Month: June 2017

Posted on

David Griffin Very Much In The Mix For Knicks

Hello David Griffin, can you talk?

Update: 10:10pm

The Knicks  have made contact with David Griffin, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.

It appears the Knicks are doing their due diligence and wasting no time. 

It may not take long for the New York Knicks to find a replacement for Phil Jackson.

There’s a growing buzz that former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin has caught the attention of the Knicks.

A league source told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin that Jerry West – who once tried to hire ex-Cavaliers Gm David Griffin in Memphis – planned to reach out to Leiweke, who like West has former ties to the Los Angeles Lakers from his time working for AEG, to endorse Griffin as candidate to replace Jackson.

Griffin has long coveted a big job like the Knicks and considers all of his experience in two-plus decades in the league was an apprenticeship for such a challenge. – Ramona Shelburne of ESPN

The Leiweke, mentioned by Shelburne, would be Tim Leiweke of the Oak Hill Group. Leiweke, along with Knicks general manager Steve Mills, are running day-to-day operations of the team on an interim basis. Leiweke will have strong input on who the next team president will be.

David Griffin Is Available and Ready To Mingle

The Knicks need stability and, for the sake of everyone’s sanity, someone who knows what they’re doing. Griffin brings credibility to the table. Unlike Jackson, he has front office experience.

The Knicks could get Griffin without having to worry about compensation, he’s a front-office free agent. The same can’t be said for Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri, who’s very much under contract. The Knicks would almost certainly have to give up draft picks to get him. That’s not ideal, no matter  how much respect they have for him.

During his time in Cleveland, Griffin was instrumental in transforming the Cavaliers from contenders to a championship-level franchise. Cleveland went to the NBA Finals in each of the last three seasons with Griffin as their GM. They won the championship in the 2015-16 season, the team’s first ever title.

Griffin’s departure from the Cavaliers also didn’t go over well with LeBron James, according to reports. James stepped up for Griffin, that’s a strong indication of the level of respect he’s earned.

It can’t hurt to pickup the phone and see just how interested Griffin is in the position. This would be the big-market gig he reportedly has been looking for. It would also likely come with a significant pay raise, which he couldn’t secure in Cleveland.

The Knicks can’t afford to get this next hire wrong. Griffin’s available and ready to mingle.

Posted on

The Knicks Finally Pulled The Plug On The Phil Jackson Era

The Knicks finally pulled the plug on Phil Jackson. The team announced both sides would be parting ways, effective immediately.

The news comes at a time where, once again, the Knicks were dangerously close to forcing their fanbase to pull their plug on supporting them. Has there ever been a team, like this, that can find more ways to blow it?

Jackson is already in the history books as one of the greatest NBA coaches ever, it’s just too bad he was unable to transfer some of that over to the front office. He’ll go down arguably as one of the worst team presidents in history.

If Jackson needed a reason for being shown the door, all the Knicks had to do was point to the numbers. In just his first ever role in a front office position, Jackson finished with a record of 80-166. It was three seasons of destroy and rebuild during his tenure, no playoff games, and the complete opposite of the stability fans were hoping a man with his resume would bring.

Numbers never lie but, in the Knicks case, there was so much more which led to the end.

Phil Jackson, The Triangle, The Drama

Jackson’s insistence on having the Knicks run the triangle offense, a system none of the players seemed to ever buy into, stunted any progress they tried to build off of. The Knicks, during Jackson’s three-year run, revamped their roster three times to try and find the right mix of players for the triangle — it never worked.

Carmelo Anthony (Image: Getty)

Jackson came away with $60 million dollars for running the Knicks further into the ground. I’d find it very hard to believe  he’d ever say he had trouble sleeping after all this. If anything may haunt Jackson it could be when he decided to give Carmelo Anthony a no-trade clause. Anthony’s still around, at least for now, while Jackson’s not.

There was the triangle, the Carmelo saga, the exit meeting with Kristaps Porzingis which never happened and it’s aftermath. The list reads like a manual on what not to do as team president. Perhaps someone should have given Jackson one before he said yes to the job.

Remember when all Jackson had to do was draw up a play then put his hands up to signal the triangle?  He’d then tell his team to give the ball to number’s 23, 34, 8, or 24.

But Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant were not coming through the doors of Madison Square Garden. Neither was Steve Kerr, Jackson’s first choice to teach the Knicks about the triangle.

The Knicks hiring Jackson sounded like a good idea, then quickly became another mess. It was another toxic situation for the Knicks with no end in sight.

The argument can be made Jackson never really wanted the job to begin with. He was inept at hiring a head coach to do the job he wanted no parts of.

Three years, three head coaches, and $60 million dollars later – the Knicks find themselves right back in familiar territory.

It’s time to start over, again.

Posted on

D’Angelo Russell Can Start Fresh With The Brooklyn Nets

It was just two years ago D’Angelo Russell was the number two pick in the NBA draft. The Los Angeles Lakers had high hopes for a bright future with Russell, however it didn’t take long for those hopes to turn into faded pictures.

Inconsistent play, along with fallout from video of a private conversation with teammate Nick Young going public, only made it harder for the Lakers to justify Russell as a key to their future. The emergence of Lonzo Ball as an option for Magic Johnson’s first draft pick as team president sealed the deal for Russell’s departure.

While the Lakers were pinning their future on Russell two years ago, the Brooklyn Nets were  finishing a 21-61 season. Players were let go, coaches were fired, and general managers were — reassigned. The Nets followed that up with another 62-loss campaign this past season.

The rebuild is in full swing for the Nets and, with limited options to upgrade, they have to remain creative in pursuing young talent to help build a new foundation.  That means when a 21-year old talent, like Russell, becomes available you do your due diligence to bring him in.

Getting Russell, along with former Knick Timofey Mozgov, cost the Nets Brook Lopez and the 27th pick in this year’s draft. The Nets will miss Lopez, he was the face of their franchise, a class act, and the team’s all-time leading scorer. With all of that, it was time to part ways. Nets general manager Sean Marks and head coach Kenny Atkinson rolled the dice on Russell and the timing couldn’t have been better.

The Brooklyn Nets introduce D’Angelo Russell and Timofey Mozgov to the NYC media. (Image: Brooklyn Nets)

D’Angelo Russell, The Nets, And The Chip On His Shoulder

Johnson, while thanking Russell for his time and service, also emphasized he needs a team leader. It’s one thing when your employer calls you out in front of everyone, but it stings that much more when that employer also happens to be an NBA legend.

“I think he’s got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder,” Atkinson said about his new point guard. “I can see that already. I don’t think he’s boasting about that. He even said, ‘I’m not trying to prove people wrong. I’m trying to control my situation.’

“But it shows by being in the gym and his hunger to get better. I kind of like that there’s a little bit of a chip there.”

That chip on Russell’s shoulder should stay there for at least the next ten years. If that serves as fuel for the fire then so be it.

Russell has the right mindset in worrying only about what he can control. The Nets, in Atkinson, have one of the best developmental coaches in the game. It’ll be intriguing to see how he plans to use Russell in his up-tempo offense.

Opportunity is knocking for D’Angelo Russell to put the past behind him. He can start fresh with a team that’s ready to give him every tool necessary to succeed.