How Each Potential Replacement for Phil Jackson Would Guide Knicks into Future
Whoever takes over the New York Knicks' top personnel job in the wake of Phil Jackson's departure will have at least one thing working in his favor: It'll be hard to do any worse than Jackson did.
That sounds like a challenge—one the Knicks, of all franchises, seem most capable of accepting.
But even if Jackson's successor botches draft picks, gets scammed in trades and alienates his best players, at least he won't do it with immeasurable hubris and a doomed adherence to a dead offensive style.
So that's something.
The Knicks, despite nearly two decades of folly and meddlesome management, are still a draw. Prospective executives know owner James Dolan's reputation, but having seen the autonomy he foolishly granted Jackson, perhaps many of them will want to work for a leader who maybe, just maybe, is realizing he doesn't know enough to get involved.
That sounds like another dare.
There are big names floating around, which is a testament to the lingering appeal of working in New York and, perhaps, the knowledge that the standards in Jackson's wake are low.
A fatalist might say the Knicks have just one future ahead, that they'll never figure it out, regardless of whom they hire. But assuming there's not a curse on the franchise, there are several possibilities ahead—all different, and all dependent on the next hire.
Here's how they'd look.
Isiah Thomas
1 of 5
If there's an exception to the "it can't get worse" concept, this is it.
Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reports Isiah Thomas is a dark-horse candidate to regain the president's gig he so royally corrupted from 2003 to 2008.
The imagined future in a Thomas 2.0 regime is bleak. It's not a post-apocalyptic, ashen wasteland with roving bands of cannibals and no discernible rule of law. But, you know, pretty close.
Thomas' indiscretions with the Knicks included (but were not limited to) trading for a washed-up Steve Francis, surrendering two first-round picks for Eddy Curry, a 56-108 record as coach from 2006 to '08 and the role of defendant in a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Things...didn't go well.
Expecting something different is a mistake. If forced to imagine what Thomas might do to the roster, you'd have to anticipate short-sighted trades for big-name veterans who are past their prime, the marginalization of youth and little sense of how damaging overlapping skill sets can be. Remember, that Francis trade came after Stephon Marbury was already on the roster.
Kristaps Porzingis' dissatisfaction might morph into full disgust, and Frank Ntilikina's rookie season might involve loads of time on the bench.
Thomas is a Hall of Famer who has coached the Indiana Pacers to the playoffs twice and drafted well (Tracy McGrady stands out) in his tenure with the Raptors. He's had success in virtually every sphere. But awful things happen when he's involved with the Knicks.
For what it's worth, Thomas says he's not interested in the gig. But Knicks fans shouldn't relax until someone else officially takes the job.
Masai Ujiri
2 of 5
The Toronto Raptors elevated Masai Ujiri to president of basketball operations and gave him a new five-year contract in 2016, perhaps sensing the possibility that another club with deeper pockets and a higher profile might come calling for their widely respected executive.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, the Knicks are doing just that.
They want Ujiri to clean up Jackson's mess, sort out the dysfunction and salvage a franchise mired in embarrassment.
Ujiri must know working for the Knicks would mean entering a world of mismanagement—albeit one he exploited mercilessly.
Here's Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star: "He would be working for James Dolan, in his hereditary mad idiot kingdom. The culture at Madison Square Garden has been toxic for a long time. Ujiri knows. After all, he's the one who unloaded Carmelo Anthony there, and who fleeced them so badly on the Andrea Bargnani trade that Dolan nixed a Lowry trade in 2014. Funny how things work out."
So there's one potential concern in hiring Ujiri: Maybe he won't make so many deft moves if he doesn't have the Knicks standing by, forever waiting to be suckered.
Were Ujiri to take the job, it'd be good news for head coach Jeff Hornacek.
Dwane Casey remains employed by the Raptors, despite several years of disappointing playoff exits and an offensive style that runs counter to the NBA's broader emphasis on ball movement and efficient shooting. Casey has a .548 winning percentage, though, and Ujiri left him in place.
Hornacek, never a triangle man, had success with the Phoenix Suns before joining the Knicks. We should expect Ujiri to give him a chance. And if the results are there, Hornacek would be treated fairly.
In terms of personnel, Ujiri is flexible. He built a young roster with the Nuggets, flipped Anthony for assets, presided over several 50-win seasons, won Executive of the Year, and then left for the Raptors.
In Toronto, his greatest skill was pivoting. Trading Rudy Gay was supposed to initiate a teardown in 2013, one soon to be followed by a deal sending Lowry away. But the Raps rallied, and Ujiri embraced their new direction. Since then, Toronto has spent shrewdly (four years and $48 million for Lowry in 2014), taken big swings when warranted (Serge Ibaka) and reached the playoffs every year.
For a Knicks franchise defined by stubbornness, outdated thinking and an unwillingness to join the rest of the NBA world in the modern era, Ujiri's pragmatism and flexibility (not to mention his cutthroat skill in trade negotiations) would be a welcome change.
Sam Hinkie
3 of 5
It is October, days before the start of the 2017-18 season and several months into Sam Hinkie's tenure as Knicks president.
The offices at Madison Square Garden are already showing conspicuous signs of his organizational overhaul. Every stapler is gone, traded for two smaller staplers that won't arrive until 2020. The water coolers are missing, too. Separate jugs of hydrogen and oxygen have replaced them because, as Hinkie's memo stated, "diversification is the life's blood of success."
The roster is also demonstrably different.
Carmelo Anthony is gone, dealt away for nine second-rounders and the rights to an obscure Finnish center who has not yet completed the eighth grade. This player will go on to win six MVP awards and lead the Knicks to a pair of championships—but only after the Philadelphia 76ers team Hinkie built years earlier finally concludes its dynasty.
Porzingis is still around and is the oldest player left on the roster. Everyone over the age of 23 is gone—bought out, traded, stretched or sold to the little-known Siberian League. Joakim Noah wins an MVP there in 2019.
Hinkie has also traded Ntilikina for a future first and, yes, three more seconds.
If the Knicks are serious about doing things right, they'll hire Hinkie and embrace the long game. Unfortunately, everything about New York's recent past says it's not ready for years of losing, accumulation of assets and an economist's approach to roster building.
Too bad.
David Griffin
4 of 5
It's hard to say whether David Griffin's interest in the Knicks makes him the best candidate or the worst.
On the one hand, it indicates supreme confidence and a desire to solve impossible scenarios. Griffin has earned self-assurance, having skillfully crafted the Cleveland Cavaliers into a contender on the fly, adding pieces around LeBron James after the King's arrival flipped Cleveland's plan from rebuild to win now.
On the other, a desire to enter what seems like an unsolvable matrix of personal, personnel and structural problems might indicate a little too much confidence.
We know, though, that Griffin wants the gig, via ESPN.com: "Griffin has long coveted a big job like the Knicks and considers all of his experience in two-plus decades in the league as an apprenticeship for such a challenge."
Griffin has seen it all. Forget the Cleveland years; he spent 17 seasons with the Phoenix Suns, working as everything from a game-ops intern to a video coordinator to a scout. He finished as vice president of basketball operations, and his tenure spanned several successful seasons—including those that featured the famed "seven seconds or less" teams.
He'd fashion a buyout for Anthony (but keep communication open for a return when the time's right; more on that later) and build around Porzingis and Ntilikina while not going full tank like Hinkie would. It's unlikely Griffin would give the Knicks as high a ceiling as Hinkie, but he'd also avoid a deep, hopeless floor for a few years. Maybe that sounds like failure by half-measures, but in New York, a complete teardown might not fly.
Experience, years of relationships across the league and the comfort of working in a highly visible position with the Cavs make Griffin the safest, steadiest candidate.
And hey, maybe James, who endorsed Griffin on his way out of Cleveland, per ESPN.com's Dave McMenamin, might consider New York a good spot to end his career with his Banana Boat pals.
Worth a shot, right?
Brian Wright
5 of 5
As a general rule, if you can hire someone with front-office experience in the San Antonio Spurs organization, you do it.
That makes Brian Wright, the Spurs' assistant GM and second-in-command to R.C. Buford, a worthwhile candidate.
Wright has been in his post for just under a year after taking over for Sean Marks. Marks is building the Brooklyn Nets into a respectable organization again, adding assets on the cheap and somehow replenishing draft picks for a franchise that had none.
Again, when you can hire a Spurs executive, you do it.
Wright would bring San Antonio's no-nonsense approach to roster building. Egos and me-first thinkers would be unwelcome on his watch, and you could anticipate an expansion of the Knicks' international scouting. Basically, the ideal scenario would involve Wright's turning New York into another version of San Antonio—perhaps even installing Monty Williams, currently a Spurs exec, as head coach.
Whether a functional, collaborative operation like the one Wright would theoretically institute is possible under Dolan remains to be seen. But at the very least, a Spurs-lite approach would properly align the personnel-philosophy relationship.
Jackson spent years trying to cram ill-fitting pieces into his preferred style of play. Even if the triangle were still a viable system (it's not), this was the wrong way to construct a team.
San Antonio has dominated for decades by adjusting its schemes to fit its personnel. Maybe that means there's a way for Anthony to excel again. Maybe it unlocks Porzingis' unlimited potential. Regardless, we could expect Wright to reverse Jackson's backward thinking.
Stats courtesy of Basketball Reference or NBA.com.
