Wednesday, April 2, 2008

THE WALSH-ERA HAS OFFICIALLY BEGUN

Now that Jim Dolan has formally introduced Donnie Walsh as the President of Basketball Operations for the New York Knickerbockers, lets dissect what was said at the press conference. The most obvious thing from Dolan was, "His mandate is clear: Do whatever is necessary to turn this team around." The most notable though, was Dolan saying that Walsh has complete autonomy, including the media policy. Walsh said the Knicks will be "more open and accessible."

From all of Walsh's indications, Isiah Thomas will not be the coach beyond this season. When first asked about Thomas, Walsh said, "I won't judge anything from afar. I will sit down and talk with him. I think he has a great basketball mind. I think he has the skills to help this franchise." Later, he was asked what role Isiah would have if not the coach, and Walsh replied, "That'll be the conversation." This seems to imply that, unfortunately, Walsh is thinking about keeping Thomas on in some advisory role. Hopefully, Isiah won't accept a demotion.

Walsh said that his goals are to make the team competitive, and to gain cap flexibility in 2,3,4 years. He mentioned a few times that the Knicks will not dip into the free agent market anytime soon. He doesn't want to add any long-term contracts via trade either.

Overall, I liked everything I heard from Donnie. He seemed very truthful with the media, and his approach to rebuilding this once great franchise is encouraging. When asked how he brings hope to the Knicks, he answered, "The hope I bring to them is: I'm going to do the right things for this franchise." It's about time someone did.

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