Steve Mills has "perhaps his most high-pressure position to date" after recently becoming Knicks President & GM, according to Scott Cacciola of the N.Y. TIMES. Mills will "need to please a lot of hard-to-please people," including Knicks Owner James Dolan and F Carmelo Anthony, who can "opt out of his contract next summer and become a free agent." Even as Mills spent his career on the business side of sports, he indicated that he had "always wanted to be more involved with the game itself." Now he "has his chance, although any number of people in the NBA are wondering whether he has the preparation to pull it off." Mills said that he had "spent his first week on the job learning all that he could about the Knicks that he did not already know." Cacciola noted Mills "expressed a desire to incorporate more analytics into the fabric of the team." He also has maintained that he "will not hire" Isiah Thomas to "rejoin the Knicks in any capacity." Mills: "We have a friendly relationship, but it was important to be fair and straight with fans and people and you guys that he isn’t coming back." He noted that he would "seek advice from the rest of the team’s front office," which includes two former NBA GMs in Dir of Basketball Operations John Gabriel and Dir of Player Personnel Mark Warkentien. However, Mills said that ultimately "all personnel decisions will be vetted by Dolan." He added, "He’s given me the room to figure out what I think is best. But at the end of the day, he’s going to be involved in what we do" (N.Y. TIMES, 10/12).
