Phil Jackson Rumors | Hoops Rumors

More Notes On Phil Jackson Decision

March 8th, 2014 at 7:21pm CST by Cray Allred

Phil Jackson is expected to make a decision next week on whether to become the Knicks president of basketball operations, and the chatter and leaked information surrounding that decision continues to flood in this weekend. As we noted earlier, Jackson could be using the press to his advantage in negotiations, whether he is fueling the rumors directly or not. Here’s the latest on Jackson:

While Jackson is reportedly leaning towards accepting the Knicks job, New York GM Steve Mills said he can’t discuss the situation, per Marc Berman of The New York Post. A no-comment from Mills is actually noteworthy, relative to his public silence regarding the team this season.
The Knicks job is the only front office role Jackson is currently considering, per Ken Berger of CSBSports.com. A league source tells Berger that Jackson is considering the role in New York under the condition that the “setup is right,” and that he will have final say on basketball decisions. It’s possible that Jackson would want full assurance that owner James Dolan wouldn’t interfere or undermine his role, considering Dolan’s reputation as a meddler in team affairs.
A league source tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv that in addition to complete control, Jackson wants assurance that Carmelo Anthony will re-sign with the Knicks when he opts out as planned and becomes a free agent this offseason.
In the same piece, another league source disparaged Jackson’s temperament and lack of qualifications to become a GM to Zagoria. “Phil has never scouted, has zero agent relationships and can’t recruit. He should coach or go fishing in Montana and let the fish deal with his ego,“ the source said. “He’s not Pat Riley. Doesn’t have his charm or charisma and Riley became a full-time exec at 58, not 68 like Phil wants.”
A third league source was more optimistic regarding Jackson’s ability to succeed in New York, however. “He can be effective because he will surround himself with basketball people,” the source tells Zagoria.
The Knicks’ interest in bringing in Jackson lies in showcasing his championship pedigree to star free agents they will be pursuing in coming offseasons, a league source tells Frank Isola and Peter Botte of The New York Daily News.
Add Mike Vaccaro of The New York Post to the long list of people that think making Phil Jackson “The Big Guy” for the Knicks is a great idea.

Latest on Knicks, Phil Jackson

March 8th, 2014 at 4:55pm CST by Cray Allred

4:55pm: Jackson is leaning toward taking the Knicks job offer to become president of basketball operations, per Stephen A. Smith of ESPN.com. Smith’s source says it’s unclear if the role would include coaching the team next season. It was earlier reported that Jackson turned down a coaching offer with New York before the front office gig was extended.

12:40pm: In an update from a previous piece, Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports that Phil Jackson would be open to coaching for a short transition period, if it went along with the kind of front office role similar to Pat Riley‘s in Miami that Jackson is interested in. Jackson has managed to work the story on the Knicks job offer overwhelmingly to his benefit. He has everyone talking, with the media essentially negotiating on his behalf in public.

Mitch Lawrence of The New York Daily News believes the Knicks should give Jackson complete control over basketball activities, despite some potential pitfalls with Jackson’s disposition and lack of experience. Lawrence says having Jackson at the helm would be a better gamble than leaving it in the hands of current team executives. Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPNNewYork.com makes the same plea, saying that giving Jackson the keys to the franchise would provide hope to a fan base dealing with a disappointing season and bracing for another.

Before Friday night’s game, Carmelo Anthony, Amar’e Stoudemire, and J.R. Smith told reporters they weren’t in the loop on the Jackson talks, including Fred Kerber of The New York Post. Smith added that he thinks coach Mike Woodson is being treated unfairly. “I think he’s done a great job since he’s taken over. To have a bad year, I don’t think he should take the blame for everything. The players should take the blame for that and we should move on as a unit instead of singling people out,” said Smith.

While most are excited about Jackson’s return to the league, New York’s awkward steps up to this point are not being forgotten. Scott Cacciola of The New York Times writes that GM Steve Mills was planning on being more open with the media when the season began, but hasn’t publicly addressed anything about the team since October. With a dive to the bottom of the standings, trade speculation for multiple players, hot seat rumors regarding Woodson, and now the buzz around Jackson, the Knicks have remained silent while their players and coach take the brunt of the media’s questions.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.

Knicks Notes: ‘Melo, Jackson, Woodson

March 7th, 2014 at 10:33pm CST by Cray Allred

Over the last two days, we’ve heard about Joakim Noah recruiting Carmelo Anthony for the Bulls and the Knicks offering Phil Jackson a front office position. The news continues to have trickle effects–let’s take a look at the latest from New York:

A person with knowledge of the ‘Melo/Noah discussion tells Sam Amick of USA Today that the talk has been overblown, and suggested that Anthony’s camp might have leaked the discussion as an attempt to remind the Knicks that his departure in the offseason is a legitimate possibility.
Anthony denied to reporters, including Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv, that the alleged conversation occurred (Twitter link). Anthony said he “can’t” have those kinds of discussions, alluding to league tampering restrictions.
A source with knowledge of Jackson’s thinking tells Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com that he’s “ready to go back to work.”
In the same piece, Shelburne quotes Mike Woodson‘s comments to reporters about the Phil Jackson news: “I really don’t have an opinion on it. I really don’t. Again, as I sit here today, I am the coach of the New York Knicks. I am not going to entertain anything about Phil. I have a great deal of respect for Phil, but I am not going to entertain anything about Phil Jackson.”
Jackson has made it clear that he wants a Pat Riley-esque role with a team, tweets Shelburne. Riley has more power as team president of the Heat than a typical general manager, and built the behemoth that Miami has become after luring LeBron James and Chris Bosh to join Dwyane Wade.
Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders thinks that the Knicks talks with Jackson are early signs that they will make a splash and replace Mike Woodson this offseason. Jeff Van Gundy, Lionel Hollins, and Tom Thibodeau are some high profile names that have already been linked to the potential vacancy.
Nuggets coach Brian Shaw isn’t surprised to hear Jackson’s name as a front office candidate, telling Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com that the legend is more suited for that kind of role now. “I don’t think at this point that he would really have the energy to [coach],” Shaw said. “I think he would be more inclined to–in terms of constructing a team from top to bottom–be in more of an advisory role or a front-office role, where he can put his imprint on a team in that way.”

And-Ones: Lakers, Jackson, Bulls, ‘Melo

March 7th, 2014 at 5:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Lakers are privately concerned about the quality of the free agent market this summer, and they’re worried about the prospect of a third straight season outside of the title picture next year, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports. Stein’s note comes within a piece in which he and other ESPN.com writers examine the early-termination option decisions facing LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. Most of them believe the quartet of stars, all of whom are in the top 10 of our Free Agent Power Rankings, will indeed become free agents. While we look forward to the summer, here’s the latest from around the league:

Phil Jackson “went out of his way” to clarify in an interview with Sam Amick of USA Today that Joe Dumars made the decision last summer to hire Maurice Cheeks as Pistons coach, Amick writes. Jackson served as a consultant during the team’s coaching search last year, and Amick wonders if the Pistons would make a play to replace Dumars with Jackson, who reportedly has an offer to join the Knicks front office.
The Bulls haven’t begun to seriously crunch the numbers for a pursuit of Carmelo Anthony, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, downplaying the idea that Chicago is gearing up to chase the Knicks star.
League sources tell Berger that Nikola Mirotic will be seeking salaries worth $3-4MM from the Bulls this summer, as Berger writes in the same piece. That’s a surprise, since an earlier report indicated that Mirotic would probably ask for significantly more than the mid-level exception, worth a starting salary of $5.305MM next season.
The Wolves were in deadline talks about trading J.J. Barea, but they aren’t so eager to get rid of him that they’d waive him this summer and use the stretch provision on his more than $4.5MM salary for next season, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cites.

Knicks Offer Front Office Gig To Phil Jackson

March 7th, 2014 at 3:03pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks have offered Phil Jackson a job in their front office and he’s expected to make his decision next week, reports Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. Jackson has met with Knicks owner James Dolan about rejoining the franchise for which he won two championships during his playing career. The position would entail more than just consulting, a source tells Isola, though it’s unclear exactly what sort of role Jackson would play.

Knicks GM Steve Mills reportedly met with Jackson a couple of weeks ago about the team’s head coaching position, which Mike Woodson continues to occupy, but Jackson said he wasn’t interested in returning to the sidelines. Jackson was anxious to instead meet with Dolan, though apparently there are concerns about how the outspoken Jackson would mesh with the Knicks owner, who typically muzzles his front office employees. The 68-year-old Jackson is also set to undergo another knee replacement surgery, so his health is a concern.

Jackson has said on multiple occasions of late that a front office position would be more appealing to him than a coaching job, and he was apparently in line to run the basketball operations for the Kings if they had moved to Seattle last season. He also served as a consultant to the Pistons last summer when they chose Maurice Cheeks as coach, whom Detroit fired a month ago. Jackson says he’s remained an unpaid adviser to Pistons owner Tom Gores. He’s also engaged to Lakers co-owner Jeanie Buss, and he’s never worked in a formal capacity for any organization other than the Lakers since his relationship with Buss began more than a decade ago.

Jackson would be “handsomely compensated” in his job with the Knicks, Isola writes, though he doesn’t indicate just how much money would be on the table. Jackson signed for the highest coaching salary in NBA history when the Lakers lured him out of retirement in 2005, so it could take a significant outlay for the Knicks to do the same to bring him to their front office.

The hiring of Jackson could affect the team’s plans with Carmelo Anthony. Jackson pointed to Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire when he called the team’s roster “clumsy” last year, Isola notes.

Knicks Rumors: Anthony, Noah, Love

March 7th, 2014 at 2:19pm CST by Chuck Myron

Carmelo Anthony isn’t changing his mind about his desire to opt out of his contract this summer, a source tells Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, who adds that the Knicks, long confident about keeping their star, are starting to worry. Windhorst nonetheless believes Anthony would be better served opting in for 2014/15 and testing free agency next year, when a more attractive list of teams will have cap flexibility. Here’s more on a Knicks franchise producing more news than victories these days:

Joakim Noah calls the report that he attempted to recruit Anthony to the Bulls “gossip,” but when asked whether it’s accurate, he said the answer doesn’t matter, observes Aggrey Sam of CSNChicago.com. Sam hears that Anthony also had a conversation with Kevin Love, though Sam doesn’t make it entirely clear if they spoke about teaming up.
The Knicks will place their D-League affiliate in Westchester, New York, Jonah Ballow of Knicks.com confirms via Twitter. A formal announcement is due Monday. A report late last month indicated a Knicks-owned affiliate in Westchester was in the works to replace New York’s relationship with the Erie BayHawks, who will remain but have a different NBA affiliation next season.
The “general consensus” when the Knicks hired GM Steve Mills was that they would eventually seek a talent evaluator to complement him, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com, who wonders if that’s the role the team is considering for Phil Jackson.

Knicks GM, Phil Jackson Met About Coaching Job

March 7th, 2014 at 12:36pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:36pm: Jackson had wanted to meet with Knicks owner James Dolan instead of Mills, as Broussard noted in his report, but Jackson would be leery of working for Dolan, a source tells Marc Berman of the New York Post. Berman also hears that Jackson needs another knee replacement surgery and raises the specter that he could serve the team as a consultant on its coaching search, as he did with the Pistons last summer.

12:05pm: The Knicks would consider offering Jackson a front office position, a source tells Frank Isola of the New York Daily News.

10:35am: Knicks GM Steve Mills and Phil Jackson had a meeting about two weeks ago about the possibility of the Zen Master taking over as Knicks coach, reports Stephen A. Smith of ESPN.com. Jackson told Mills he wasn’t interested, Smith hears. Jackson recently issued yet another denial of the notion that he’ll ever come back to coach in an interview with Sam Amick of USA Today. The Knicks are reportedly planning to keep coach Mike Woodson until the end of the season and make an offseason search for a marquee coach part of its pitch to Carmelo Anthony, who can opt out of his contract and leave as a free agent this summer.

Jackson, 68, has repeatedly downplayed the idea that he would return to coaching, leaving a degree of wiggle room in those statements but making it clear that he prefers a front office role. The Knicks have Mills and assistant GM Allan Houston, whom they’re reportedly grooming as a future GM, already in the front office, so it’s unlikely there’d be room for Jackson to have much of a say in the team’s personnel decisions.

The team is reportedly eyeing Tom Thibodeau, Jeff Van Gundy and Stan Van Gundy, too, though Thibodeau will still be under contract with the Bulls this summer, and it doesn’t appear as though he’s going to force his way out of that deal. Stan Van Gundy won’t rule out coaching next season if there’s an overwhelming opportunity, but he’s unlikely to come back to the sidelines. Jeff Van Gundy would probably be interested in returning to his old job, but if he insists on having any control over personnel matters, that could complicate the team’s pursuit.

Eastern Rumors: Jackson, Riley, Muscala

March 3rd, 2014 at 9:39am CST by Chuck Myron

The Eastern Conference’s glut of struggling teams means the worst clubs in the Western Conference have an advantage as they jockey for lottery position, explains Tom Ziller of SB Nation. East teams don’t have to play as many heavies as their Western Conference counterparts do, leading to more wins and fewer ping-pong balls. That helps perpetuate the East’s mediocrity year after year, Ziller writes. Here’s more from the NBA’s weaker side:

Phil Jackson tells Sam Amick of USA Today that he remains an “unpaid adviser” to Pistons owner Tom Gores. Jackson, who reiterates that he doesn’t want to coach again, helped the team with its search for former coach Maurice Cheeks, who was fired a couple of weeks ago.
Another championship coach is feeling no urge to get back to the sidelines, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel observes. “I’m six years out of coaching right now,” Heat president Pat Riley said. “Look at me, man, I’m full of vitality to have some fun. Six years ago, when I was coaching, I would wake up 5:00 a.m. and it was dark and I was depressed. Not anymore.”
The contract that Mike Muscala signed with the Hawks last week is a four-year pact for the minimum salary, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reveals. This year is fully guaranteed and next season is partially guaranteed for $408K, but the deal otherwise contains no guaranteed salary, Pincus tweets. There’s a team option on the final year.
Gerald Wallace expressed his displeasure with winding up on a rebuilding Celtics team when the Nets traded him to Boston this summer, but the veteran says he enjoyed his first year in green, as he tells Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe. “I just hope the fans didn’t take offense to me saying I didn’t want to be here as me not wanting to be a part of the organization,” said Wallace, who’s out for the season with a knee injury. “My main thing was the rebuilding process, I didn’t want to go through a whole rebuilding process where you have to start all over 13 years into my career.”

Aldridge’s Latest: Gordon, Jackson, Monroe

February 10th, 2014 at 12:37pm CST by Chuck Myron

TNT’s David Aldridge’s lengthy “Morning Tip” column on NBA.com has a strong trade deadline focus this week, as is only appropriate with 10 days left before the big day. We’ll dive into the highlights here:

The Pelicans have been shopping Eric Gordon “for a while,” Aldridge writes, but an opposing GM says they’re not finding takers because rival teams realize that injuries have cut into the 25-year-old’s athleticism.
Aldridge expects the Pistons to try to convince Phil Jackson, who served as a special advisor to the team this summer, to coach the club, but Aldridge notes it’s unlikely the Zen Master would do so.
The Pistons aren’t giving up Greg Monroe unless it’s part of a blockbuster trade, and they’re hoping they can re-sign him this summer to a contract similar to the four-year, $49.4MM deal that Serge Ibaka inked with the Thunder in 2012. If not, Aldridge expects the Pistons to swallow hard and match a max offer sheet from another team.
Kyle Lowry will probably remain with the Raptors through the deadline, but that’s not an indication that the Raptors are willing to pay a heavy price to re-sign him this summer, Aldridge writes.
Aldridge hears plenty of trade chatter surrounding Kenneth Faried, and though the Nuggets deny it, Aldridge thinks there could be something to it. He’s up for an extension this summer, and if he doesn’t get one, he’ll be a restricted free agent in 2015. Denver wouldn’t be willing to give him an outsized payday as it stands, given its concerns about his defense, Aldridge writes.
Grizzlies management is high on Ed Davis, who’ll be a restricted free agent this summer, and Aldridge examines how that affects the team’s willingness to retain Zach Randolph. Aldridge says the Wizards would prefer to acquire Davis rather than Randolph if they had a choice.
Patty Mills will be a free agent at season’s end, but even amid increased playing time with the Spurs this season, he’s giving no thought to leaving for another team where he could have a larger role or make more money, according to Aldridge.

Cavs Rumors: Jackson, Karl, Griffin, Brown

February 7th, 2014 at 9:31am CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs are eyeing Phil Jackson and George Karl, but they’d like to see interim GM David Griffin and coach Mike Brown step up and keep their jobs, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio (Twitter links). Ostensibly, Jackson, who’s said he’s done with coaching, would be a candidate for the GM job, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com suggested Thursday, while Karl would be sought for a return to the Cavs bench, where he served as coach in the 1980s. In any case, the final three months of the season are an on-the-job audition for Griffin and the “last chance saloon” for Brown, Amico writes. Here’s more on the Cavs, a day after they fired GM Chris Grant:

Dan Gilbert’s assertion Thursday that the Cavs have what they need to be successful prompts Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal wonder why Grant took the fall for the team’s woes.
The time to fire Grant was this past spring, not two weeks before the trade deadline, argues fellow Beacon scribe Marla Ridenour, who thinks Gilbert should shoulder responsibility for the franchise’s shortcomings.
Grant didn’t put up results in his time in Cleveland, but the team’s playoff aspirations for this season were misplaced, SB Nation’s Tom Ziller writes.
Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group centers his proposal for upgrading the Warriors on a pair of trade ideas involving the Cavaliers. Cleveland is in much the same desperate position Golden State was a few years ago when it acquired David Lee, Kawakami believes, suggesting Lee could serve the Cavs in a similar role as a bridge to more successful times.