KNICKS GOING THRU MILLS
Fate of team falls on Garden vet
The hourglass changed hands the moment Steve Mills and Scott Perry summoned Jeff Hornacek for the grim news in the conference room of the Westchester airport. Mills, who has been around the Garden long enough to predate Isiah Thomas, took his first leap into the spotlight in those early morning hours of Thursday — the real spotlight — occupied many times over by fired Knicks coaches and executives.
To be clear, Hornacek was always going to be the fall guy. He was an instrument to bide time for a new front office that took on a tall task and punted the first year. There was talk from Perry and Mills on Thursday about Hornacek’s poor communication with players, about the lack of accountability, about being better in “situational basketball.”
Those were buzz words and unnecessary parting shots at Hornacek. Here’s the real truth: Perry and Mills want their own coach, not Phil Jackson’s, and Gregg Popovich couldn’t have done much better with this roster.
“We’re going to be looking for a coach obviously that can not only hold players accountable, hold his coaching staff accountable, a guy who is not only a good basketball mind but a very skilled communicator and effective leader,” Perry said. “A guy who can connect very well with his players and who is equally aligned in terms of wanting to be a very strong defensive-minded team that will not only resonate with the plan that we want, but I think will resonate with a lot of New Yorkers because I think the Knicks teams of yesteryear were those tough-minded defensive teams that competed each and every night.’’
That’s fine and well. The unwritten rule is that a front office is allowed one coaching change before the responsibility turns heavy. Two is the max. Mills and Perry have their shot and are already making phone calls, reaching out to gauge the interest of Jerry Stackhouse, the Daily News reported. Stackhouse, coincidentally, would also be the best choice to change the longterm course of the Knicks. He’s a hard-working, no-nonsense former All-Star who has already cut his coaching teeth in the G League.
As Perry harped on Thursday, “there are no shortcuts.” Stackhouse understands that.
Mills has an obvious connection to David Blatt, his former teammate at Princeton, but there’s skepticism he’d make that move because any scrutiny would fall squarely on his shoulders. Mills has successfully avoided that type of public evaluation for a long time.
After all, this is his third coaching search as either GM or president. But it is being presented as his first because Jackson hovered over the hirings of Hornacek and Derek Fisher.
What’d Mills learn from those failures?
“There’s a certain amount of openness to today’s NBA. Sort of an intellectual curiosity,” he said. “(Golden State GM) Bob Myers and I talked a lot about this in terms of what it takes to be a coach in the NBA and guys who can absorb all of the things that are different about today’s game.
“The use of analytics, the significance of the physical training and performance staff, how you incorporate player development into a holistic approach as to how you coach a team. I think we’ve had coaches that had bits and pieces of that, but ultimately if you can find a guy that at least embraces it and understand what he doesn’t know and how to have other people support him to bring other things in, I think those things are really important and I hope we can find someone that understands, again, where they need help and where the other parts of the organization can help make them a more complete coach. And those things are important to success, I think, in today’s NBA.”
That sounds like he’d prefer a coach to mold, not a veteran set in his ways. Either way, Mills can’t escape the responsibility anymore. Pinning blame on Jackson is no longer an option. This is Mills’ show, for better or worse.