New York Knicks: The Road to Respectability

Knicks: Steve Mills is Fired and Leon Rose is Hired

And hello Leon Rose. Remember Steve Mills? Steve Mills was bad.

Like really bad.

After his departure in 2009, he rejoining the Knicks in 2013 as the Executive vice president and general manager until he was promoted to president of the organization in 2017 after Phil Jackson’s (barf) firing. If you look closely at the dates here, the 2012-2013 season was the last time the Knicks made the playoffs, Mills was rehired the next season and they haven’t seen the playoffs since. Obviously, this wasn’t all him, shoutout Phil Jackson, but his presence was always a dark spot in the front office and was closely associated as a favorite of the best owner in sports aka James Dolan.

He made countless bad moves in his tenure. He signed Tim Hardaway to one of the worst contracts in sports at the time and he was the right-hand man to Phil during the free agency period that brought in the likes of Joakim Noah and Courtney Lee. He also orchestrated the Porizingis trade that at the time was mocked league-wide. Besides the Marcus Morris signing that he flipped into the Clippers late 1st, and in turn Immanuel Quickley, there is nothing but negative thought associated with his tenure with the team. In February James Dolan had enough and fired him.

Something had to change, the team needed a widely respected executive that would be able to change the culture and have a trickle-down effect on the team. That man’s name was Leon Rose. In March 2020 Leon Rose was hired to be President of the New York Knicks. Any fan can tell you the impact that the man of few words has had on the franchise. While there haven’t been any big signings, Rose has performed a plethora of shrewd moves that has positioned the team to be successful in the short and long term.

Whether it be turning Ed Davis/cap space into 2 second rounders, somehow trading up in the draft while acquiring better draft picks, or basically stealing Derrick Rose from the Pistons. There is a league-wide belief that the Knicks have a competent front office, and this is because of the performance of Leon Rose to this point. While the Knicks haven’t signed or traded for a star player, they did manage to snag the steal of the 2020 draft.