Knicks Notes: Carmelo, Mills, Grunwald, Houston
The Knicks surprised the NBA world yesterday when they announced that Steve Mills would be replacing Glen Grunwald as the team's general manager. We've already passed along a few of the reactions to that move, but there are a few more leftovers on the front office shake-up among today's Knicks items. Let's round them up….
- The Knicks' front office changes are "all to keep Carmelo [Anthony]," a rival executive tells Howard Beck of Bleacher Report. If Carmelo is going to commit long-term to the Knicks next summer, he wants to feel confident that the team can attract a marquee free agent in 2015, when cap space is available, writes Beck. According to that rival exec, Mills likely has a better chance of luring a top free agent than Grunwald, who is soft-spoken and isn't as connected to the players.
- Tommy Beer of HoopsWorld wonders whether it would be even be in the Knicks' best interests to re-sign Anthony to a max deal in 2014.
- Agent Rick Kaplan, who represents Marcus Camby, called the Knicks' demotion of Grunwald "absurd" and "cruel," according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. "He did everything he was asked to do by his owner, and did it with a smile on his face," Kaplan said. "The only good news is that some lucky team will have Glen fall in its lap and he can finally work for a team that appreciates his enormous talent and class."
- One "prominent NBA executive" who spoke to Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News agreed with Kaplan, asking rhetorically, "What in the world did Glen Grunwald do to get fired? They gave [Mills] two jobs today and he isn’t qualified for either one of them."
- Sources tell Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report that Allan Houston is likely being groomed to be the next GM in New York.
Reactions To Knicks GM Change
Earlier today, we learned that the Knicks bumped Glen Grunwald as General Manager and brought Steve Mills back to the organization to take his place. The move came without any real warning and at this time, we still don't know what the motive was behind the decision. Here's the latest reaction to the news..
- The timing of the move appears to be illogical as Grunwald just completed the final transaction of the summer, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Meanwhile, coach Mike Woodson has a team option for 2014/15 and he no longer has the allegiance of Grunwald, his former college teammate at Indiana.
- Berman heard that Mills and team owner James Dolan were at the team practice facility today in Tarrytown to talk to the players about the move (Twitter link).
- After talking with Knicks insiders, Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report (on Twitter) believes that Allan Houston is being groomed as the next GM. The longtime Knicks guard is currently in their front office and is well-respected around the league.
- Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (on Twitter) guesses that the GM change means that Houston will see an increased role in operations and Woodson has less job security than he did yesterday. In another piece, Begley wonders what this all means as far as Isiah Thomas' ties to the franchise and tries to make sense of why such a decision was made now.
- Keith Schlosser of Knicks Journal finds it strange that the team had moved so abruptly to replace Grunwald, especially since they aren't necessarily hiring someone who has proven to build a teams worthy of competing for an NBA title.