Donnie Walsh met with his entire U.S.-based scouting department Wednesday to discuss the future and perhaps one glaring mistake from the not-so-distant past.

"I'm pretty sure the name Brandon Jennings will come up," said one team official.

The decision to pass on Jennings in June's draft has backfired for the Knicks, and Walsh has not been shy about assigning blame to members of his scouting department, many of whom are holdovers from the Isiah Thomas administration.

"I couldn't get a feel for his game," Walsh said of Jennings last month. "One scout said he thought Brandon Jennings was very good. I said, 'If he's that good you should come in my door every five minutes and tell me.'"

Jennings, who played in Italy last season, was selected 10th by Milwaukee and has flourished in his rookie season. Meanwhile, the point guard-starved Knicks used the eighth pick on power forward Jordan Hill, who has played just 80 minutes in 10 games for a team with a 7-15 record.

As the Knicks president, Walsh is ultimately responsible for the pick and yet he continues to hint that part of the problem lies within the scouting department he inherited. Mark Hughes, Rodney Heard, Walker D. Russell and Steve Yoder were all hired by Thomas. Russell, in fact, was believed to be one of Jennings' strongest advocates.

Dick and Scott McGuire are the longest-tenured scouts going back to the '90s. Walsh's hires were Ben Jobe, John Gabriel and Misho Ostarcevic, who runs the department. Walsh reportedly has been interested in hiring Chris Mullin, Billy King or Billy Knight as GM, but it is believed that Garden chairman James Dolan doesn't want to add front-office staff. According to a source, Dolan vetoed Walsh's plans to bring in George Felton as a scout last summer.

In a recent interview with SI.com, Walsh hinted that ownership wouldn't allow him to revamp the front office.

"I could have hired some amazing people," Walsh told SI.com. "But there are some things you can't ask the owner to do, and that's eat some of these (front-office and scouting department) numbers."

That Dolan would be loyal toward Thomas' hires is not surprising. Dolan continues to maintain a relationship with Thomas, the former Knicks coach and president who is now coaching Florida International University. Dolan dined with Thomas and invited him to be his guest for the Knicks' season opener in Miami on Oct. 28.

When Walsh was hired to run the Knicks, it was Dolan who insisted that Thomas have a role in the organization. Thomas was eventually reassigned to a consulting position, and according to a team source, had Thomas not accepted the FIU job he would have remained employed by the Knicks.

Judging from his recent comments, Walsh doesn't sound thrilled about having to retain all of Thomas' hires. But he may not have a choice.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2009/12/10/2009-12-10_walsh_scouts_for_excuses.html

Figured Walsh wasn't directly involved in the scouting process.

Iis not just thats sour on Hill?

How can you run an effective draft with the head of the scouting department preparing for his debut season at FIU and it seems his cronies screwed Walsh with the Hill pick.

Also alarming is Walsh knows he needs and wants a GM (Pay Mullin) but Dolan won't spend.

Walsh may be right that he didn't have a feel before the workout, but at that point, when you see what Jennings could do, you do all of your HW. First, you get back to that scout (which I'm sure they did) and you question him on Jennings game. "Why did you say 'very good', cause he looked great against Evans?". Then you start calling people.

I DON'T BUY IT, Walsh is covering his tracks, DAMAGE CONTROL.

TheGame wrote:I had already posted this topic a few minutes earlier. It was a major miss IMO and inexcusable.

didn't see it at first. sorry, wasnt trying to step on your toes.

Not a fan of Hill but it's not worth dumping him for Bayless. I think the Knicks will stick with Hill and hope he comes around. Given his demeanor I wouldn't bet on it. If he doesn't come around he will be a trade throw-in one day.

As to Walsh, well, something is strange here, that he admits one scout wanted Jennings and praised him but Walsh went with Hill anyway. Were the other three scouts screaming TAKE HILL?

Also he is now blaming Dolan for not allowing him to fire Isiah's scouts and hire new ones including adding Chris Mullin and one of King/Knight to the front office?

Progression:

Knicks take Hill.
Jennings shows maybe he should have been the pick.
Donnie blames Isiah's leftover staff.
Donnie says he wanted his own staff.
Donnie says Dolan wouldn't want that.

I don't like all of that and Walsh has to take some blame for this.

To a degree I wonder if Walsh actually made many basketball decisions since coming here beyond laying out a plan and cleaning up the frat boy atmosphere.

Remember when he had no idea who he traded for? (Malik for Wilcox)?
Now he seems to be giving us the runaround on the Jennings/Hill thing?

It doesn't sound like he's all that plugged in. Maybe Donnie truly is a President in the sense that everyone else is at work and he's the media guy. We do have Grunwald and Gabriel who are GM caliber. Maybe they are calling the shots and Donnie is just the face that is stamped on the results.

martin wrote:

HARDCOREKNICKSFAN wrote:Why is Walsh even doing all of that crying over spilled milk? The Knicks didn't select Jennings, so there is no need for Walsh to point fingers and play the blame game- he should just learn from the mistakes made, and move on, remembering not to repeat those mistakes in future drafts.

was wondering myself, but perhaps he needs to send Dolan a message.

Maybe, but, we all know what happens to people who challenge Dolan.

It does sound like Dolan still has his hands in things potentially screwing them up but let us face facts: He is the owner and he has been forced to eat a LOT of large long term contracts. He has every right to say "Enough is enough...you can hire new people when the ones under contract expire."

martin wrote:

HARDCOREKNICKSFAN wrote:Why is Walsh even doing all of that crying over spilled milk? The Knicks didn't select Jennings, so there is no need for Walsh to point fingers and play the blame game- he should just learn from the mistakes made, and move on, remembering not to repeat those mistakes in future drafts.

was wondering myself, but perhaps he needs to send Dolan a message.

McK1 wrote:dec 15th: hill for bayless

where do i sign?