Paladin55 wrote:

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February 19, 2010 - Knicks waive F Brian Cardinal.
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Donnie has done a lot in his short tenure, but the loss of Cardinal may prove to be his downfall.

With an open roster spot, waving Cardinal must mean we are targetting a free agent?

kam77 wrote:

Paladin55 wrote:

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February 19, 2010 - Knicks waive F Brian Cardinal.
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Donnie has done a lot in his short tenure, but the loss of Cardinal may prove to be his downfall.

With an open roster spot, waving Cardinal must mean we are targetting a free agent?

Whether or not folks agree with what he has done, people can't say that Donnie hasn't changed the nature of our roster and our future as a team, though. Don't know how things will end up, but he has created an off-season which gives him some interesting flexibility- the kind this franchise has not had a long time.

alau53 wrote:august 21, 2009.....donnie walsh says i hired all these guys and no one told me how good jennings was going to be..who did i make in charge of european scouting.oh isaih thomas..donnie good at playing the blame game

Actually Donnie admitted that taking Hill over Jennings may have been a mistake. He did say that if Jennings was so good the scouts should have been in his ear every day saying how good he was. He says that wasn't the case. -WE DONT KNOW-

He also went on to say that he wanted to bring in his OWN scouts from day one but that Dolan wouldn't let him fire the scouts in place. Walsh said he understood given how many contracts the Knicks had eaten already in order to just get Walsh and Mike in the picture. Walsh said the people in place had 1 year left on their deals. So those guys are now gone.

So, well, there's some inconsistencies there and probably some truth as well. But someone did crap the bed over Jordan Hill. He simply isn't anything special at all. Looks like a raw mid 2nd round pick. Jennings though isn't all THAT impressive. I think in time maybe he grows and if he becomes more consistent and mature then - yes - he could be a special player. But the kid has problems. So I don't know if we missed out on let's say... a franchise player.

Time will tell that.

Cosmic wrote:

TMS wrote:it's pretty scary that he hasn't signed 1 free agent that's been worth holding onto in the 2 years he's been here & now we're all banking on him landing 2 of the best free agents to hit the open market in the past decade... given he's had nothing but the veteran's minimum & the MLE to work with but sheesh, look at those names on this list! Anthony Roberson? Dan Grunfeld? Mouhamed Sene? Joe Crawford? Jonathan Bender? who the fug is Donnie listening to when he makes these ridiculous signings?

That wasn't ever the plan, TMS. I know it may have *sounded* like it - but - you failed to read between the lines during the PC corporate lines he HAD to throw out there anytime he made a move.

The plan was to sign stop gaps. The plan was to swap out some of Isiah's guys for different guys on shorter deals - WHILE - trying to not just bring back TOTAL trash. It only did so well. But the big plan, the overall plan, was to rip the roster to ashes.

Yet let us not pretend that Walsh traded for Harrington, Hughes, Darko, Wilcox.... and pretended "Hey Knick fans, Playoffs bounds for sure!"

For he never did that. He played the PC role and always said "The goal is to be competitive and make the playoffs." But behind the scenes he knew, and some fans like myself knew, he was just clearing space.

So let's not go there and pretend Walsh was trying to build some superpower the last 2 years and failed. That was _NEVER_ the plan. Don't fall for the necessary PC stuff. If Walsh was your uncle he would tell you straight up that was PC lip service, corporate lip service, and behind the scenes he was committed to tear down the mess in it's entirety and build from scratch.

who said anything about trades? i'm talking about his FA signings since he's been here... they've all been pretty bad... i realize it's hard to find the Anthony Morrow's of the world in the D-Leagues, but damn... i really would like to know who's in charge of scouting these guys before we sign them.

TMS wrote:

Cosmic wrote:

TMS wrote:it's pretty scary that he hasn't signed 1 free agent that's been worth holding onto in the 2 years he's been here & now we're all banking on him landing 2 of the best free agents to hit the open market in the past decade... given he's had nothing but the veteran's minimum & the MLE to work with but sheesh, look at those names on this list! Anthony Roberson? Dan Grunfeld? Mouhamed Sene? Joe Crawford? Jonathan Bender? who the fug is Donnie listening to when he makes these ridiculous signings?

That wasn't ever the plan, TMS. I know it may have *sounded* like it - but - you failed to read between the lines during the PC corporate lines he HAD to throw out there anytime he made a move.

The plan was to sign stop gaps. The plan was to swap out some of Isiah's guys for different guys on shorter deals - WHILE - trying to not just bring back TOTAL trash. It only did so well. But the big plan, the overall plan, was to rip the roster to ashes.

Yet let us not pretend that Walsh traded for Harrington, Hughes, Darko, Wilcox.... and pretended "Hey Knick fans, Playoffs bounds for sure!"

For he never did that. He played the PC role and always said "The goal is to be competitive and make the playoffs." But behind the scenes he knew, and some fans like myself knew, he was just clearing space.

So let's not go there and pretend Walsh was trying to build some superpower the last 2 years and failed. That was _NEVER_ the plan. Don't fall for the necessary PC stuff. If Walsh was your uncle he would tell you straight up that was PC lip service, corporate lip service, and behind the scenes he was committed to tear down the mess in it's entirety and build from scratch.

who said anything about trades? i'm talking about his FA signings since he's been here... they've all been pretty bad... i realize it's hard to find the Anthony Morrow's of the world in the D-Leagues, but damn... i really would like to know who's in charge of scouting these guys before we sign them.

Who was there to be signed for a cap strapped team? All we had was the MLE, the LLE, and veteran minimums?

Who were these grand players we missed out on? I fail to understand.

And please don't say Iverson or JWill or any of that broken down trash. Please don't.

*puts fingers in ears*

TMS wrote:

i think i just said we only had the MLE & veteran's minimum contracts to work with... still that doesn't excuse the horrible talent Donnie's brought in... no one's expecting grand talent, but at the very least usable talent... the players he's brought in don't even warrant placement on an NBA roster... there are guys playing on veteran's minimum contracts scattered around the NBA that are actually factoring into their respective teams' rotations & are making a solid contribution... the reason we didn't sign AI was because of MDA in my belief so i'm not going to hold that one against DW, but can we at least get someone who can break into the damn rotation for a change that's not a forcefeed charity case like Jonathan Bender? are we stuck with giving a 2 year guaranteed contract to scrubs like Anthony Roberson? why can't we find some undrafted rooks from this past draft to bring in for a tryout instead of career journeymen scrubs? u telling me it wouldn't have been worthwhile to bring someone like Dionte Christmas in on a 10 day tryout? there aren't any guys putting up stats in the D-Leagues worth taking a look at over a broken down Bender at this point? fine, we gave Bender a look & he proved he's useless... cut him & look for someone else... we need a shotblocker in here, there's gotta be a slew of athletic bigs in the D-Leagues right now that can block shots if nothing else... why is Bender taking up a roster spot? he sucks.

So....you understand we had limited assets to go after a player.
You understand there were limited players available.
You even mention drawing from the pools of the D-Leagues which are players that couldn't make any NBA team not even as a scrub 14th man.

But, you're upset we couldn't sign anyone with talent.

Er, well, uh, I feel your frustration but I think you just answered all your own questions as to why we signed what we signed over the past two years.

*shrugs*

Cosmic wrote:

TMS wrote:

i think i just said we only had the MLE & veteran's minimum contracts to work with... still that doesn't excuse the horrible talent Donnie's brought in... no one's expecting grand talent, but at the very least usable talent... the players he's brought in don't even warrant placement on an NBA roster... there are guys playing on veteran's minimum contracts scattered around the NBA that are actually factoring into their respective teams' rotations & are making a solid contribution... the reason we didn't sign AI was because of MDA in my belief so i'm not going to hold that one against DW, but can we at least get someone who can break into the damn rotation for a change that's not a forcefeed charity case like Jonathan Bender? are we stuck with giving a 2 year guaranteed contract to scrubs like Anthony Roberson? why can't we find some undrafted rooks from this past draft to bring in for a tryout instead of career journeymen scrubs? u telling me it wouldn't have been worthwhile to bring someone like Dionte Christmas in on a 10 day tryout? there aren't any guys putting up stats in the D-Leagues worth taking a look at over a broken down Bender at this point? fine, we gave Bender a look & he proved he's useless... cut him & look for someone else... we need a shotblocker in here, there's gotta be a slew of athletic bigs in the D-Leagues right now that can block shots if nothing else... why is Bender taking up a roster spot? he sucks.

So....you understand we had limited assets to go after a player.
You understand there were limited players available.
You even mention drawing from the pools of the D-Leagues which are players that couldn't make any NBA team not even as a scrub 14th man.

But, you're upset we couldn't sign anyone with talent.

Er, well, uh, I feel your frustration but I think you just answered all your own questions as to why we signed what we signed over the past two years.

*shrugs*

how about u answer my question & not act like a douche? Dionte Christmas was a talented scorer in college & could have helped our need for size at the SG position all year... why didn't we take a look at him? what the hell is Donnie Walsh's fascination for undersized SG's who can't shoot? why is Jonathan Bender a Knick when he can barely run up & down the court? someone like Josh Heytvelt wouldn't have been a better option if you wanted a bigman who can shoot the rock? u telling me there aren't better players out there to be signed on veteran's minimum deals than the scrubs Donnie's pulled in since he's been our GM? please.