Mr_Perfect wrote:RutgersBJJ wrote:He's doing the best with what he has to work with. Amare was here before he got here. Our top 10 pick in 2009 was not here because we drafted a bust who's salary we needed off the books. Grunnie wasn't the one who wasted a first round pick on Toney Douglas. ALL of our young players were gone instead of just our 2008 1st round pick in exchange for Melo because we drafted Gallo over Gordon and Lopez. Grunnie wasn't the one who drafted Shumpert over Faried.
He's responsible for Chandler over Billups, for Kidd, Camby, JR, and K-Mart all on the cheap. While his blunders were the contracts he gave Felton and Novak which run way too long for the bench caliber players they are.
Most of the blame falls on Walsh for his inability to amass talent while purging the roster of contracts and for HIS decision to give Amare a max contract. Walsh is the one who had full control, who constructed this rebuild, and decided to put 20 million of a 58 million dollar cap into an extremely risky asset which has returns that aren't even that valuable when he is healthy.
He's basically doing what Alderson is doing right now for the Mets, except Alderson actually got young players with real talent while purging the roster of overpaid veterans. Walsh forgot the young players with high ceilings part.
Yes, the man who saved the franchise from years more of laughingstock and failure ruined the team.
Not the owner who undermined his every move, but the only man who actually did something right here the last decade. Good post.
I love how you just live in a fantasy world where it wasn't Walsh who signed Amare. All Walsh did when he came here was what anyone with half a brain would do. Yet you apparently appoint him the messiah just because he isn't as dumb as the moron before him. All he did was convince fans to tolerate purging every contract we had off the books. Unfortunately he has a terrible eye for championship level talent which is why he chose to commit 20 million a year to a player who isn't even as good as the PF we had on the roster before the purge. Drafted Jordan Hill when even a scrub like Brandon Jennings is better than him and would have had more trade value than him. Drafted Gallinari over an all-star (Lopez), and the piece that single-handedly got Chris Paul. That singular draft pick is now why we get the privilege watching JR Smith be our sixth-man and not Wilson Chandler. Then to make matters even worse his final gift to this franchise was to draft Iman Shumpert over Kenneth Faried.
Walsh gave Amare 100 million dollars. Amare as of now has received close to 40 million of that in exchange for 1 playoff win with him, two playoffs in a row he has let us down with his health that was a concern before he was even signed. Certainly seems like a joke to me. Maybe some of you are okay with being slightly better than average, but I'm not. Walsh sold the fans on a plan that would get us to contend for a title, not one that would have us switch places with the 2007-2010 Atlanta Hawks.
All Walsh had to do was not waste the 100 million on Amare or get great value from even 1 of his draft picks. He failed us just like he failed the Pacers, and is why he will die without ever knowing what a championship ring looks like on his finger. Close isn't good enough, certainly not in this city.
RIP Jared Jeffries. Gone but never forgotten...2006-2012