GustavBahler wrote:After Mills being with the organization for decades, as president, as GM. Believe the question Dolan should be asking himself is, can I do better than Mills as team president? Are there better candidates out there? Are any of them getable? We thought Phil would be able to attract big names, but those big names almost universally did not want to play the Triangle. Phil wasnt much of a recruiter either. When teams tried to make a deal, they wanted to talk to Phil, not Mills, its been reported. Dont believe thats a shocker.
Most agents, stars, know about Mills track record, including the moves he's made as GM, and his relationship with Dolan. Dont believe stars will go on faith alone that Mills can lead the franchise out of the wilderness. They will likely want to see results first. Im happy they went to the Nets, but thats one big reason that KD/Kyrie went to BK. Otherwise we need a team president with a track record which inspires confidence. Id give Mills this season to show some improvement. If things havent improved enough (what is enough is another discussion) then Id like to see Dolan make a run at some of the more proven execs in the league with a recent track record of success. Not something they accomplished last century.
You make a very logical presentation. I thought the hiring of Craig Robinson for development and a deep bench of coaches including Miller was about developing. Facts are Nets in a good place in the timeline for those two. KP should have demonstrated at least two months of recovery and gotten his extension with knicks having room to sign one more star. Funny thing is if we fell in the draft order we might have leapfrogged to the Nola postion or Lakers. Many "What ifs" to ponder. Worst case scenario after 10 games? 2-10. We here.
So we get Presti, Morey or even Masai. What can they do? Here is my problem with that, say it don't work out? Dolan panics, insists on coach change, what ever. The culture still exists. The buck stops with Dolan and he sucks at leadership in tough times. Sometimes patience is the only cure but as he said "it sucks to owner the knicks"! Everyone hates him. He panics. After 10 games with a whole season still a head of us we fans are doing what we usually do. Extrapolate the present and past into the future! We have little else to go by. No cred other than Fiz thru the Riley Tree and his Memphis experience taints him. We then come on line and whip ourselves into a frenzy. Nalod preaching patience with little historical precedence and the Rainman on the other side armed with 18 years of failure with the 54 win season as his template for success going forward. 5 players retired off that knick team and the depletion was so extreme Grunwald traded for Bargnani. Any owner worth his keep would have seen the insanity before hiring Mckinsey. What McKinsey did any owner with any sense would have seen as too extreme. Dolan tries and fails even worse. That's my issue. He logically does good things and then we read the extremity of it. Hiring a world class consulting firm in the face of failure is brilliant. Having them do time studies on how to run practice for the coaches is too much!!! Kills the culture. His loyalty is admirable. His to Isiah was illogical for many reasons well documented. His moves post Checketts is pretty bad. WE blame GM's and think its in the past but its not. I was seen as a Layden Champion for the logic behind the Mcdyess fiasco. You think a young neophyte like Layden has the juice to make 100million dollar deals that are illogical? WE blamed him for a lot but he was the guy that had to move Ewings contract.
In fact all this goes back to the moment Don Nelson got run out of town by Ewing and his slow ball self serving mode. That's the moment Dolan lost.
When JVG and Grunfeld were at odds he sided with JVG because he earned a 4mm 2 year extension. Grunfeld at that moment in time was building a new team for a new era but Dolan caved. These moments dictate a pattern of instead of thinking forward Dolan panics and keeps the status quo and the erosion can't be stopped.
this is why no matter how bad things get, and KP was a regrettable setback, the moment comes when Dolan has to choose:
Put out the fire or be forward thinking. Problem is we can't see the future and fans have little or no faith in any of it. Dolan, Mills, perry, or Fiz. Nalod says stay the course and its on paper illogical. But given our history, maybe its really the best. Its ugly and won't get better any time soon.
Knicks should do the opposite of Dolan wants to do. Historically its about the best course. Does Dolan have any smart kids with a good work ethic and ivy league education? Stand up guy or girl with a well polished patina and MBA's to demonstrate proficiency in some area?
