Posted by Paladin55:

Posted by Pharzeone:

Posted by nixluva:

So i'm somehow offbase in my assessment of what we've seen so far from this kid and what the general consensus has been of his abilities? I'm not saying anything outlandish. I didn't say he was gonna be a All Star based on any of this.

I haven't been in "love" with every Knick pick. that's just an exaggeration of positive statements. If I say the kid has a nice jumper, you read into that that I think he's gonna be Alan Houston. Don't put words in other peoples mouths, just stick to making your points and don't try to tell others what they think.

It's my opinion that Gallo is a good prospect and that's been my contention and nothing more. I think he has the kind of skills that "could" translate into him being a very good player, but more importantly he's shown the right mental disposition and has shown that in his career so far. If a US player had shown leadership and go to man skills in the NCAA you'd probably accept that, but since it's Gallo no one wants to recognize that.

A post of contradiction.

Could you explain the "contradiction?" Reasonable minds want to know.

Post wasn't address to you, so don't worry about it.

The only thing I stand up for the pick of Gallo is wether or not he is a solid prospect or not. Very few can claim to know for sure if any player will live up to their potential. For the most part we've been reading from some that he's somehow undeserving of being picked by us at 6 and was only picked as some kind of P.R. move by the Knicks. As if he wasn't a good prospect. The idea that Walsh would take a player just to appease the fanbase is nuts to me. He's

If anyone praises his potential by mentioning what his strengths are that get's ripped too. My question is why? Is it due to his being a foreign born player? That seems to me to be sad if it is the case.

Posted by Bippity10:

Posted by nixluva:

The only thing I stand up for the pick of Gallo is wether or not he is a solid prospect or not. Very few can claim to know for sure if any player will live up to their potential. For the most part we've been reading from some that he's somehow undeserving of being picked by us at 6 and was only picked as some kind of P.R. move by the Knicks. As if he wasn't a good prospect. The idea that Walsh would take a player just to appease the fanbase is nuts to me. He's

If anyone praises his potential by mentioning what his strengths are that get's ripped too. My question is why? Is it due to his being a foreign born player? That seems to me to be sad if it is the case.

Nix, you and I have disagreed many a time in the past, but I'm 100% on board with you on this. Everyone had someone they wanted at number 6. Many would have passed on Gallo at 6-10. But that's not what I'm concerned with. I'm not concerned with the at home GM's. I'm concerned with our actual GM and him making a logical choice for our team. Whether you agree with the pick or not is okay, but I think it's ridiculous to say that this guy was a horrible pick at this point. Even if this guy never recovers from the back injury, I can understand the logic behind the pick, and that's all I ask. Prolonged logic leads to positive movement. You can't be perfect, but this pick made sense. You cannot watch this kid play and think he doesn't have legitimate potential. The guy is very skilled. What he will make of that skill remains to be seen. But there is no doubt the guy has potential to be pretty good. He's in the same class with all the other 5-10 picks. We will just have to wait and see.

[Edited by - bippity10 on 22-08-2008 2:23 PM]

Agreed! Draft picks are almost never locks to live up to their potential. As for the thought behind the pick, I agree with it. We have to change the type of player that we add form now on and I believe that is under way. You already know that D'Antoni doesn't like dumb players. He's gonna eventually clear the roster of guys who can't think the game and don't have real BB skills. Walsh has shown himself to be a guy that tries to get solid players. Guys who have a team mentality and a mental toughness.

I think he really put a lot of thought into his move to bring in D'Antoni and then to pick Gallo. The choices both make sense for the direction the team is going in. Like it or not we have a plan, a guy who will stick to it and knows how to implement it. As much hope as I had in Isiah, when it comes to Walsh, he's a proven GM, so I have more faith in his moves. Even if we can't quite see how it will all work just yet. I'll give him the same patience I showed to Zeke.

Posted by nixluva:

The only thing I stand up for the pick of Gallo is whether or not he is a solid prospect or not. Very few can claim to know for sure if any player will live up to their potential. For the most part we've been reading from some that he's somehow undeserving of being picked by us at 6 and was only picked as some kind of P.R. move by the Knicks. As if he wasn't a good prospect. The idea that Walsh would take a player just to appease the fan base is nuts to me. He's

If anyone praises his potential by mentioning what his strengths are that get's ripped too. My question is why? Is it due to his being a foreign born player? That seems to me to be sad if it is the case.

As has been mentioned before- no matter who the Knicks chose, there were going to be certain people upset with that choice. When you look at past drafts, it is amazing how few players in RD#1 even end up averaging over 15PPG in their careers, let alone 20PPG. In fact, most RD#1 players end up averaging less than !0PPG for their careers. It really is a crapshoot. Unfortunately, the Knicks have usually done worse than average in making their picks, so I think that people get more frustrated with them.

I wanted Gallinari- would have taken him with the 4th pick if we had it, so I am a bit biased. I have to admit that I was happy getting a foreign kid with NBA veteran instincts, a 6'10"(and growing) frame, deadly jumper+range, an ability to drive and pick up fouls, and point-forward handle. The draft killer for us was not pulling off the trade with Memphis, because Minny would have been forced to take Love at #3, and we could have chosen between Westbrook and Mayo, and still picked up Gallinari.

We keep on having the same discussion over and over again, and it usually includes one or more of the following components: Gallinari-Bayless-Anthony Randolph-Lopez-brittle European-Gallinari as D'Antoni's "Please, I want him Donny" choice- community pick," etc.. (I propose that we have a separate "Who We Should Have Chosen Instead Of..." forum for all Knicks drafts.)

The pick was made, Gallo is on the Knicks, and for me, he now begins his 2-3 year probationary period, where we should admire his strengths, discuss his weaknesses, and monitor whether or not his game is evolving as he gets more and more time on the court.

Now is the time to wait, not whine.

[Edited by - Paladin55 on 08-22-2008 4:50 PM]

The Knicks definitely could have done more with their pick. I would have traded down and picked Bayless. We could have had Marbury's replacement and 1 or 2 other assets. I don't think Gallo is a total bust/ In fact, he probably is going to be a decent player. But I like Chandler at SF and wonder if Gallo will be much of an upgrade.

Posted by nixluva:

Posted by TheGame:

The Knicks definitely could have done more with their pick. I would have traded down and picked Bayless. We could have had Marbury's replacement and 1 or 2 other assets. I don't think Gallo is a total bust/ In fact, he probably is going to be a decent player. But I like Chandler at SF and wonder if Gallo will be much of an upgrade.

We don't really know what the Knicks had a chance to do on draft nite. As for Bayless, I don't think Mike or Walsh wanted him. They need a PG to run the offense and setup all the other scorers on this team.

We also shouldn't think of Gallo or any of the Knicks in terms of pure position players. We have interchangeable forwards IMO. As Gallo gains strength, he'll be able to likely cover 3-5 at various times in a game. Chan can go from 2-4. I just think we're gonna be looking for BB players period. Skilled and Smart BB players who can do more than one thing and play multiple positions.

Hopefully one of those skilled and smart BB players we get can do some shot blocking and occasionally "punish" people who feel they can drive on us without thinking about what might happen to them. I need a legit 6'10" 250lb+ guy in the middle whose name is not Zach or Eddie.

Posted by Bippity10:

This is such an inane argument. The rookies haven't even played yet and we are already knocking and praising GM's for their selections and using some unknown facts and assumptions as reality.

This is what real men talk about at the neighboorhood barbershop and meat market.

Posted by playa2:

"The gall" was a ny community pick that pleases all those who opposed Isiah's direction in bringing in certain players and for his lack of leadership and indiscretions.

I would say this is fact. After all, I was on of the few who said we needed players from other countries. We needed to be more International and it looks like it's already starting to happen.

Posted by garyclips:

Unless your telling me that Gallo will be a franchise type player, which they couldn't live without, then the Knicks were better off parlaying the pick into other assets including my proposed Utah scenario. Plus the fact he is/will be a sf (not a pf) a position that Chandler now plays and the object of Walshs' desire, Lebron also plays.

Who knows if Gallo will develop into a franchise player or not? It's not a lock that anyone will be that. Guys like Bogut or even Glenn Big Dog Robinson show how hard that is to really guarantee. Now you want to make a #6 pick a lock to be a Franchise player? I don't believe he has to be that for it to have been a good pick. There are a lot of really good players out there who aren't franchise players but are good pieces to a winning team puzzle.

Waltoni believes Gallo will grow to be able to cover SF and PF and that means he's not a redundant pick. The way we're gonna play is not so dependent upon pure position distinctions. We're moving towards going with versatile BB Players not just position players. The guy is already 6-10 and only 19-20 yrs old. He's gonna fill out.

Posted by Bippity10:

I think Zeke's biggest problem(when you exclude all the off the court shenanigans) is that he changed his plan so many times

or that he never had a plan

Posted by NYKBocker:

Walsh picked a 6'10" multi-talented basketball player that has played professionally against men in a league 1 notch below the NBA. I don't see the problem here.

For some the Gallo pick sticks in their craw. They had someone, anyone else in mind and can't, won't accept him as our pick. They feel he wasn't worthy and that making a deal for more picks was the right way to go. It's quite possible that Waltoni really knew a lot more about the kid than they let on. It's hard to imagine that they didn't really know about the kid. He's been on the Euro scene for a while despite being so young. Its not like he was some obscure guy, he was the top talent in Europe and he was a star. I'm sure Mike spoke to his friends at least once or twice about who was hot in Italy if not Europe.

In the end he was a legit pick and we needed to get a guy that could not only play but be part of the new face of the team. He's perfect for that. If this kid lives up to his potential the fans will love him, cuz he's got that star quality and confidence. If we get kids like Chan, Lee, Jamal and Nate playing well along with a decent contribution from Gallo, it's gonna be a fun thing to watch over the next couple of years.

[Edited by - nixluva on 08-25-2008 5:02 PM]