CrushAlot wrote:I guess I can only go by what I have seen so far. He appears to be pretty clueless in setting up a roster that compliments each other. He has no regard for continuity although you could argue that you can't have continuity if you bring in the wrong guys in trades and free agency. He has accidentally tanked three times. He gets credit for getting two lottery picks in the draft but his intent was to build a winner all three times. I am pretty comfortable with my conclusion that the team isn't going to win with him running things.
Steve Kerr did a few interviews when he was no longer the GM of the Suns and he was very candid and the interviews are really worth listening to, although they cover a previous CBA era and a different style of league in general at the time and place.
He pointed out that most NBA front offices understand that they are making signings and trades that aren't actually "good moves" but that with a limited talent pool, an actual salary floor and a directive to "do something" that teams have to do the best they can with the given players that would sign with them as free agents.
He also pointed out part of a GMs job is to manage the expectations of your coach and your owner, because your owner might demand you do this and that, and you know it's bad for your team, but you have orders to do it. Also there is a lot of pressure from the coach to get guys who can help right now, while a GM has to think 3-5 years from now as well, a coach is just worried about his job, this year and four years from now, odds are he won't be there.
Kerr said every front office runner or GM understands that they will 99.99999 percent of the time, only be buying time until they are fired. He said there is always inherent danger in trying to keep your job instead of doing your job, and that's not always the same thing. He also covered the struggle to make a "good basketball decision", one for the greater good of winning, and a "good marketing decision" one designed to sell tickets and advertising and keep the money flowing as a business.
Jackson inherited a "clumsy" roster with limited future assets and cap problems based on aging/injured/lazy guys who needed to to be shed off the roster. Not his fault.
He simply did not help himself much. His fault. He has and had limitations, that being said, he came into this job with no front office experience and it shows badly.
Melo doesn't have complete control over the roster and that Jackson got hired, nor does he pick the coach, not his fault
Melo doesn't play team ball, fails to show any kind of leadership and is a selfish player/coach killer. He's not helping himself much. In this regard, this is his own fault.
Both are part of the bigger problem, both could have done more to help themselves, the Knicks would be clearly better off in the future with both gone.
Right now, both sides are using the press to try to get the other one gone from the franchise. It doesn't look like either are going anywhere. Whomever wins, the fans lose.
