David Griffin spoke with the Knicks about becoming the team’s next GM, but those talks have ended without a deal materializing, Marc. J. Spears of the Undefeated reports (ESPN Now link). Spears adds that Griffin pulled his name from consideration after he and the team couldn’t come to an agreement on the right role.
It was previously reported that the Knicks were opposed to letting Griffin bring in the same front office staff he had in Cleveland. The organization has several longstanding front office members and it didn’t want to displace many of those executives.
Team executive Steve Mills, who met with Griffin over the weekend, has been handling GM duties on an interim basis since the franchise fired Phil Jackson. New York hasn’t made any substantial player personnel moves this offseason with the exception of signing Tim Hardaway Jr. to a four-year, $71MM deal.
I don’t like the Knicks, and as long as they have this Front office structure they will suck. Dolan has Zero clue on how to hire a staff and let them do their job. Thank you Knicks for sucking.
Knew it was to good to be true
As long as Dolan is owner, they’ll never win…
what a disgrace!! but I guess this mean that Steve “71 million to Hardeway” Mills is it. who else would touch that job now? Adam Silver is a boob for letting this nonsense go on. One concern. Screwing Knick fans out of as much money as possible. This should be the flagship franchise of the NBA. Dolan is a joke. Mills is a joke. Silver is incompetent in handling this league disgrace. Hey Carmelo beg to get traded. They couldn’t agree on who make basketball related decisions??? Bahahahahahahaha!
Glad he didn’t take the job. Only thing he’s known for is trading/signing players that LeBron wanted to try and beat the Warriors.
Nobody has any idea if this guy can actually build a team. Rather see the Knicks go after a more accomplished GM/GM candidate.
So they should hire LeBron for GM?
how hard is this decision!!! Go get Hinkie and his people….give him complete control of the roster…sign the checks and eventually win….Dolan needs to fire everybody thats been associated with all of this losing….Mills, Gaines, Houston all need to go…this is an embarrassment!!!!
Can he start by firing himself?
Because Hinkie’s team eventually won?
Hinke? Anyone can tank. Still couldn’t put a team together. He’ll have drafted 1 high end starter as of now (assuming Embid stays healthy).
So zero.
To be fair, Hinkie did fleece some teams on embarrassingly lopsided trades. The Kings trade was an all time great deal and the MCW trade is hilarious looking back on it
Yes, but he also drafted MCW. He did fleece the Kings, but had they not won the 3rd spot in the lottery (luck) this past year, the swap right would expire, and its unclear if remaining 1st rounder will be any good. Key is he never brought back players in these deals, and his drafting wasn’t much beyond the top 3. They got almost nothing for Noel (not his trade, but he created the situation where Noel wouldn’t develop) and will eventually suffer the same fate with Okafor when his rookie contract is up. He left new management with a lot of assets, but nothing of a team.
I guess we just have to disagree on that one. The pick swap did convey, so you can’t just ignore that and MCW was drafted with the 11th pick in the draft. Not exactly a great track record of 11th overall picks becoming all star caliber players, let alone starters. And he basically flipped MCW into Fultz. Also the Magic trade to move back and draft Saric is looking like a steal. I agree that he isn’t the right guy for the Knicks job, but that doesn’t mean he did a bad job in Philly. You’re in the minority on that one DXC
For the 3+ years, he may have been (set up a real GM to put a team together). He, though, is not a long term choice to put a team together. The pick they got for MCW I believe is the Laker pick, which finally will vest in 2018. It (or the higher of their or Sac pick in 2019) goes to Boston, along with their pick swaped for Sac pick in 2017 (swap); so alot more than MCW to get them Fultz, and who knows if he have even made that deal.
DXC, not anyone can tank. You make it sound so easy. Hinkie turned tanking into an artform. He was so good at it, the other league owners wanted him gone. They didn’t care about the 76ers. They cared about their own pockets, because a big market team (the Philedelphia 76ers) was a joke and hurting the bottom line. Hinkie was so good at tanking the NBA wanted to change the rules. And guess what? It was worth it. They have more assets than they know what to do with, cap space and a talented promising young core.
Hinkie would be a dream scenario for NY, but NY culture and that buffoon Dolan doesn’t believe in “rebuilding” opting instead to go for quick fixes stemming back to the days they traded the expiring contract of Patrick Ewing for bad contracts that hurt their flexibility still sucking years to come.
Closest to “Rebuilding” the Knicks did in the last 20 years was Donnie Walsh who tried to put the team in a position to have enough cap space to sign Lebron in the Summer 2010. He failed but it was an admirable effort and I wish this team thought more like this in the long term but it will never happen
It’s Dolan culture, not NY culture. Most Knick fans I know would love to rebuild. But year over year shameless tanking is not only an embarassment to the league (and a violation of the unwritten business agreement any sports league is based, i.e., competition), it’s never been proven to work to build a championship team at least. Teams with a revolving door of high picks rarely mature into a great team. Many reasons. You can invest (development time and $$) in only so many young players, and a culture where all the best players are young is not a healthy one for development. I have no issue with tanking to a degree, but it needs to be combined with establishing a culture of competence and competitivness that’s essential for player development as well as team development. Hinke had no plan except acquring elite young talent. Did nothing (didn’t understand the need) to create a platform for them to succeed. That’s why he’s gone. And, YES, the draft rules should change. Why should the most inept teams be given the league’s best young assets year after year?
The world according to Dolan: I would rather have my own way and fail, than change my mind and succeed! MSG is hoops Mecca…too bad for Knicks fans. Isiah…then Jax…but turns down a competent Griffin. Stupid!
It all comes down to cronyism. I’m a Bulls fan, and it’s the same thing here.
Reinsdorf doesn’t care about winning, and is basically just running a guaranteed jobs program for his buddies.
It’s a shame how these owners have ruined arguably the two greatest franchises in the NBA.
Was the same deal with the Lakers, up until they hired Magic.
I think Griffin would’ve been a decent hire for the Knicks but I think ppl are over-inflating the accomplishments of Griffin. He might be a good GM but this team was a relatively easy one to construct.
a) Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson were drafted under a different GM’s tenure.
b) While the Cavs were previously looking to acquire Kevin Love prior to LBJ announced return, it’s not exactly wizardry to trade the T-Wolves what they wanted, which is that years #1 overall and the previous #1.
c) Griffin didn’t lure LBJ back. He just happened to be there when he did.
He did a solid job of attracting vets to come over but I think LBJ’s presence and influence had something to do with it too.
Griffin has nothing on his resume to indicate he can build a strong a team from the bottom. I’M NOT SAYING HE CAN’T but let’s not make him out to be the next Jerry West?
Another Knick team full of misfits.
It’s been a long time since the last championship and it will that long until the next
While Dolan is in charge! Oy Vay