Knicks President Steve Mills wants his new GM Scott Perry to "fight for moves he believes in, but ultimately the final decision will be made" by him, not Perry, according to Marc Berman of the N.Y. POST. At yesterday's press conference introducing Perry, Mills said, "He’s going to have a chance to manage the coaching staff, manage the scouting staff, and make recommendations as to where we should go as a basketball organization. I think we’ll be partners in that in the sense that he’ll come to me with his recommendation and we’ll debate it back and forth." Mills said that Perry will "analyze the front-office staff and be given the freedom to make changes if need be." It is clear the Mills-Perry directive also is to "establish better management relations with players, reversing what went on during Phil Jackson’s leadership" (N.Y. POST, 7/18). In N.Y., Stefan Bondy writes the Knicks "didn’t exactly win the press conference" yesterday, because the answers from Perry and Mills were "so guarded, so clichéd, there wasn’t much to extrapolate." Mills "talked around a question about what went wrong the last three seasons with him as the GM, and what he might’ve learned from Jackson’s failures" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/18). Also in N.Y., Michael Powell writes, "With so much losing to his name, I figured Mills might offer a useful rumination on bruises and lessons learned. None was to be heard" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/18).
LOOKING AHEAD: In N.Y., Frank Isola writes the culture "doesn't miraculously change just because you write it in a press release." The results will "tell the real story." Mills' promotion takes him "out of the shadows and puts the spotlight directly on him to build a winner." Isola: "Mills knows the Garden culture as well as anyone and he can play by [Knicks Owner James] Dolan's rules. That alone gives him an edge" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 7/18). NBA.com's David Aldridge wrote the Knicks made a "quality hire" with Perry, who in his previous role had an "impact on what became a very successful offseason in Sacramento; players that wouldn’t take meetings with the Kings or seriously consider them in the past did both this summer." Aldridge: "That the fortunes of a franchise as big as New York’s are now in the hands of two African-American men is noteworthy both for its rarity and its potential that it won’t be as rare in the future" (NBA.com, 7/17).
