"My feeling is nobody knows until you talk to the guy himself," Walsh added. "And then you'll find out. Like I've told you before, I can't imagine why free agents wouldn't look at this place and come here. I mean, this is the most incredible basketball atmosphere I've ever been in, and I've been in North Carolina and Indiana."

There is a belief that the Knicks could have the inside track on Atlanta's Joe Johnson, whose agent, Arn Tellem, has been friends with Walsh for nearly 25 years.

"We're going to get good players," Walsh said. "Better players than we could have gotten in a trade, better than we could have gotten in the draft, other than if you had gotten in the top five."

"I've got to believe that the New York Knicks now are in a better position than they were for some time. I wouldn't say two years ago, before that. They haven't been under the cap in a long time."

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2010/04/07/2010-04-07_walsh_not_giving_up.html

Walsh talking foolishness.

- We have the same luxury with David Lee as guys have with their him team in that we can offer that 6th guaranteed year Donnie, so there is your reason.

- I doubt he makes those remarks if we had a lottery pick.

AnubisADL wrote:

"My feeling is nobody knows until you talk to the guy himself," Walsh added. "And then you'll find out. Like I've told you before, I can't imagine why free agents wouldn't look at this place and come here. I mean, this is the most incredible basketball atmosphere I've ever been in, and I've been in North Carolina and Indiana."

There is a belief that the Knicks could have the inside track on Atlanta's Joe Johnson, whose agent, Arn Tellem, has been friends with Walsh for nearly 25 years.

"We're going to get good players," Walsh said. "Better players than we could have gotten in a trade, better than we could have gotten in the draft, other than if you had gotten in the top five."

"I've got to believe that the New York Knicks now are in a better position than they were for some time. I wouldn't say two years ago, before that. They haven't been under the cap in a long time."

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2010/04/07/2010-04-07_walsh_not_giving_up.html

Walsh talking foolishness.

- We have the same luxury with David Lee as guys have with their him team in that we can offer that 6th guaranteed year Donnie, so there is your reason.

- I doubt he makes those remarks if we had a lottery pick.

Maybe if it was a top 5 pick like he said, not only that, history has shown us that the hardest postion to be in a draft is between 6-12, which is where the knicks seem to land.

I'm so sick of people complaining about draft picks we don't have when all we do is trade em or bench em when we get them. In the last 10 years we have tried every way imaginable trying to get better while being light years ahead over the cap.

We finally get under the cap just in time for the big FA bonanza, and some still are concern about the direction of the franchise.

TMS wrote:if DW thinks we will be getting better talent than any top 5 pick would get us, he must have a guarantee that Lebron or Wade are coming here... or he could be talking nonsense... since GM's can never be taken at their word, i'm going to assume the latter... i don't think i need to run through a list of great players that were taken past the #5 overall pick that are playing in the NBA right now.

are you saying it's easier to land a top 5 pick then it is to land a proven all star through FA.
We have avg less then 34 wins, and as low as 23 wins, and have gotten no higher then a 6th pick

knicks1248 wrote:

TMS wrote:if DW thinks we will be getting better talent than any top 5 pick would get us, he must have a guarantee that Lebron or Wade are coming here... or he could be talking nonsense... since GM's can never be taken at their word, i'm going to assume the latter... i don't think i need to run through a list of great players that were taken past the #5 overall pick that are playing in the NBA right now.

are you saying it's easier to land a top 5 pick then it is to land a proven all star through FA.
We have avg less then 34 wins, and as low as 23 wins, and have gotten no higher then a 6th pick

Actually we got the 2nd pick but Chicago owned that pick. Aldridge says hello.

AnubisADL wrote:

"My feeling is nobody knows until you talk to the guy himself," Walsh added. "And then you'll find out. Like I've told you before, I can't imagine why free agents wouldn't look at this place and come here. I mean, this is the most incredible basketball atmosphere I've ever been in, and I've been in North Carolina and Indiana."

There is a belief that the Knicks could have the inside track on Atlanta's Joe Johnson, whose agent, Arn Tellem, has been friends with Walsh for nearly 25 years.

"We're going to get good players," Walsh said. "Better players than we could have gotten in a trade, better than we could have gotten in the draft, other than if you had gotten in the top five."

"I've got to believe that the New York Knicks now are in a better position than they were for some time. I wouldn't say two years ago, before that. They haven't been under the cap in a long time."

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2010/04/07/2010-04-07_walsh_not_giving_up.html

Walsh talking foolishness.

- We have the same luxury with David Lee as guys have with their him team in that we can offer that 6th guaranteed year Donnie, so there is your reason.

- I doubt he makes those remarks if we had a lottery pick.

So he stops short of the known guarantee softest protection he traded away(2012 Top 5 protection) meanwhile axing out his own pick in Gallo who landed Top 6 of the 2008 draft. So had we kept our pick say in 2012 and it landed beyond 5 we weren't going to get a player the caliber of Gallo nor Lee nor Chandler....LOL! Oh and Jordan Hill once again must have never been a good pick to begin with....<-------He told us all he was BPA when he picked him.

I expect him to get quality roster guys in this draft as well, whethers its buying picks, making trades or whatever else.

Knicks fans are complaining about players before we even get them. But the same guys claim we should be drafting our players. Like Knick fans are patient enough to build through the draft. You got these draft experts like John Wallace who totally trash Gallo. Hmm... 21 year old 6'10 skilled player who defends and hits big shots, but he's garbage. Its laughable (which is why I am laughing)

top 5 protection is good. We avoid another Aldridge type scenario.

I'm a poker player and in poker sometime you have to give up a lot of chips
to put yourself in position to get all the chips later....

Donnie had to give up assets plain and simple.....

He shed 10 million more off the cap in the BIGGEST FA CLASS OF ALL TIME!!!!!

Lebron Wade Bosh Amare Joe Johnson and thats only the beginning......

The pool is like no other ever...... And if Bron Bron really wants to be as
big as he says he wants then coming here is a no Brainer!!!

If anyone noticed Bron tried hard to lure second tier players to Cleveland and
it just does not work!!.... ( Shaq hates it there)

In NY he can go to Bosh and Wade and say hey lets split the pie 3 ways....

We can sign for 3 years and re up for Max money after that...... Who would stop
us? NY and the whole basketball universe will love us!! We would win rings for
a decade and go down in history as the best tandem of all time!!

Like Majic Kareem and Worthy.........

If cap is 55 million or up they could all split a first year salary of around 42 million
(we are commited for 13 million) thats 14 million each!!

There Jersey sales alone will make up for the rest of the 3 mil yearly

I know its a pipe dream but very possible now!!

Thank you Donnie for getting us here!!

TMS wrote:

nixluva wrote:

TMS wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:

TMS wrote:if DW thinks we will be getting better talent than any top 5 pick would get us, he must have a guarantee that Lebron or Wade are coming here... or he could be talking nonsense... since GM's can never be taken at their word, i'm going to assume the latter... i don't think i need to run through a list of great players that were taken past the #5 overall pick that are playing in the NBA right now.

are you saying it's easier to land a top 5 pick then it is to land a proven all star through FA.
We have avg less then 34 wins, and as low as 23 wins, and have gotten no higher then a 6th pick

i'm saying there are several players u can reference right now that were taken lower than #5 overall that are better than any of the guys available in free agency this summer other than possibly Lebron or Wade... so in order to qualify a statement like that, you better have some kind of guarantee that 1 of those guys are coming here this summer... otherwise it's foolishness like Anubis suggested... this is akin to the false proclamations some people made 2 years ago that there would be no quality talent available in the draft beyond the #16 pick when people were discussing trading down to dump Zach's contract... there are always very good players available in every draft that fall past the top 5, to assume anyone we sign this summer will be better than anyone we could potentially draft #6 or later in the next 2 years is foolishness unless u know for certain you're getting Lebron or Wade... i hope for our sakes Donnie's saying this cuz he knows something we don't.

Man do you know how hard it is to predict success on picks you have past the top 5!?! Don't make it sound so matter of fact. Heck even having the worst record doesn't guarantee success in the lottery, so the whole draft thing from the beginning is a big crap shoot. It's not like it's a fixed system where you just line up the teams with the worst record to the 14 worst record. DW is basically saying that aside from the very top of the draft you can't depend on draft picks as much as you can going into a FA market with so many known quantities. We know exactly what Bosh is or isn't as a player. Same goes for all of the guys save for up and coming guys like Gay.

It's not about assuming the FA will be better, it's about knowing exactly how good the NBA vet is as opposed to HOPING the pick will be as good, which no one can know. If you want to start guaranteeing how successful picks after #5 will be then I need to have you give me stock advice or pick lotto numbers.

it absolutely IS about assuming the FA will be better... how does anyone know for certain the FA we sign with be better than a top 5 pick in the next 2 years unless you already have a guarantee of who you're going to sign? how can you possibly tell me David Lee or Carlos Boozer is better than anyone we could possibly draft in the top 5 in the next 2 years when both those guys were taken late in the 1st round or later? that's nonsense.

TMS, why is this concept so hard for you to come to grips with. You have to weigh the complete randomness of picks after 5 being great against the known success level of players in FA. How is a HOPE that you can find a diamond in the draft and develop him into a top player against going after guys who you already know are good to great? Now i'm not talking about Lebron N Wade, who are rare. We know that guys on that level don't come out of every draft, much less later in each draft where it's harder to predict. Guys like Bosh, Amare, JJ3, are hard to come by in the draft too. Especially if you are talking about guys that usually get picked after the top 5. If teams KNEW that Lee was gonna be this good he wouldn't have been drafted so low. Every year this happens cuz these are the hidden talents and that's why DW doesn't want to play that game when he can get a known stud.

TMS wrote:the concept is simple... there is no way you can GUARANTEE that any one you draft after the top 5 in the next 2 drafts won't be as good as any FA you can sign this summer... it's foolishness to assume as much UNLESS LIKE I ALREADY SAID you have a guarantee of who you're going to sign this summer... without that guarantee of who we're going to sign you're comparing a random unknown with another random unknown.

you make it sound like guys like David Lee are once in a generation type finds that come out late in the draft... we're talking about TOP 6 OR LATER here, u telling me it's rare to get great players in that range in the draft? stop talkin' foolishness.

The point isn't if there are diamonds later in the draft every year. The thing is how to you come close to being sure to find someone GOOD-GREAT. There are so many draft flops each year, so why would you want to put yourself in that position verses going after known productive players. It's much harder to quantify who you're going to get. Say you need a PF? Can you guarantee that the diamond in this draft will even be a PF? We have specific targets and we have the chance to go after them and convince them to come here. I like that better than just waiting and hoping on a non top 5 draft pick which may or may not pan out.

AnubisADL wrote:

Juice wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:

"My feeling is nobody knows until you talk to the guy himself," Walsh added. "And then you'll find out. Like I've told you before, I can't imagine why free agents wouldn't look at this place and come here. I mean, this is the most incredible basketball atmosphere I've ever been in, and I've been in North Carolina and Indiana."

There is a belief that the Knicks could have the inside track on Atlanta's Joe Johnson, whose agent, Arn Tellem, has been friends with Walsh for nearly 25 years.

"We're going to get good players," Walsh said. "Better players than we could have gotten in a trade, better than we could have gotten in the draft, other than if you had gotten in the top five."

"I've got to believe that the New York Knicks now are in a better position than they were for some time. I wouldn't say two years ago, before that. They haven't been under the cap in a long time."

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2010/04/07/2010-04-07_walsh_not_giving_up.html

Walsh talking foolishness.

- We have the same luxury with David Lee as guys have with their him team in that we can offer that 6th guaranteed year Donnie, so there is your reason.

- I doubt he makes those remarks if we had a lottery pick.

So he stops short of the known guarantee softest protection he traded away(2012 Top 5 protection) meanwhile axing out his own pick in Gallo who landed Top 6 of the 2008 draft. So had we kept our pick say in 2012 and it landed beyond 5 we weren't going to get a player the caliber of Gallo nor Lee nor Chandler....LOL! Oh and Jordan Hill once again must have never been a good pick to begin with....<-------He told us all he was BPA when he picked him.

As I said PURE FOOLISHNESS.

- Walsh gave Gallo(6th pick) video of Bird for what reason? No good players after 5th right?
- Jordan Hill taken with the 8th pick. If no good players are available after 5th then why not tank Walsh?
- Joe Johnson was drafted 10th in 2001.

When he drafted Gallo he called him "SPECIAL" and "UNIQUE" compared him to Bird early on. In the article here he says he will get "GOOD PLAYERS" and these caliber of players are only boxed in to Top 5 slots if we didn't go the route we chose? Is Gallo what you consider to be a "GOOD PLAYER", better yet do you think our GM thinks Gallo is a "GOOD PLAYER"? What about Lee who was drafted in 2005? Players picked before and after Lee after pick 5 were Andrew Bynum, Danny Granger(picked by our very own Car Salesman GM), Nate Robinson, Jarret Jack, Monta Ellis, Andray Blatche<-------- So are these considered "BAD PLAYERS". Because to use the 2008 draft being deep as an excuse is weak as the 2009 draft which followed it up appears to have produced equal if not better talent throughout. What about Chandler's draft class where he was picked 23 but players selected before and after him below 5 were Joahkim Noah, Rodney Stuckey, Aaron Brooks, Rudy Fernandez, Carl Landry, Marc Gasol<--------So are these considered "BAD PLAYERS"?

If any of those players in bold were Free Agents this summer do you think we bypass offering them any contracts or invite them and their agents to MSG for contract negotiations.

It's ok to defend the Pres/Gm but not the DUMB STUFF he says.

I wonder what other players may be on our radar....Amare?, Gay?, Boozer?, Ginobli? Check their draft positions and get back with me. A GM/Pres doesn't hand a player Bird videos if he doesn't have a high opinion of the player, agreed. He acquired Jermaine O'neal through trade, as he did Ron Artest and Brad Miller, and Jamal Tinsley on draft night to take his Indian team to a Finals appearance and become a Legit Contender for 4-5yrs in the Eastern Conference. There isn't a set rule as the best way to build a winning team. Of course he's on a different BI now and spinning things to fit his agenda. The Spurs have had a decade of Dynasty... as has the Mavericks with their perennial 50+ consecutive winning seasons and both of their Superstar Players were drafted after pick 5 as also many of their Core Players surrounding them. Many Knick fans wanted Peter Pan A.K.A. Stephen Curry to be drafted by us, he was picked after 5 so can we chalk him up as never being a "GOOD" to potentially a GREAT PLAYER"....Our GM/Pres suggested 4-5mo ago that our scouting staff could have been fired/replaced if he would have gone to Dolan to "HIRE SOME PRETTY GOOD PEOPLE" increasing spending budget<-------Well this was said after he was sour graping over not picking Jennings(who I did not want) 10th pick of 2009 draft.