NY Knicks: 5 Personnel Decisions They Need to Make This Summer

As a long-suffering Knicks fan, I've lived and died by the offseason for nearly 10 years.  I've seen good draft picks gone bad, horrible free agent contracts, and easily the most frustrating front office in the entire NBA.  This offseason should be no exception, and that's where things get complicated.

As of now, the NBA is still in the middle of what is sure to be a long and painful lockout.  Teams cannot contact players, trade players, or hold workouts. 

It's gotten so bad to the point where representation for the owners is meeting with the players' union (or what's left of it) this week for the first time in nearly a month. 

To add insult to injury, NBA All-Stars like Deron Williams and Kobe Bryant are considering playing overseas until the labor situation here is resolved.

However, I am an optimist and refuse to let two selfish parties get in the way of me discussing what my team needs to do when the offseason begins. 

The Knicks have quite the to-do list to complete before next season, and an abbreviated offseason might not be enough time to do so.

The biggest needs are in the personnel department.  Here are five moves that team ownership and management need to make if the Knicks are to go back to the playoffs next season.

No. 5: Hire Mike Woodson as an Assistant Coach

After playing in the NBA for 11 seasons, Mike Woodson pursued a coaching career.  He landed his first and to date only head-coaching gig with the Atlanta Hawks in 2004 and won 13 games in his first season. 

Yet, for the next five years, Woodson's teams improved little by little and eventually became perennial playoff contenders, thanks to talented players like Joe Johnson and Josh Smith.

Yet, following the 2009-2010 season, Hawks GM Rick Sund announced that Woodson would not receive a new contract despite leading the team to 53 wins that year as well as reaching the Eastern Conference Semifinals. 

He is currently a finalist for the Minnesota Timberwolves coaching job, but Knicks team management should make a strong push to to hire Woodson as an assistant.

The facts are simple.  Woodson is the type of coach I like to refer to as an alchemist, as in he takes something with little to no value and basically turns it into something nearly priceless. 

Looking at his tenure in Atlanta, he turned a team with nobody into the one that easily has the most dangerous Starting Five in the NBA.

That isn't to say that the Knicks don't have anything special now, but Woodson teaches the perfect balance of offense and defense. 

In the event that incumbent coach Mike D'Antoni is fired following next season, Woodson could then be promoted and perhaps Knicks fans will finally have reason to cheer during the playoffs again.

No. 4: Make Toney Douglas the Starting Shooting Guard

For the majority of last season, the Knicks' starting 2-guard was rookie Landry Fields.  A second-round pick out of Stanford, Fields averaged 9.7 points and 6.4 rebounds as he showed uncanny ability on defense as well as a deadly three-point shot. 

However, he cooled off during the second half of the season and somehow lost the electrifying presence he first exhibited at the start of the year.

That isn't to say that Fields is a bad player, but going forward it might be better for the coaching staff to start Toney Douglas at shooting guard. 

At 6'2", Douglas is built more like a point guard and small for the position compared to Fields, who is 6'7".  However, Douglas has shown great ability to be a threat with the ball at any spot on the floor.

Douglas can drive hard to the basket to draw a foul, play decent defense and has proven to be a deadly three-point shooter.  If he can adjust to playing starter minutes and contribute accordingly, then the Knicks will have a powerful starting lineup.

No. 3: Lure Nene Away from Denver

Back in 2002, the Knicks had the No. 7 pick in the draft.  They used it to draft power forward/center Nene Hilario out of Brazil.  At long last, it seemed that the team had found the big man who would fill the void left by Patrick Ewing.

Yet, Scott Layden was the GM at the time and he made one of his signature bone-headed moves.  Instead of keeping Nene and developing him, he immediately traded him to the Denver Nuggets along with Marcus Camby.  In return, the Knicks received Antonio McDyess.

Nene and Camby went on to become valuable contributors in Denver, but McDyess was a disaster in New York.  That very preseason, he fractured his knee wand missed the entire regular season. 

He only appeared in 18 games in 2002 before being shipped to Phoenix in the now infamous Stephon Marbury trade.

Nearly 10 years have passed, and the Knicks still need a top center.  Nene opted out of his contract shortly before the lockout began and with the money the Knicks may have available, they should pursue him full force.

To put it bluntly, Nene is the best option available at center this offseason.  He has great size at 6'11" and 250 pounds and more importantly, he is the type of player who could flourish in Mike D'Antoni's run-and-gun offense.  Last season, he averaged 14.5 points and 7.6 rebounds per game.

In a sense, he would be the perfect big man to help Amare Stoudemire in the low post.

No. 2: Trade Chauncey Billups for a Real Point Guard

Chauncey Billups is one of the greatest point guards in NBA history.  He is a great leader, has an NBA championship under his belt, and has proven to be one of the most charismatic players in the league. 

However, one of his better attributes is his electrifying three-point shooting, thus his nickname, "Big Shot Billups."

Billups came over from Denver last season in the Carmelo Anthony trade and was immediately placed into the starting lineup.  In 21 games with the Knicks, Billups was a top shooter who averaged 17.5 points per game.  However, that was the one problem with the veteran point guard.  All he did was shoot the ball.

Instead of taking advantage of the two scoring threats he had at his disposal, in this case Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, Billups opted to instead put up three-pointer after three-pointer.

Thus, it's no wonder that he shot just 33 percent from beyond the arc as a Knick, down from his career percentage of 39.

On top of that, Billups is going to be 35 at the start of next season (whenever that may be) and will be paid $14 million. 

Given how Mike D'Antoni's offense is designed for a point guard who not only shoots well but also averages a high number of assists, it's time for the front office to start shopping Billups, who only averaged 5.5 assists per game as a Knick.

Given how elite point guards like Tony Parker and Steve Nash could potentially be available via trades, finding a taker for Billups should prove to be a manageable task.

No. 1: Hire Kevin Pritchard as General Manager

Say what you want about how the team looks on the court.  We all know it's obvious that the Knicks' biggest need is off the court and that a shakeup in the front office is needed.

Isiah Thomas may be physically gone, but his influence still haunts the halls and offices of Madison Square Garden and whispers ridiculous instructions to team owner James Dolan. 

In fact, when the Knicks traded for Carmelo Anthony last winter, rumor has it that Thomas was a key member of the negotiating process. 

Donnie Walsh may have been team president and the man running the front office the past few seasons, but the fact that he left the team after so greatly improving the roster is very telling. 

Simply put, he could not deal with Dolan any longer and right now the Knicks need a GM who won't be afraid to put the most incompetent owner in all of sports in his place.  At age 70, Walsh just isn't that man anymore.

That is where former Portland Trail Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard comes in.  This is the same man who drafted the likes of Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum to help get the Trail Blazers back to the playoffs. 

On top of that, the 44-year-old Pritchard has developed a reputation as a driven and hard-nosed executive, even showing something of a mean streak during negotiations.

Despite his intense nature, Pritchard is the perfect man to be running the Knicks' front office.  He would bring a "take no prisoners" approach to all trade negotiations and settle for nothing but the best when it came to the roster. 

More importantly, he would most definitely keep Dolan from getting too involved in roster decisions.

That all being said, the hard-nosed Pritchard is the man who could best re-establish the Knicks as a force to be reckoned with.