONT NEED ANOTHER 20PPG SCORER. Harrington can do it, Nate can do it. Gallo, Douglas, Chandler, Lee, Hughes could all potentially score 15-20 a night. Guys who can score like Jennings are everywhere in the NBA. We gave one away last year in Jamal Crawford. The Warriors just gave one away in Stephen Jackson.
You don’t really see teams giving away skilled big-men, or even really any big men.
Tommy
Dont we have the 14 mil to absorb Chris Paul’s salary and still make moves for 2010?
Surely a kid that ran the DAntoni offense in the Olympics and a kid that likes to play defense and a kid that will demand others play defense would be a wise DW move AND a kid that would be a great draw for the BIG FAs, Im sure LBJ wouldnt mind playing with CP3?
Send Duhon and Jeffries for CP and Peja, Peja on his last legs would still thrive in DAntoni’s system.
I heard rumor the owner is moving people(Emeka) when they just got him so maybe DW can work some things out.
I know I know wishful thinking
It’s 11/16/09, and with 227 days until 7/1/2010, I still am concluding that no high level FA will sign with a 60-70 lost team that haven’t begun it’s 3-5 year plan back to respectability-”The 8th seed/30+ wins!
To those who say hindsight is 20/20 I am going to make this statement today: 11/16/2009, that Lance stephenson will be the next young, immature,stigmatized yet highly skilled black kid (other than John Wall) to enter the upcoming 2010 draft, who have future superstar written all on him, that should not be excluded from being drafted by Walsh! “Look at his SKILLS and not his SKIN, put on his SHOES and try to UNDERSTAND that these Cats are 19 and 20 year old kids! To be honest with some of you MEN I find your behavioral comments just as egregious as some of the young men we are so quick to judge or rather MISJUDGE, because Jennings is the real deal, and those who saw him play knew he was the real deal! Thee others saw what they wanted to see and still see what they want to see! “Right Tommy”