The New York Knicks have already fired head coach David Fizdale. At the moment, it doesn’t seem like team president Steve Mills is far behind as “several members of the organization said this week that they fully expect Mills will be replaced as team president at the end of the season — if not sooner — unless the club somehow turns things around,” according to Ian Begley of SNY.
What exactly would constitute a turnaround at this point is unclear. The 5-20 Knicks are at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, and are currently 6.5 games behind the Orlando Magic for the No. 8 seed in the playoff picture. Reaching the postseason is therefore likely out of the question, but passing fellow lottery teams like the Washington Wizards and Cleveland Cavaliers is a reasonable goal only in that those teams seemingly have less incentive to win than these Knicks.
Begley added that while general manager Scott Perry is tied to Mills, he would likely be retained for the remainder of the season even if Mills were let go. Ideally, their fates would be decided jointly. A point of contention with prior executive hires and interviewees has been autonomy. Phil Jackson, for instance, was forced to accept Mills as his general manager, and David Griffin would have been forced to keep the existing basketball operations staff had he joined the Knicks. Leaving even a shred of doubt in the minds of a potential replacement over their level of autonomy in running the Knicks could make hiring a top executive even more difficult.
Masai Ujiri has been the name thrown around most, but Begley also mentions Sam Presti of the Oklahoma City Thunder as someone who “has fans within the organization.” Either would be a slam dunk hire for a franchise that has not had a top executive with a true track record since Donnie Walsh’s run nearly a decade ago, but their ability to lure that kind of talent remains in doubt.
Still, a willingness to actually evaluate Mills on merit is a step forward for the Knicks. His credentials were questionable upon his hiring to begin with, as he was a business executive prior to being given basketball decision-making power with New York, and he has presided over a period of unprecedented losing even by the Knicks standards. It seems as though James Dolan is finally ready to hold him accountable for that, and that is a victory for the franchise.
