Comments on: The 13 Knicks Rebuilds Since their Last Title: Rebuild #9 — “Teflon” Donnie Walsh https://www.knicks.city/knickstory/the-13-knicks-rebuilds-since-their-last-title-rebuild-9/ We All Live in Knicks City Sun, 26 Feb 2023 17:11:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 By: LouV https://www.knicks.city/knickstory/the-13-knicks-rebuilds-since-their-last-title-rebuild-9/#comment-5076 Sun, 26 Feb 2023 17:11:20 +0000 https://www.knicks.city/?p=1016#comment-5076 In reply to NYKFAN777.

Terrific Points. On the money I remember these disasters well; had forgotten to mention them.

Thanks for reading and thanks for contributing!

]]> By: NYKFAN777 https://www.knicks.city/knickstory/the-13-knicks-rebuilds-since-their-last-title-rebuild-9/#comment-5075 Sat, 25 Feb 2023 21:21:18 +0000 https://www.knicks.city/?p=1016#comment-5075 A couple of storylines left out:
Donnie told Marbury in summer 08 to get into great shape and he’d have a blank slate. Steph did and had a solid preseason. Turns out, it was a setup. Marbury would go from 23mpg in preseason to complete DNP on opening night. The saga turned into a headline grabber for weeks. Ending with buying-out the former allstar. Terrible PR sent to the stars of the league of how big names players are treated.

2010 draft, Lance Stephenson (who was at times billed to be a top 3 pick before getting in trouble/college) went undrafted for 37 picks. Donnie has TWO picks 38 & 39. Indiana, with 40. Donnie balked drafting Andy Rautins (who went onto play 5 games) and Landry Fields (who would end up being the incorrect guy to make untouchable in the Melo trade fumble). Stephenson went to Indiana and helped beat us in the playoff series in ’13. This was as bad as the ’99 Weis/Artest blunder, but no one talks about it.

Trade deadline 2010. He traded Knicks ’09 pick, Jordan Hill (who would go onto find a role on Kobe’s playoff Lakers) and ’12 future 1st. And 1st swap to Houston for T-Macs large expiring contract. While this was the deadline to have his max slots cleared for summer free agency, he did so by having to trade picks. A big no-no for any rebuild/reset.

Overall, Walsh was given 2 free seasons to punt, so long as he would have two max slots for summer 2010 and the LeBron sweepstakes. In a pass/fail world, he passed. So casual fans will remember Donnie for being great.

In reality, he showed no creativity, and found no young hidden gems. Traded ZBo way too early for nothing. Neutral swapped Craw for Al and got no assets for either. Exhiled Marbury to China, again for no assets. All we had to show in 2011 was Rony Turiaf (for DLee).

In retrospect, after he quit and returned to Indiana, I wonder if he wasn’t still aligned with the Pacers the entire time. He earned Dolan’s checks by doing the bare minimum to get the cap space Dolan asked for. I wonder if he had any real intentions of setting the team up for future success after that.

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