Weekly Post-Ups: Understanding New York's draft state of mind

Knicks president Donnie Walsh made a somewhat staggering admission recently, saying that he passed on point guard Brandon Jennings in the draft because he "didn't have a feel for his game."

Instead of getting kudos for his honesty, Walsh has found himself in the crosshairs of New York's tabloid media, which has been predictably knee-jerk in its criticism of Walsh for taking forward Jordan Hill with the eighth pick instead of Jennings. It's a fish-in-a-barrel kind of shot to take, considering Jennings is starting for Milwaukee and putting up impressive numbers. Hill is riding the bench for the Knicks, who entered Monday night's game against Utah with a 1-6 record.

Knicks president Donnie Walsh is feeling some heat in New York for not drafting Brandon Jennings. (Getty Images)

The draft is an inexact science, and the less evidence you have to evaluate a player, the more of a crapshoot it becomes. There wasn't much to know about Jennings, a frail 19-year-old at draft time who'd played sparingly for his Italian team, Lottomatica Roma, after skipping college for a European contract. Despite the premature heat Walsh is taking for passing on Jennings -- which eight other GMs did, too -- his point isn't lost on some of his rival executives.

"I totally agree with that," Suns GM Steve Kerr said. "I made a trip to Europe, and [assistant GM] Dave Griffin made a trip to Europe last year. We each went specifically to see him. One time he was on the inactive list; he couldn't even get on the playoff roster for his team. Another time in Italy, he was supposed to go to the Reebok camp and he just decided not to go. His season had ended and he just canceled. So we made two separate trips to Europe and never saw him."

This was precisely Walsh's point; the red flags were lined up on both sides of the lane for Jennings, and there simply wasn't enough evidence to knock them down. If Walsh had relied on Jennings' workouts and gambled with the only lottery pick he'll have for the next two years -- Utah owns the Knicks' unprotected 2010 pick from the previous regime's acquisition of Stephon Marbury -- it would've been a potentially fire-able offense if it didn't work out.

If Jennings' fast start continues -- he's averaging 18.4 points, 4.4 assists, and 40 percent 3-point shooting through five games (five!) -- then Bucks GM John Hammond deserves credit for taking a risk. But that doesn't mean Walsh or anyone else who passed on Jennings deserves ridicule for recognizing that risk and shying away.

"Brandon's putting up good numbers and playing well, and Jordan's not playing, so it's easy to say," Walsh said. "I did not know Brandon Jennings. I didn't have a feel for his game. I was focused on the guys like Tyreke Evans, [Stephen] Curry, [Ricky] Rubio, those guys. That was the first group of guys. And looking at Brandon Jennings, he probably belonged there. I just didn't know it at the time."

Sometimes, honesty gets you nowhere in this business. Here are the rest of my Weekly Post-Ups from various spots on the floor throughout the NBA:

• Word among players and front-office sources is that Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley brokered Allen Iverson's departure from the team at the behest of his basketball people, who didn't want A.I. around anymore. Whether it was Iverson's idea to take a personal leave or the organization's, Heisley has to take the blame for this one. He's on record saying that it was his idea to sign Iverson -- a bad idea from the get-go, but unfortunately one that GM Chris Wallace now has to clean up. (Heisley is denying reports that Iverson is thinking about retiring, which is exactly what he said he'd do before coming off the bench ever again.) There are virtually no trade possibilities for Iverson, who won't take a penny less than the $3.1 million he is owed for this season. If Heisley's goal was to sell tickets, one NBA front office source offered this question for him: Why didn't the Grizzlies take University of Memphis star Tyreke Evans with the second pick instead of Hasheem Thabeet? Another query making the rounds in league circles: Who told Lionel Hollins that Iverson would willingly come off the bench? Once he was saddled with Iverson, there was only one way for Hollins to ensure it would blow up in record time. And that's the option he chose. It's either courageous or tone-deaf coaching, depending on your perspective.

• Speaking of disgruntled scorers, most NBA front office execs expect Stephen Jackson to be stuck in Golden State for the foreseeable future. There is no appetite for his poisonous contract, which has three years and $27.8 million left after this season. Cleveland could use a scoring jolt, but it's difficult to conjure an arrangement that would entice the Warriors. (And besides, who knows what the Warriors want, anyway?) Miami is the latest team mentioned as a suitor, but rival execs doubt Pat Riley would allocate precious future cap space to Jackson with so much pressure to re-sign Dwyane Wade and pair him with another max free agent.

• Don Nelson's scorched Earth regime in Golden State has observers league-wide mystified, but not surprised. The ill-fated pairing of Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry in the backcourt, the inexplicable decision to start Mikki Moore over Anthony Randolph, the Jackson fiasco, the mind games -- it's all straight out of Nellieball 101. Now comes speculation that Nellie will get bought out of the final two years and $12 million on his contract and retire to Maui, leaving the smoldering embers of another basketball franchise in his wake. Nelson's exit strategy is about the only thing you can easily figure out when it comes to the Warriors.

• The Hornets sank deeper into their malaise Sunday night with a non-competitive showing in a 104-88 loss to the Lakers, who didn't have Andrew Bynum or Pau Gasol and didn't need them. Though Chris Paul continues to say the right things publicly, the Hornets may have irreparably alienated their franchise player by trading Tyson Chandler for Emeka Okafor and dumping Rasual Butler to save money. While NBA front office sources can stage a lively debate about which team got the better player in the Chandler-Okafor swap, they agree that Chandler was a better fit for the Hornets. Paul saw Butler's 3-point shooting as a safety net for the offense, which he now has to generate almost entirely by himself. All the Hornets are missing, Paul said after the Lakers loss, is "defense and the ability to score."

• Although Denver's $7.4 million trade exception that expired Nov. 3 wasn't a fit for Jackson's $7.7 million salary, the Nuggets have two more exceptions on the books that could give them the flexibility to pull off a difference-making transaction or two before the February trade deadline. Their $3.2 million trade exception (Chucky Atkins) expires Jan. 7, and their $3.7 million exception (Steven Hunter) expires Aug. 7.

• Time for the first absurdly premature installment of "if the season ended today ... " If the season ended today, the Thunder (3-3) and Kings (3-4) would make the playoffs, while the Spurs (2-3), Jazz (2-4), and Hornets (2-5) would not.

Carl Landry is part of a formidable Houston frontcourt. (Getty Images)

• The Rockets' 4-2 start without Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady doesn't surprise one rival Western Conference executive, who notes that Houston played well without Yao two years ago and gave the Lakers all they could handle in the conference semifinals last year without McGrady. The exec also called Houston's front line of Carl Landry, Luis Scola, and Chuck Hayes one of the most difficult to deal with in the conference. What's surprising about the Rockets' start is that they could be playing a lot better defensively. If they're going to stay afloat in the West, they're going to have to improve on their average of 100.5 points allowed, which is 18th in the league. So how are they doing it? With their bench, which outscored the Jazz, Lakers, and Thunder last week by an average of 20 points per game, according to the Houston Chronicle

• When Blake Griffin went down with a fractured kneecap, we knew the Rookie of the Year race had been blown wide open. But we didn't know it would be this wide open. The rooks making the biggest contributions thus far were picked nowhere near the top 5: DeJuan Blair (37th), Chase Budinger (44th), Ty Lawson (18th), Brandon Jennings (10th), and Omri Casspi (23rd), the first Israeli in the NBA. And don't look now, but with Tyrus Thomas out for 4-6 weeks with a broken arm, Bulls rookie Taj Gibson (26th) is about to join the party. Jonny Flynn (6th) is off to the best start among the top picks.

• The underwhelming Trail Blazers are 2-0 with a three-guard starting lineup that includes Brandon Roy, Steve Blake, and Andre Miller. There's nothing wrong with finding a strategic spark here and there, but I don't see this as a long-term solution. Miller and Roy have to learn how to play together in a more traditional lineup, especially against teams capable of exploiting their size advantage. Ever heard of a title contender scaring anybody with their Small Three? As an aside, the Blazers need Miller to fit in for another reason. The player whose rights they renounced before signing Miller, Channing Frye, is one of the biggest reasons for the resurgence of the conference rival Suns. Frye worked tirelessly on extending his shooting range this past summer, and it's paid off handsomely thus far with 20-for-41 shooting from 3-point range.

• So far, so good with the Jamal Crawford experiment in Atlanta. The Hawks are 5-2, and Crawford has embraced his sixth-man role. He's averaging 18.1 points per game despite shooting 27 percent from 3-point range. Perhaps more important is the fact that Joe Johnson's minutes are down from around 40-per game the past few seasons to 36, which should keep him from wearing down again in the playoffs.

• The Celtics' sudden love affair with the 3-point shot was captured poetically by Julian Benbow of the Boston Globe who wrote: "Only two teams have taken more shots from long range than the Celtics so far this season -- the Magic, who live by the three, and the Knicks, who die by it."

• Speaking of the Knicks, here's a little known fact about why Walsh has held off on hiring an assistant GM and heir apparent: He has to wait until the spinoff of Madison Square Garden and its sports properties from parent company Cablevision is complete. Until the deal takes on its final form, it's impossible to predict how the financial books of the new MSG will look, according to a person familiar with the situation. My guess is, the books will look robust enough to hire former Warriors GM and native New Yorker Chris Mullin, who sources indicate remains at the top of Walsh's list -- provided coach Mike D'Antoni, who wields enormous organizational clout, agrees.

• Front office sources continue to debate whether the 2010-11 salary cap will be closer to $50 million or $53 million, the range given by the NBA based on an anticipated revenue decline this season of between 2.5 and 5 percent. One Eastern Conference exec is sticking with the lower number, and after canvassing all the empty seats in various arenas through the first two weeks of the season, it's hard to argue with him.