NardDogNation wrote:He picked Landry Fields and Andy Rautins over Lance Stephenson. That, IMO, is far worse than the 2009 draft (which I actually don't think was THAT bad). Lance might become a star if he keeps up this pace.

that is an indictment on every GM in the league who passed on lance in the first round.. if not for his off the court incident, he goes first round...

gunsnewing wrote:Those picks were late 2nd rounders 40 and 50 something

They were the 38th and 39th picks of the draft. But what's your point?

MaTT4281 wrote:No complaints here. Donnie cleared house after Anuchagate, then immediately after the draft, Stephenson gets arrested for attacking his girlfriend. Not to mention Fields did start off the year as the steal of the draft. Albeit, trajectories changed, but the culture at MSG was a big time concern.

And Shawne Williams was busted for marijuna possession on two occasions and caught up on an illegal firearm charge. It didn't stop us from signing him, so why not take a risk on a far more talented prospect? Walsh had a really shoddy draft record with us and it showed with these picks.

CrushAlot wrote:Walsh seemed to be targeting high character four year guys. The coach at the time struggled with players that might need to mature some or need guidance from the person in his position so talent was bypassed for higher character lower upside guys. That being said the Pacers were very patient with Stephenson and it paid off.

I get that but I've always thought that game takes precedent. I could understand character being a factor if you have two similarly talent prospects but it doesn't seem like it should've been close (though I knew nothing about any of the players in question at the time). In my opinion, you need to gamble that late in the process especially since you had two picks to work with to help mitigate the risk. I'm probably nitpicking but it's just irritating to see what could have been with all the resources we've had.

MSG3 wrote:In higndsight, 2 of Donnie's biggest moves were huge mistakes. Signing Amar'e and not buying out Billups who we then had to amnesty to get Chandler.

Although getting us enough cap space to go after LeBron and another star was the stuff of wizards.

Amare was brought in to get other stars on-board.
Billups thing was most likely Dolan. He was not a player who will kiss anybody's a..sss.
Dolan is not keeping those.

we were in good shape under walsh,

the problem came when we didn't amnesty amar'e!!!

WHY DIDN'T WE AMNESTY AMAR'E?!?!

THE AMNESTY WAS NAMED AFTER AMAR'E!! WHY DIDN'T WE DO THIS, THAT WAS OUR WAY OUT, OMFG OMFG OMFG