knickstorrents wrote:To answer your question, MDA preferred Rubio, BUT they got the scouting report wrong, which is why Donnie is pissed.

You have to watch the games dude. Jennings plays within the offense and does not dominate the ball like AI (meaning, he doesn't dribble endlessly and wave his teammates off for isos). He has the foot speed and talent to do so, but he doesn't.

A PG has to know who has the hot hand to be effective. If the hot hand is YOU, then you have to take shots (and not necessarily by walking it up from the other half of the court and calling an iso for yourself). For that 55pt game, he was the hot hand, and hell, the Bucks other players are horrible except for Bogut.

We made a mistake with Jennings... but not a huge one. Jordan Hill ain't that bad... and it's as hard to get a good center as it is to get a good point guard.

i'm not just talking about 1 game where he went off for 55 points... he was averaging 22 ppg in November when everyone & their moms thought he'd be a shoe in for ROY... in that time he was averaging 19 shots a game & his team went 8W-6L w/Michael Redd out of the lineup for most of those games... to me, that's having a scorer's mentality... in December & January, his shot attempts per game have gone steadily down to average 15 shot attempts per game & his team went 9W-17L over that time span, & this is with Michael Redd back in the lineup for a big chunk of those games.

i wanna ask u, when has MDA ever had success with a PG who took that many shots during the course of a game? Nash never even came close to launching up that many shots in their time together in Phoenix, that's not how MDA runs his system... the most shots Nash has ever averaged in their time together was 13.4 shots a game in '05-'06, the season he won an MVP.

MDA wants his PG to get the rest of the guys involved early & often... if Jennings is taking shots because he's forced to in MIL because of a lack of talent that's around him, why was he struggling playing in Europe? shouldn't he have been jacking up shots there too if that's the case? they wanted him to play a style of ball that he wasn't accustomed to playing out there, so he had a tough time adjusting his game... he comes to the NBA & the Bucks give him the reigns in his first full month in the league & he's putting up monster scoring numbers, & more importantly his team is winning ballgames... that's no accident if u ask me... he's been playing that style of ball since HS, that's what he's good at, & that's what i feel he'll be better off playing like in the long run instead of trying to mold himself into another Steve Nash.

as to whoever said he was mature now because he bought a Ford with his first paycheck or whatever, this is the same guy who posted the following on his Twitter last month:

"I'm bout to delete my twitter, Twitter cost me 7500. Looks like no Gucci and Louie for Xmas."

this was right after he got fined by the NBA for posting some sarcastic comment about getting to .500 after a win vs. the Blazers... nothing wrong w/wanting the good things in life & i don't expect this kid to be a mature adult already at his age, but i personally don't think MDA has much of a tolerance threshold for that type of nonsense... if he were on the Knicks & posted something sarcastic about the team getting to .500 that got him fined from the league & then followed it up with something like that, MDA woulda probably benched him for a month... let's be real.

AnubisADL wrote:You do realize Nash wasnt the current player he is now when he was drafted?

You have seen one game and continue to push this Marbury and Iverson thing based on what you read. Im telling you what I see with my own eyes.

dude, what are you talking about? when has Nash EVER been a high volume scorer like Jennings was when he was lighting up the NBA to begin this season??? u don't think i ever watched this guy play in DAL over the years w/Dirk before he got to MDA in Phoenix? Nash averaged even less shots in DAL playing with Dirk! MDA wanted Nash as his PG in Phoenix because that's the type of PG he wanted to run his offense... that's why they traded Marbury & Penny to us the year before to clear up the cap space to sign him to begin with.

& your own eyes tell u Jennings plays nothing like Iverson & Marbs?... to you he's a PG in the John Stockton/Steve Nash mode? the numbers & scouting reports don't agree with you... unless the scouts don't watch the games either, i tend to lend their reports credence in determining the style of game someone plays.

AnubisADL wrote:- The coaches job is too coach the players he is given. A draft pick stays with a team for 4 yrs. A coach might not last that long.

- This years pick was likely done by Walsh. This also explains why Walsh was annoyed about his scouting report on Jennings.

i get the feeling MDA has had a big say in the draft choices we've made since he's been here... Donnie Walsh has never been afraid of taking flyers on young prospects like Jennings with huge upsides based on limited knowledge... he took Al Harrington straight outta HS... he traded established quality veterans for unproven kids like Jermaine O'Neal & Jonathan Bender... he traded one of his best veteran players Jalen Rose for Ron Artest & signed him to a contract extension a few months later.

last year we drafted Danilo Gallinari, the son of MDA's former roommate & teammate in the Euro Leagues... this year we drafted a guy who MDA has gone on record as saying he reminds him of Amare... nothing would lead me to believe that he is not heavily involved in the scouting process since Donnie took this job & hired him... they talk all the time about how they always make sure they're on the same page about any roster moves they make... IMO Donnie's fate in NY goes hand in hand w/MDA's fate in NY... he's not gonna stick his coach with players he doesn't want... his coach has a system he wants to play & Donnie is trying to build a team around his coaching style & around that system... he's also targetting high character type guys & staying away from guys who might cause problems later on for the most part... to me that suggests MDA has a lot of say in the moves Donnie's been making since he's been here.

TMS wrote:i'm not just talking about 1 game where he went off for 55 points... he was averaging 22 ppg in November when everyone & their moms thought he'd be a shoe in for ROY... in that time he was averaging 19 shots a game & his team went 8W-6L w/Michael Redd out of the lineup for most of those games... to me, that's having a scorer's mentality... in December & January, his shot attempts per game have gone steadily down to average 15 shot attempts per game & his team went 9W-17L over that time span, & this is with Michael Redd back in the lineup for a big chunk of those games.

i wanna ask u, when has MDA ever had success with a PG who took that many shots during the course of a game? Nash never even came close to launching up that many shots in their time together in Phoenix, that's not how MDA runs his system... the most shots Nash has ever averaged in their time together was 13.4 shots a game in '05-'06, the season he won an MVP.

MDA wants his PG to get the rest of the guys involved early & often... if Jennings is taking shots because he's forced to in MIL because of a lack of talent that's around him, why was he struggling playing in Europe? shouldn't he have been jacking up shots there too if that's the case? they wanted him to play a style of ball that he wasn't accustomed to playing out there, so he had a tough time adjusting his game... he comes to the NBA & the Bucks give him the reigns in his first full month in the league & he's putting up monster scoring numbers, & more importantly his team is winning ballgames... that's no accident if u ask me... he's been playing that style of ball since HS, that's what he's good at, & that's what i feel he'll be better off playing like in the long run instead of trying to mold himself into another Steve Nash.

as to whoever said he was mature now because he bought a Ford with his first paycheck or whatever, this is the same guy who posted the following on his Twitter last month:

"I'm bout to delete my twitter, Twitter cost me 7500. Looks like no Gucci and Louie for Xmas."

this was right after he got fined by the NBA for posting some sarcastic comment about getting to .500 after a win vs. the Blazers... nothing wrong w/wanting the good things in life & i don't expect this kid to be a mature adult already at his age, but i personally don't think MDA has much of a tolerance threshold for that type of nonsense... if he were on the Knicks & posted something sarcastic about the team getting to .500 that got him fined from the league & then followed it up with something like that, MDA woulda probably benched him for a month... let's be real.

Brandon Jennings is a classic poser. Think of Pharrell Williams with basketball talent. He just seems to try to hard to be different. Personality wise I would compare him to Kobe. Kobe tries to act like this tough guy but has gotten his card pulled a few times(Chris Childs). Jennings is not a bad kid but he is a cornball.

If you don't believe me take a peek at his facebook photo album.

By the way he was fined because he twittered within 45 minutes of the end of the game which is against league rules.

again, i never doubted this kid's talent, but his maturity level still leaves some concerns in my head... even tho i think he's gonna be a star in the NBA, i'm not pissed that we passed on him, MDA woulda probably had him banished to the bench anyways.

http://www.nba.com/video/channels/nba_tv/2009/06/26/nba_20090626_draft_review_knicks.nba/

remember Donnie went to Europe to see him at a draft camp & he skipped out... he said he only got to look at him during private workout sessions where the format wasn't 5 on 5... then all the comments about Rubio to the press before draft night couldn't have helped matters... i realize not everything that goes on behind the scenes gets reported on or discussed by analysts & reporters but we had plenty of scouts in Europe that were reporting back to Donnie about this kid's ability, if the Knicks were really interested in Jennings i think they would have taken him... Donnie getting annoyed after the fact that he had no real feel for Jennings before the draft & laying the blame on his scouts in NY that Isiah hired for not pushing him hard enough to tell him how good of a player he really was a copout excuse... for a pick as big as that one was the year before 2010 & with a ton riding on the line and the Knicks not owning their own lottery pick the following year, it's a little scary that he didn't do his due diligence on scouting this guy if that's actually the case, but what's done is done, can't change it now... Jordan Hill may never become the star player that Jennings might become, but IMO he's a great match for this system & this team no matter who comes to play here in 2010.