FanPost

Walsh Review Part 1- The Summer of 2010 Plan

Part 1 of Walsh's 2 year review; how we got to where we are in our rebuilding mode. In later sections, I'll be hitting on his 2 drafts. Hint: I don't want Wash fired.


I've had enough of people blowing up on Walsh w/ ignorant, non-rationalized comments. I can understand the frustration of another losing season, but really, how much can you blame Walsh?

Since I get frustrated when people compare Walsh to someone like Sam Presti (who's done a GREAT job, albeit in a completely different circumstance), I will refuse to compare Walsh to Isiah and Satan Jr. (aka Scot Layden). So let's take a step back and see what's been accomplished in the last 2 years.

The Summer of 2010 Plan

Overview:
This was the plan as soon as Donnie Walsh stepped on the premises. Now you can fault Walsh for putting all his eggs into this basket. We've seen other teams try this and get burned, but this is IF the teams spends money like a college kid at his first strip club.

Joe Dumars in the '09 offseason goes into the offseason strip club saying, "OMG, I got all this cash! I'm gonna get the best lap dance ever by the hottest girl ever!" 2 hours later? Joe Dumars is still without a lap dance while all the hot girls are no where to be seen. Then he says to himself, "If I'm in here, I'm getting a lap dance damn it!" Then he gets himself a short girl and a girl with alopecia problems (Gordon and Villenueva).

Walsh? This isn't his first time in the strip club. He knows that, while yes, it'd be great to come away with 2 great FA's this year, there's always another year. Hell, even if we don't come away with 2 FA's, salary cap becomes a valuable commodity (see: Pau Gasol Trade). We have options. We all know the ideal scenario, but don't think for an instant we won't be better next year.

So let's take a review on his first 2 years as the GM.

Components:
Here's the breakdown of how Donnie has set us up for next year:

-Cap Space: 33 Million

-Definate Assets: Bill Walker, Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chander, DWTDD
-Possible Assets (depending on contract next year): Sergio Rodriguez, Earl Barron, TMac

-Lost Assets: Jordan Hill, 2011 Swap 1st Rounder, Top 1 Protected 2012 1st Rounder, Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph, Nate Robinson

-Fatty Left over: Eddy Curry


Overall Review:

-Cap Space
We have lots of it. Nuff said.

-The Cheap Young Guns
We already know about the Cap space, but what about the supporting cast? How in the world do you get a decent supporting cast without sacrificing the 2010 cap space and quality of said cast? You go young! Walsh has gotten Sergio, Bill Walker (most talented of the 3), and Earl Barron on the cheap this year. While Walker is the only one with a team option for next year, the Knicks at least put themselves in a position to possibly sign Sergio and Earl, who could be servicable bench players who sign for close to the minimum.

-Eddy Curry
We were never gonna get rid of him. Be real. Unless we gave up 5 1st round picks with Gallo and the chicken and rice cart on 53rd and 6th, we weren't getting rid of him. Get over it.

Can you knock the 'max FA plan'? You can argue that another plan could've been more effective (I can't), but, you can't argue that Walsh completed his task on freeing up cap space without sacrificing all his young assets. That was no small feat, something that took 2 years to complete.

Finally, the stench of Issiah and Scot Layden is off (sorry, I couldn't resist) and we're ready to take on a new era. What the new era holds? Who knows, but at least we can say this time, there's a plan and this isn't Walsh's first time in the strip club, I mean offseason.