Are you ready for a front-office conspiracy theory of Machiavellian proportions? I put it to you that Knicks executive Steve Mills not only purposely dragged his feet on the GM search until all the high-profile free agents were signed, but also personally ate up all the cap space on the ridiculous Tim Hardaway Jr contract in order to cement his position on the Knicks throne. In one fell swoop Mills queered the pitch for anyone else wanting to take the GM job, so that Mills would be forced into functioning until further notice as both President and GM. It was a pathetic, destructive power move by an endlessly recycled executive who was tired of watching from the shadows all these years while higher-profile names made all the basketball decisions.
Knicks owner James Dolan is notoriously loyal to his small band of cronies, such as Isiah Thomas, Steve Mills and Allan Houston. They've held various titles within the MSG organization, and would seem to be better suited roaming the halls at Goodyear, Exxon or any other corporation where success is measured in dollar signs not championships. Dolan and his boys somehow seem immune to the wails of the Knicks' loyal put-upon fan base railing against their lack of success year after year. I almost envy their social-media isolationism. It seems unbelievable yet somehow the Knicks front office appears to be a bunker within which no dissenting outside opinion gets heard. Dolan is no different from a thousand other executives who surround themselves with yes men and eschew all critical thinkers, but what is different is that he hands power to his yes men based solely on personal feelings rather than a feel for personnel.
If Dolan felt Mills was the guy to take over for Phil Jackson, then he should have said that, promoted Mills, and empowered him to make all basketball decisions (God help us all). This includes taking who he wants in the draft. Are you telling me Phil was fireable a few days after the draft, yet not fireable a few days before the draft? Why not let Mills take who he wanted to draft. Let Mills live or die by that pick, by the Hardaway trade, and the rest of the team he curates. And make him attend press conferences to defend his actions. But if Dolan really wanted Mills to simply find a GM to make all basketball decisions, then Mills should not have been making any basketball decisions in the meantime. Are you telling me there isn't a clock ticking on trading Carmelo Anthony, yet there was a clock ticking on signing Tim Hardaway Jr? That's ridiculous. David Griffin knew this. He also knew this wasn't a real job offer. It was a PR move.
In today's NBA full autonomy is the only way to get anything done. It's been that way roughly since Pat Riley left the Knicks in 1995, in part because they wouldn't let him shop for the groceries with which he cooked up their NBA Finals-quality team. Riley walked away from a $3M-a-year offer because it was about power not money. The Knicks at the time (under President Dave Checketts) couldn't understand why Riley would turn down money. David Griffin just turned down what was probably quite a lot of money to sit in the GM chair and do nothing, and again the Knicks (under acting President Steve Mills) can't understand why. As Knick fans, we've gotten pretty good at recognizing a missed opportunity when we see one. There was Ricky Rubio last February, Dennis Smith Jr last month, and David Griffin last week.
