Knicks · Jerome Jordan: The next Antonio Davis? (page 1)

Not an overly exciting article but a good read none the less. Unfortunately, Jordon has been out for a month after his appendix was removed, so he isn't playing right now. As many of you think, I think we go guard in the draft and he is our center next year...

Worth noting, Jordon shot REALLY GOOD this year and with Amare and Stat on the court, I expect him to be able to get his points. I hope he does better at rebounding though.

By Chris Sheridan
It was 21 years ago that Donnie Walsh drafted a scrawny kid out of Texas-El Paso with the 45th pick who was athletic and promising but wasn't yet strong enough to compete with the manly men who populated the NBA.

So Antonio Davis was sent first to Greece, where he toiled for two years for Panathinaikos, and then onto Italy, where he spent a season with Philips Milano. When he returned to the States in 1993, he was ready to play in the Indiana Pacers' frontcourt alongside Dale Davis and Rik Smits.

"When he left, he was a big tall skinny kid who could jump out of the gym. When he came back he was a big, strong guy who could jump out of the gym and was ready to run through a wall," Walsh recounted. "He came back a man."

The story of Davis' pre-NBA career merits mention for Knicks fans because Walsh brought his name up in discussing the status of Jerome Jordan, the second round pick (44th overall) of last June's draft, from Tulsa, whose rights were acquired in a draft night trade with the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for $500,000.

Jordan spent this past season with KK Hemofarm of the Adriatic League in Serbia, averaging 15 minutes per game in the domestic league and shooting 73.5 percent from the field (averaging 7.8 points), while also appearing in four Euroleague games and shooting 68.8 percent, averaging 8.5 points in just under 12 minutes per game.

In a normal summer, the Knicks would bring him back to the United States, see how he fared in summer league action and then make a decision on whether he should be allotted a roster space for the 2011-12 season. But this is not looking like a normal summer with a possible work stoppage on the horizon, and the Knicks are unsure what they'll do with the 7-footer after he reports back to the team's training facility in mid-June to meet with the coaching staff and members of the front office.

"We'll see where he's at, and we'll see where is is after that," Walsh told ESPN.com."We'll see if he wants to come back, and we want to take a look. My understanding is he's gotten bigger and stronger and was taking the ball to the hole, whareas in Las Vegas last summer he was tending to take shots fading away. I've only watched film, but he looked a little more aggressive."

As detailed in this blog earlier this week, the Knicks have an acute need for some depth at the center position with only Ronny Turiaf under contract for next season.

Jordan is recovering from appendicitis that required surgery a month ago, Walsh said, and Jordan is currently sitting out the semifinals of the Serbian League playoffs against Radnicki Kradujevac.

"It's good that he went over there and got a chance to play at a higher level, which improved him," Walsh said. "Being over there forces guys to grow up quick."

That quote was what prompted Walsh to recall the Eurostashing of Davis, who went on to have a productive 13-year NBA career that included a 36-game stint with the Knicks in 2005-06 before he was traded to Toronto for Jalen Rose, cash and a first-round draft pick that was used to select Renaldo Balkman.

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/...

You gotta love the way Walsh works

I believe in Walsh. Hopefully this guy pans out.

Childs2Dudley wrote:I believe in Walsh. Hopefully this guy pans out.

agreed. i wonder what him and dolan are haggling over. bring this guy back!

can we get a donnie emoticon or whatever these things are called

Yeah. Let's get rid of the Pringles one. He doesn't deserve it.

BigSm00th wrote:

Childs2Dudley wrote:I believe in Walsh. Hopefully this guy pans out.

agreed. i wonder what him and dolan are haggling over. bring this guy back!

can we get a donnie emoticon or whatever these things are called

One of those draft sites has him best case scenario being like Ratliff.
Not bad. If he could just contribute some quality minutes at the C with
Turiaf and a free agent signing, that'd be great.

I think the Knicks are handling Jordan the right way. I have to admit to being perplexed at the selection and the handling of Rautins. It seems like Rautins could benefit from some playing time in the d-league or Europe if he truly is in the Knicks plans.

Jerome Jordan is a NBA scrub. Please lets not depend on him to do anything but collect splinters.

AnubisADL wrote:Jerome Jordan is a NBA scrub. Please lets not depend on him to do anything but collect splinters.

And you base this on???????

Give the kid a chance. We are not expecting a Dwight Howard, but he surely has the potential to be at least a very good rotation player if not a starter on some team in the league.

AnubisADL wrote:Jerome Jordan is a NBA scrub. Please lets not depend on him to do anything but collect splinters.

Not that any of us knows, but how can you be so sure that he hasn't improved? Besides no one is "depending" on Jordan. He's another option in essence like already having a 2nd rd pick this year. How is that a bad thing? He went and played some Euro ball, which is what a bigman under MDA needs to get used to. That kind of well rounded style of play should be a good base to start from going forward. If Donnie can buy another pick it would be even better, but at least we already have a bigman prospect in development.

Markji wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Jerome Jordan is a NBA scrub. Please lets not depend on him to do anything but collect splinters.

And you base this on???????

Give the kid a chance. We are not expecting a Dwight Howard, but he surely has the potential to be at least a very good rotation player if not a starter on some team in the league.

I wish people would back their comments with more than "he's a scrub", "he's a bum", etc. I don't get it. Jordon was pretty well regarded coming out of college and has a year of professional experience under his belt. He is bigger and faster now, and as the article said, he is driving more (didn't really do that in college.) Considering his insane shooting percentage, that is great news.

I'd almost say he is better than anything we have at the center position. Turiaf is nice but is always injured. Don't even get me started with Jeffries - I don't care how much he does for our defense.

Beggars can't be choosers when it comes to centers and this team.

earthmansurfer wrote:

Markji wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Jerome Jordan is a NBA scrub. Please lets not depend on him to do anything but collect splinters.

And you base this on???????

Give the kid a chance. We are not expecting a Dwight Howard, but he surely has the potential to be at least a very good rotation player if not a starter on some team in the league.

I wish people would back their comments with more than "he's a scrub", "he's a bum", etc. I don't get it. Jordon was pretty well regarded coming out of college and has a year of professional experience under his belt. He is bigger and faster now, and as the article said, he is driving more (didn't really do that in college.) Considering his insane shooting percentage, that is great news.

I'd almost say he is better than anything we have at the center position. Turiaf is nice but is always injured. Don't even get me started with Jeffries - I don't care how much he does for our defense.

Beggars can't be choosers when it comes to centers and this team.

Papabear Says

I agree with you. Beggars cannot be choosers. Some of these guys act as though we have a choice. Well we have no choice. Some say leave it up to Walsh. Walsh ain't merical worker. it is what it is.

Papabear wrote:

earthmansurfer wrote:

Markji wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Jerome Jordan is a NBA scrub. Please lets not depend on him to do anything but collect splinters.

And you base this on???????

Give the kid a chance. We are not expecting a Dwight Howard, but he surely has the potential to be at least a very good rotation player if not a starter on some team in the league.

I wish people would back their comments with more than "he's a scrub", "he's a bum", etc. I don't get it. Jordon was pretty well regarded coming out of college and has a year of professional experience under his belt. He is bigger and faster now, and as the article said, he is driving more (didn't really do that in college.) Considering his insane shooting percentage, that is great news.

I'd almost say he is better than anything we have at the center position. Turiaf is nice but is always injured. Don't even get me started with Jeffries - I don't care how much he does for our defense.

Beggars can't be choosers when it comes to centers and this team.

Papabear Says

I agree with you. Beggars cannot be choosers. Some of these guys act as though we have a choice. Well we have no choice. Some say leave it up to Walsh. Walsh ain't merical worker. it is what it is.

I dunno...he smuggled Moz out of the northern wastelands of Russia last year....(how close did he live to Chernobyl?) ...so he may yet prove to be a merical worker

earthmansurfer wrote:

Markji wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Jerome Jordan is a NBA scrub. Please lets not depend on him to do anything but collect splinters.

And you base this on???????

Give the kid a chance. We are not expecting a Dwight Howard, but he surely has the potential to be at least a very good rotation player if not a starter on some team in the league.

I wish people would back their comments with more than "he's a scrub", "he's a bum", etc. I don't get it. Jordon was pretty well regarded coming out of college and has a year of professional experience under his belt. He is bigger and faster now, and as the article said, he is driving more (didn't really do that in college.) Considering his insane shooting percentage, that is great news.

I'd almost say he is better than anything we have at the center position. Turiaf is nice but is always injured. Don't even get me started with Jeffries - I don't care how much he does for our defense.

Beggars can't be choosers when it comes to centers and this team.

I think the reason he is called a bum and a scrub is because he looked like he would never be an nba player last summer in the summer leagues. I don't know if getting 15 minutes a night for a team in Serbia transforms him into an NBA player. The Knicks are doing the right thing at this point by him because he was nowhere near ready last year. My guess is that he needs at least another year in Europe and then I still would not have high expectations for him.

We'll get a better idea of what he can do this summer. The only thing about that article that makes me uncomfortable is that the writer only included his scoring numbers. I suspect that if his rebounds and blocks were as impressive, he would have included that info.

CrushAlot wrote:

earthmansurfer wrote:

Markji wrote:

AnubisADL wrote:Jerome Jordan is a NBA scrub. Please lets not depend on him to do anything but collect splinters.

And you base this on???????

Give the kid a chance. We are not expecting a Dwight Howard, but he surely has the potential to be at least a very good rotation player if not a starter on some team in the league.

I wish people would back their comments with more than "he's a scrub", "he's a bum", etc. I don't get it. Jordon was pretty well regarded coming out of college and has a year of professional experience under his belt. He is bigger and faster now, and as the article said, he is driving more (didn't really do that in college.) Considering his insane shooting percentage, that is great news.

I'd almost say he is better than anything we have at the center position. Turiaf is nice but is always injured. Don't even get me started with Jeffries - I don't care how much he does for our defense.

Beggars can't be choosers when it comes to centers and this team.

I think the reason he is called a bum and a scrub is because he looked like he would never be an nba player last summer in the summer leagues. I don't know if getting 15 minutes a night for a team in Serbia transforms him into an NBA player. The Knicks are doing the right thing at this point by him because he was nowhere near ready last year. My guess is that he needs at least another year in Europe and then I still would not have high expectations for him.

Thx Crush, I didn't realize he looked so bad last year. They say he isn't so athletic, but the way our team is now (moving more to a half court game) I wonder if it matters as much... Hoping we get something in this draft - That 16 year old Alex Kennedy is saying we are going for a shooter at 17 and center in the 2nd round. (He has been right a few times before.) I can't argue that but 2 drafts in a row passing on good pg's might bight us.

In order to get stat information about european players I would recommend you that page(that for Jordan's stats):http://www.eurobasket.com/player.asp?Cnt...

He has demonstrated an acceptable level for an unexperienced and begginer basketball player in really competitive leagues as Serbian and Adriatic one, in which his team also competed. He has developed some skills but I really think that in order to be ready to contribute in NBA he should bulk up, gain strength.

You can see a remarkable action by Jerome in Hemofarm:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2NlOYZ9j...

Quentovic wrote:In order to get stat information about european players I would recommend you that page(that for Jordan's stats):http://www.eurobasket.com/player.asp?Cnt...

He has demonstrated an acceptable level for an unexperienced and begginer basketball player in really competitive leagues as Serbian and Adriatic one, in which his team also competed. He has developed some skills but I really think that in order to be ready to contribute in NBA he should bulk up, gain strength.

You can see a remarkable action by Jerome in Hemofarm:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2NlOYZ9j...

Papabear Says

If he was this bad why did we draft him?

I am really hoping this guy can come in and contribute right away (although he may need another year in europe).

maybe its because of walsh's history, maybe it's because we share the same nationality....? i dont know. we need a BIG man.

he seems like a good guy, focused and his body looks capable of adding more muscle.

I don't think he has completed a bad season as I can assure you that playing in the Serbian league for a NCAA player as his first professional experience is quite complicated.He is now an overall better player than he was last year, but in Europe isn't paid much attention to gym work. And he needs to bulk up.

Why did we draft him? He has shown more than Zoubek, Alabi, Richards, Orton.Parakhouski has put up decent numbers in Latvian league,which is weaker than the Serbian one, but he isn't capable of running the floor. Jeff Foote is a rotation player of a second Spanish division team.Varnado has also played in Italian second league. I don't think that we made any mistake about drafting this guy and I would give him the opportunity to, at least, be tested for Nba level.