Knicks · Is there any positive upside to Steve Mills? (page 1)

I know Grunwald did a relatively good job taking over. He made some moves despite only having $3mill to play with this summer. I also know that Mills was around during the dark yrs of the knicks in the 1990s.

I'm trying to stay positive. I'm just searching for the upside of this move

Only thing I could think of is coaching change coming soon. Dolan probably told Grunwald to can Woody. Gunwald being a very good friend probably said he can't do that, Dolan demotes Grunwald and get someone who will can Woody.

Nope. Crap at his last job, no experience whatsoever for this one, and a lacky of Dolans with no backbone to disagree with him.

The perfect quote:

“But they gave (Mills) two jobs today and he isn’t qualified for either one of them,” the executive said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basket...

Vmart wrote:Only thing I could think of is coaching change coming soon. Dolan probably told Grunwald to can Woody. Gunwald being a very good friend probably said he can't do that, Dolan demotes Grunwald and get someone who will can Woody.

Good theory. That's how Dolan operates.

We just gotta be cool as fans. Law of attraction and all that. We tend to get too negative and then some crazy stuff happens. We can't let this take us into the heel we were in under Layden Cuz that gave us Isiah.

Be cool yall. We should be good.

I do feel a major starphuch on the horizon. Phil Jackson and probably a major move for a player on the downside of their career to help Melo. Lakers suck and a team like Memphis doesn't want to pay their players. Marc Gasol already has his replacement on the roster after trading for that kid from Denver. Kobe loves nyc and recently talked about coming full circle to msg with the all star game in 2015. Interesting.

We Just have to stay positive. Things will workout for us

The only thing positive I can think of is that Mills is thought to be a guy that can really bring in talent in free agency. So this must be a move to, in the best case scenario, team Melo up with LeBron. If that doesn't work, team Melo up with the best possible free agents.

All taht said, this move sucks. Grunwald has been doing a good job. He and Donny didn't get what they deserved.

callmened wrote:I know Grunwald did a relatively good job taking over. He made some moves despite only having $3mill to play with this summer. I also know that Mills was around during the dark yrs of the knicks in the 1990s.

I'm trying to stay positive. I'm just searching for the upside of this move

Well, it could've been Scott Layden lol

Taking a step back to breath the upside is not really apparent to me.

Most fans seem to judge execs based on team performance and Mills had no imput previously when he was president.

GM's over see all facets of the team and him being "president" I suspect his job, like a lot of teams has more to do with contracts and finance than talent evaluation. The money factor is a big consideraton. I suspect with Mark Winkydinka, John Gabriel and eventually H20 the impact of mills has more to do with the "Business side".

MIlls being the top candidate for the Players association rep is a big nod to him for being well thought of by the players. Perhaps Dolan had tapped him all along for the gig and he had to either hire him now or let him go and be president of the union.

Not sure his being hired had anything to do with Grunwald being fired as its reported Dolan was pissed kNicks were bounced in the second round in playoffs. If so, Grunny was toast at some point.

Maybe the upside is the opinion on woodson is he is not a championship caliber coach. The question is, who is that could replace him?

The starphuch fantasy is this paves the way for PHil Jax to be coach/GM and eventually be the GM realtive to player personel and Mills is the finance guy? Other than that, who? Old crabby not for big city Jerry Sloan? PoP? Did Dolan want Kidd to coach (Kidd was under contract with us and needed our consent, which he got, but was Dolan on board?) I could see where Grunny would be protective of his friend and 54 game winner Woodson. This is just my conjecture and im only speculation.

The reality is the Nyets on paper are stacked and maybe in Dolan's petty little head he is insanely upset the lowly nets might eclipse the knicks and grab many causual fans, or those who never experienced a successful knick feeling and will lose financial base.

If this is the case, then competition might drive the little general into stepping it up. Lets also be honest, Grunwald was Isiah's patsy and while he has done a good job he does not have the lustre the "Princeton" man has or maybe the polish. Grunwald worked under Isiah and Donnie. With Woodson and Isiah maybe Dolan is done with the "Indiana Mafia"!

I don't hold Mills really responsible for AnuchaGate as his loyalty was to the organization. I would "Blame" the genious who decided it was a good idea to let it go to trial then settle in private. It could have well been Dolan who did not listen to reason or counsel advice and wanted to test Anucha.
Dolan is the key figure and its his team so dysfunction falls on his sloped shoulders.

I just don't see any downside here to Mills. Often experience is the best teacher and Mills has a good reputation. Dolan picked Isiah over Mills to be the fall guy so to me it says Isiah was not "Mills hire", but a Dolan creation.

I don't see how the decision making process has changed. Like I said, its apparent Knicks braintrust in Winky dink and Gabriel, along with H20 have been at the table and while grunny has been the figure head, like many GM's in the past, he is a castrated "yes" man who will now get paid for a year and is contractually will be silent now, and in the future. Dolan likely pays well to keep his mistakes from reaching the press.

MSG3 wrote:The only thing positive I can think of is that Mills is thought to be a guy that can really bring in talent in free agency. So this must be a move to, in the best case scenario, team Melo up with LeBron. If that doesn't work, team Melo up with the best possible free agents.

All taht said, this move sucks. Grunwald has been doing a good job. He and Donny didn't get what they deserved.

Grunwald? No, he deserved better. Walsh? He should've never been hired in the first place especially with Jerry Colangelo, Jerry West and Kerry Pritchard available.

Vmart wrote:Only thing I could think of is coaching change coming soon. Dolan probably told Grunwald to can Woody. Gunwald being a very good friend probably said he can't do that, Dolan demotes Grunwald and get someone who will can Woody.

Didn't Dolan insist on us hiring Woody (prepared him as D'Antoni's replacement 2 seasons ago) and then rehiring over Phil Jackson (or any other coach). Now one full season later he wants rid of him. Brilliant!

the only positive i see is that this could be the first step in our 2015 retool,

the timing is not so curious to me now that i think about it this way:

we used grunnwald to do the moves for us this off season the roster is set and there is really not much more shaking and baking to do,

so we pretty much have oru team, we're going with it, we are who we are for the next 2 seasons, which is good

I think that was more Grunwald than Dolan. They were college roommates and very close

To clear up a discrepancy ...Dolan was trying to hire Magic to run the Knicks before he hired Isiah..It was Magic who suggested he that Dolan hire Isiah because he was still tied to the Lakers..I'm not sure how Mills was the guy who tapped Isiah...

I read that mills is close to W. Wesley (the CAA agent). so sounds like the plan is to def resign melo by hook or by crook

This move wasn't done for 2015. That is 2 years from now. This organization has not, does not, and will not plan and hold to a plan for 2 years. 2015 is just some PR rubbish to get people to think that the future will be brighter so stick with us; buy tickets; buy souvenirs; watch MSG TV; etc.

All right - I will do as the title of this thread says - look for the positive regarding Steve Mills. I'm putting on a Nixluva hat.

Upside to Steve Mills -
Mills is intelligent; graduated Princeton; more of a finance and promotions guy with lots of high level experience in this field.

He is a New Yorker from birth - "Mills was born on October 6, 1959 in Roosevelt, New York. His father was a teacher and basketball coach. He grew up a Knicks fan and lived around the corner from NBA legend Julius Erving. Mills and his wife Beverly live in South Orange, New Jersey and have two daughters"

"Mills was named Black Enterprise's Corporate Executive of the Year in 2003, and was listed as one of the Top Front Office Team Executives on Black Enterprise's 50 Most Powerful Blacks in Sports in 2005."

"In 2009, Mills left MSG and joined Magic Johnson Enterprises where he helped create the Athletes & Entertainers Wealth Management Group, LLC (A&E).[5] of which he was a partner."

Mills' basketball experience:
-"He played Princeton basketball under the tutelage of legendary coach Pete Carril."
-"Mills played professional basketball in Ecuador for a year."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mills...

The problem with Mills:
Mills is Dolan's choice with no reason nor explanation for a front office sudden change;
and he is Dolan's yes man.

The more I find out the more I see that even more so than Dolan mills is the man responsible for turning this team into the laughing stock of the league. Magic suggested to Mills that they hire Isiah? Sure looks that way since magic and mills appear to be close friends. It makes sense that Dolan would put all his trust into mills because what the hell does he know about basketball. Same with his relationship with glen sather. Mills would still be with the team but someone had to take the fall for Isiah and he did as team president

There is no upside to this move. It makes our franchise look even more dysfunctional and unstable then it looked 3 days ago. Newsflash: We were by far the most dysfunctional team in the league 3 days ago. If their goal is to bring Lebron here, how would more instability with our franchise make this place more appealing.

How do you build a consistent winning franchise when blowing through GM's and coaches every 2-3 years? Then you hire a guy who has 0 experience in the job he is hired to do. He does have experience as a team president, for our team and his tenure were the worst years in the history of the franchise off and on the court.

This thought always creeps up on me and I try to shoo it away out of shear depression just thinking of it but, I will never ever see my favorite basketball team win a title as long as James Dolan owns it

Dumb and Dumber Part 2

At this point. Why even care.

The Knicks are what they are. Middle of the road, average and will be exiting the first round again. Dolan, does things a certain way. The wrong way, without class or thought.

We didn't need to hire anyone in order to resign Melo. He wants to be the man, he wants to play in NY, he wants his money. He isn't giving up the extra year to sign with anyone. The Lakers have little to offer he's already a major star in this league going to the lakers isn't going to grow his shine.

We can look forward to the same team, with the same problems, exiting every year in the first round while ticket prices go up and decision are made without reason

No upside, all downside risk. It's a foolish move by a moron owner.

We're only as good as our last move. Steve Mills is a step back so it seems but so far it has not trickled dien to the court. The next move is the judgement move. We expect the worse with an abrupt firing of woodson or Shump for manu of the spurs type of trade.

Right now we are good. The Knicks are actually too deep and could stand a big trade without losing the foundation of have and actually get better. Here is hoping for the best and if a nice is made it takes us forward not backward.