Juice wrote:He clealry said Hill was BPA @ 8 when he drafted him.

What a straight shooter.

Remember - Walsh blamed his scouts for missing on Jennings.

alau53 wrote:why walsh didnt bring dantoni with him to use his italian influence to convince the coach to play jennings is a question only donnie can answer

Really? Please tell me you are not serious.

Andrew wrote:

alau53 wrote:why walsh didnt bring dantoni with him to use his italian influence to convince the coach to play jennings is a question only donnie can answer

Really? Please tell me you are not serious.

why shouldn't i be serious..walsh flew there to scout jennings so whats the problem asking the coach to play him for a part of the game...being dantoni is popular in italy asking the coach for a favor is not unreasonable..please explain why you think i wasnt serious

TMS wrote:didn't Jennings skip out on attending a workout that Donnie & other GM's attended to scout him & other prospects? he also reportedly scored very low on a psychological test that he failed to take seriously & came out with some controversial remarks degrading Ricky Rubio's game... his agent was worried he might fall out of the lottery so he kept his client out of the green room rather than expose him to any potential embarassment being the final guy to be called out... turns out the Bucks were willing to roll the dice on his talent & it paid off for them... we obviously missed out on a very talented young PG but there were red flags surrounding this kid that turned other teams off as well, not just the Knicks.

I think you are referring to the Reebok camp. It was a camp that the T-Wolves put together to see Jennings and some others. Jennings and Rubio were both scheduled at first but Rubio made another commitment to another camp. They invited Jennings and other GMs but it was poorly put together. He missed the camp because his Euro team was still in the playoffs. Everyone knew that was a possibility. Some GMs still blasted him for not ditching his team to be there. Others said it was ridiculous to schedule such event when they knew it was a possibility and said it showed team commitment on his part. I think the Bucks were among the lone group of reps who went to Rome to see him in the playoffs. Walsh and D'Antoni didn't bother (not hate but fact).

After his team was eliminated he made his way to the US to do workouts. Part of his controversial remarks about Rubio was the fact that he was doing this while Rubio was skipping individual workouts while his team wasn't in the playoffs.

Sometimes you can do all the right things but still get killed for it.

Reebok's annual Eurocamp in Treviso, Italy got underway Saturday with all 30 teams represented. A number of GMs are here including New York's Donnie Walsh, Dallas' Donnie Nelson, Phoenix's Steve Kerr, and Houston's Darryl Moray. A few coaches made the trip over too including Mike D'Antoni and Toronto's Jay Triano.

The Knicks have four representatives (Walsh and D'Antoni, plus Int scouts Kevin Wilson and Misha) over here and word is they're here to see Ricky Rubio. A meeting could be set up to see him in Barcelona. Rubio is currently in the Canary Islands for a basketball camp.

While a number of players pulled out from the original list, the competition on day one was strong. Brandon Jennings not being here was a disappointment considering he was originally scheduled to be here. Obviously all the GMs knew well ahead of time he would not be here, but that doesn't mean they're not going to complain about it. Considering there probably aren't any first rounders here (Mills has an outside shot), it would have been difficult for someone like Jennings to improve his draft stock even with a great performance.

Possible second rounder Jonas Jerebko is expected to come into camp on Sunday.

Pharzeone wrote:

TMS wrote:didn't Jennings skip out on attending a workout that Donnie & other GM's attended to scout him & other prospects? he also reportedly scored very low on a psychological test that he failed to take seriously & came out with some controversial remarks degrading Ricky Rubio's game... his agent was worried he might fall out of the lottery so he kept his client out of the green room rather than expose him to any potential embarassment being the final guy to be called out... turns out the Bucks were willing to roll the dice on his talent & it paid off for them... we obviously missed out on a very talented young PG but there were red flags surrounding this kid that turned other teams off as well, not just the Knicks.

I think you are referring to the Reebok camp. It was a camp that the T-Wolves put together to see Jennings and some others. Jennings and Rubio were both scheduled at first but Rubio made another commitment to another camp. They invited Jennings and other GMs but it was poorly put together. He missed the camp because his Euro team was still in the playoffs. Everyone knew that was a possibility. Some GMs still blasted him for not ditching his team to be there. Others said it was ridiculous to schedule such event when they knew it was a possibility and said it showed team commitment on his part. I think the Bucks were among the lone group of reps who went to Rome to see him in the playoffs. Walsh and D'Antoni didn't bother (not hate but fact).

After his team was eliminated he made his way to the US to do workouts. Part of his controversial remarks about Rubio was the fact that he was doing this while Rubio was skipping individual workouts while his team wasn't in the playoffs.

Sometimes you can do all the right things but still get killed for it.

Reebok's annual Eurocamp in Treviso, Italy got underway Saturday with all 30 teams represented. A number of GMs are here including New York's Donnie Walsh, Dallas' Donnie Nelson, Phoenix's Steve Kerr, and Houston's Darryl Moray. A few coaches made the trip over too including Mike D'Antoni and Toronto's Jay Triano.

The Knicks have four representatives (Walsh and D'Antoni, plus Int scouts Kevin Wilson and Misha) over here and word is they're here to see Ricky Rubio. A meeting could be set up to see him in Barcelona. Rubio is currently in the Canary Islands for a basketball camp.

While a number of players pulled out from the original list, the competition on day one was strong. Brandon Jennings not being here was a disappointment considering he was originally scheduled to be here. Obviously all the GMs knew well ahead of time he would not be here, but that doesn't mean they're not going to complain about it. Considering there probably aren't any first rounders here (Mills has an outside shot), it would have been difficult for someone like Jennings to improve his draft stock even with a great performance.

Possible second rounder Jonas Jerebko is expected to come into camp on Sunday.

History has shown guys who dont get that college exposure but were elite Highschool talents usually slip. Look at McGrady and most Highschool players in the 90's.

Jennings was a steal because he was the top Highschool player who was "forced" to go to Europe because of testing issues getting into Arizona. I suppose he should have been a better cheater like Derrick Rose but I digress. If Jennings had went to college everyone would have been on his jock and he wouldn't have made it to the 8th spot anyway.

Some people have selective memories. Kobe told Charlotte he didn't want to play there and I remember reading plenty of negative stuff about him and look how he turned out.

Milwaukee got the steal of the draft so far and some here are just in denial.

nixluva wrote:What's so controversial about what DW is saying? It seems like he had a overarching plan to do most of his building thru FA so that it would speed up the rebuilding process. At the time of the draft I believe he liked the Hill pick, but in the light of the day after he looked at the value of what he could get back, he obviously felt he could do better if he used him in a trade, rather than wait years for him to maybe develop into a real player. The idea of going the FA route is that you know what you're buying and if you overpay, you still have a higher degree of confidence in what you're buying and what you'll get from that player. With draft picks you don't know. The Bucks took a chance on Jennings and hit a good one. Portland took Oden over Durant and haven't seen much from that decision. There's just more of a known quantity with FA's. They've played in the league and a GM can set a value on what they've done. It's not like we don't have any young prospects of our own. Now it's time to go after superstars and see if we can't hit the big jackpot.

We were sitting at the 8th pick not the 2nd or 3rd man. The first 7 picks did the decision making for us. We made a bad choice due to poor scouting plus we already had a hard on for S. Curry and Rubio and when they got picked up we were clueless. Obviously we wanted a PG.

Pharzeone wrote:How far is Treviso from Rome? Donnie and Mike were probably too busy sightseeing. You MDA was checking out some his old spots. Four reps not to see the main guy you came to see sounds like a Road Trip.

Donnie should have just hired Jonathan Givony for the draft to get some accurate scouting reports.

Jordan Hill had another productive game that did a good job highlighting his strengths as a prospect, as well as his shortcomings. One on hand he displayed his excellent athleticism with a number of terrific finishes off pick and roll plays and in transition, running the floor extremely well and exploding off the ground in impressive fashion. He also knocked down a 20 foot jump-shot, the most range we’ve seen him show thus far, and converted on a decent looking turnaround jumper in the post.

On the other hand, Hill’s poor skill-level was very much evident in this game, as he looked very raw and mechanical trying to post up Cleveland State’s undersized defenders in the post, being stripped on one possession and also throwing up some ugly looking bricks. You would have expected him to dominate this game considering the huge advantage he holds in terms of size/athleticism against the 6-5 and 6-6 big men he went up against, but he really wasn’t able to consistently take advantage of his natural gifts. Defensively, Hill has potential but clearly is lacking in the fundamentals department, having a hard time rotating over effectively to guard the paint and picking up some questionable fouls. His basketball IQ is clearly nothing to write home about, and unless he’s able to significantly improve his skill-level over the next few years (not out of the question considering how far he’s come), he looks a lot more likely to develop into a solid energy guy/role-player rather than the game-changing presence you might expect from a potential top-5 pick. With that in mind, the fact that his rebounding rate has fallen significantly recently, going from over averaging over 12 boards per contest in the first 20 games, to just 9.3 rebounds in last 12 games, is not a great sign.

Source: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jordan-Hill-1222/

Just by reading that you wonder if Donnie drafted Hill just based on his individual workouts.

AnubisADL wrote:

Pharzeone wrote:How far is Treviso from Rome? Donnie and Mike were probably too busy sightseeing. You MDA was checking out some his old spots. Four reps not to see the main guy you came to see sounds like a Road Trip.

Donnie should have just hired Jonathan Givony for the draft to get some accurate scouting reports.

Jordan Hill had another productive game that did a good job highlighting his strengths as a prospect, as well as his shortcomings. One on hand he displayed his excellent athleticism with a number of terrific finishes off pick and roll plays and in transition, running the floor extremely well and exploding off the ground in impressive fashion. He also knocked down a 20 foot jump-shot, the most range we’ve seen him show thus far, and converted on a decent looking turnaround jumper in the post.

On the other hand, Hill’s poor skill-level was very much evident in this game, as he looked very raw and mechanical trying to post up Cleveland State’s undersized defenders in the post, being stripped on one possession and also throwing up some ugly looking bricks. You would have expected him to dominate this game considering the huge advantage he holds in terms of size/athleticism against the 6-5 and 6-6 big men he went up against, but he really wasn’t able to consistently take advantage of his natural gifts. Defensively, Hill has potential but clearly is lacking in the fundamentals department, having a hard time rotating over effectively to guard the paint and picking up some questionable fouls. His basketball IQ is clearly nothing to write home about, and unless he’s able to significantly improve his skill-level over the next few years (not out of the question considering how far he’s come), he looks a lot more likely to develop into a solid energy guy/role-player rather than the game-changing presence you might expect from a potential top-5 pick. With that in mind, the fact that his rebounding rate has fallen significantly recently, going from over averaging over 12 boards per contest in the first 20 games, to just 9.3 rebounds in last 12 games, is not a great sign.

Source: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jordan-Hill-1222/

Just by reading that you wonder if Donnie drafted Hill just based on his individual workouts.

or maybe he drafted him based on the part that you chose not to bold? alot of what's in this report are things i noticed while watching him in games too, but u could clearly see this kid's potential & athletic ability... we had no idea what was going to happen w/David Lee's contract situation either... Donnie & MDA were obviously not high on any of the remaining PG prospects after Evans, Rubio, Flynn & Curry were taken off the board so they went w/their gut & took who they felt was the BPA... yes they missed out on Jennings... that's been established a while ago.