Miller Time
...hopefully for a little while at least
In this newsletter:
Happy Friday everyone! Today is a happy day, not only because it’s the end of the week, but because it marks five years that I’ve been married to my wife. Here’s a photo of us on our wedding day, in case you don’t believe me:
Now here’s a photo of us today, three years, two months and 21 days after having a child:
(if you’re someone reading this who doesn’t yet have kids, I’m totally kidding…it’s so much fun. Have one RIGHT NOW. You’ll love it!)
No, for real though…we love our daughter, but I am convinced that the reason anniversaries were invented as a thing you celebrate is simply so husbands and wives can get one night away from the crazy…assuming you actually still like your spouse, that is.
I’m quite lucky in that mine is still my favorite person on the planet. She’s also my rock, and when you live and die by an occasionally inept basketball organization, having someone to keep you grounded is very valuable. Marriage truly is the ultimate marathon, and at the end of the day, having someone you want to chit chat with as you mosey along really is the most important thing.
I open today’s newsletter with this personal anecdote not only to pay homage to the woman I love, but to highlight the absurdity of a piece of news that came out yesterday:
Five years of marriage isn’t that long, and yet its’ longer than any coach has spent at the helm of a Knicks roster since Jeff Van Gundy stepped down a little over 18 years ago.
Jeff Van Gundy, notably, is one of the names Shams mentions in this piece as a person of interest for the Knicks, along with his ABC telemate Mark Jackson and best coaching bud Tom “ICE! ICE! (baby)” Thibodeau.
I’m fully aware that there are many people reading this for whom Jeff Van Gundy is associated with the last time they counted themselves as a truly happy Knicks fan. I may be one of them.
There’s also folks who swear that despite the overwhelming mountain of evidence suggesting Mark Jackson may not be qualified to run a taco stand (will you be having a side of mutiny with your Chorizo? No? Just avocado then…), let alone a basketball team, that he’s precisely the man to turn this franchise around.
I’m not sure there’s anyone left to Stan for Thibs after his disastrous run in Minnesota, which is somewhat ironic because it was personnel moves that doomed him there every bit as much as his coaching.
All of this is well besides the point. Well, points, because I have a few:
As Shams put it, “current Knicks officials have a profile for their new hire being able to lean on prior success and experience in the New York market.” Translation: we want a name that will make fans squeal.
Imagine if a Fortune 500 company (or a Fortune 30 company as it were, because there are only so many of these jobs in existence) was looking for a new CEO, and limited their search to those who have worked not only in their given niche field, but had past experience working for their company. This would be like Coke saying “we’re only going to hire an executive who has had experience running Pepsi or Dr. Pepper, but really, we want someone who already worked for us at some point.”
I understand that there is nothing quite like the pressures and demands that come with being the coach of the New York Knicks, and while this should be one consideration, it shouldn’t be the consideration, and if anything, should find itself far, far down the list.
Who they’re considering, however, is far less important to me than the fact that they are considering anyone at all, which leads me to…
Literally no one in the organization is in a place to be making a decision on the next coach at this point.
Scott Perry and Steve Mills, quite clearly, are on shaky ground, and no one in such a state of employment should be making decisions that could have ramifications for years into the future, which this decision certainly will. With the possible exception of Jackson, who is as desperate for a coaching job as my wife and I are for a night out, any coach coming aboard right now would want assurances that he will be kept around for a while.
Given the nature of the list of prospective hires, my guess is that it comes from Dolan himself, who seems to have lost trust in the men whose job it is to run this team. If you doubt that, ask yourself: why were JVG and Thibs not serious contenders for this job 20 months ago? Jackson was, apparently, but if I had to bet, that interview was granted by Mills as a favor to Dolan himself.
All of this is to say that this hire will be made from the top, and I’m betting the sought assurances will be given without hesitation. That means when Dolan goes to hire the next President of Basketball Operations (“It’s a blank check, Masai…it’s blank! You can literally write any number you want!!!!”), the job may come with a caveat. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Ujiri, Sam Presti, Sam Hinke or whoever might not be enamored with one of these three men as their next head coach. This may cause an issue.
As for who should be the next head coach (aside from the obvious answer of “whoever the next POBO wants”)…
Give Mike Miller a damn chance.
Look, I don’t pretend to know what works and what doesn’t work about coaching a basketball team, but as a happily married man, I can say without question that the stability I spoke about earlier is absolutely essential to any relationship, whether it’s man/wife, teacher/student, or coach/locker room. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low. Stow and steady wins the race, the marriage, and basketball games.
Right now, the Knicks have found the closest thing to stability they’re ever going to have this season. It’s only three games, but Miller has these guys playing hard, playing together, and playing the right way. Coming out and announcing “Mike Miller is our coach for the rest of this year. We will assess the position again in the offseason” would only enhance that stability.
When a report comes out less than a week into the new coach’s tenure and proclaims that there are already wandering eyes within the organization, it makes Miller’s job all the more difficult. It only enhances the culture of fear we hear about all the time that exists within the Garden – “do a good job…or else” – and which we hope that an all-powerful exec can begin to extinguish.
But that person isn’t here yet, and won’t be for a while. In the meantime, the organization needs to stop, take a breath, and realize that the best thing to do right now is nothing at all.
See how this one plays out. Who knows…maybe an unassuming basketball lifer without a starry resume or a history in “the New York market” will turn around and be the best coach you’ve had since, well…since the last guy who fit that description, and who also happened to stick around for a while.
And on that note, we have some fantastic pieces to send you off into the weekend courtesy of Jeremy Cohen and Mike DeStefano, but before we get there, let’s quickly preview someone the Knicks face tonight who has always been a personal favorite of mine…
Player Spotlight
Richaun Holmes is a guy that I could never understand why he wasn’t more valued around the league. I’m sure someone smarter than me can answer that question, but every time I ever saw the guy, he was absolutely destroying everything and everyone on the court with him.
Was it always pretty? Of course not. He’s a big with a limited skill set, but what he did well, he’s always done very well.
This season, it’s all coming together for him. Starting for a Sacramento team that has won three in a row and is 8-7 since De’Aaron Fox went out with an injury in early November, Holmes has been killing it as the starting center. He’s averaging 12.8 points, 9.8 boards, 1.4 blocks and 1.1 steals in 30.9 minutes a night since being inserted into the first five.
On PredictionStrike, Holmes is trading at $16.06 a share, more than double the $7.09 he opened the season at. His price has steadily risen all year long, and with performances like last week’s 47.3 fantasy point outing against the Spurs, you can understand why.
Tonight, he’ll face Mitchell Robinson a fair amount, and will put New York’s young big man’s foul issues to the test. If you want to invest, don’t forget to click here and use code KFS when signing up for $10 in free investment money. Here’s to Holmes having a good game, but the Knicks sneaking out with another win despite the effort.
Kiss Da Rings, Pal
by Jeremy Cohen (@TheCohencidence)
If you’re like me, this week’s been bleak for you as a Knicks fan. While last night’s win against the Warriors was a comforting pick-me-up like an iced Dunkin coffee on a sweltering day 1, the Knicks’ organizational dysfunction is still very much a topic of conversation.
Alan Hahn had a well-thought out thread yesterday, illustrating the Knicks’ lack of a plan and the need to throw out the old guard and start anew. What Hahn said wasn’t revolutionary but it got me thinking about what successful teams do look like. Enter: the New York Yankees, less than two days removed from signing one of the best pitchers in baseball, Gerrit Cole.
It would seem inconceivable to compare the Yankees, a model for perennial winning, with the Knicks, an example of consistent losing. We learn more from our failures than we do from our successes, but if the Knicks continue to not learn from what’s gone wrong, the least they can do is look at an organization that’s had plenty go right. What can we learn from the Yankees that can be applied to the Knicks?
The Knicks Are Losing According to Plan
by Mike DeStefano (@debateball)
After particularly gut-wrenching losses, I, like many Knicks’ fans, go through a range of emotions and thought processes: I’m disappointed; I’m annoyed; I’m enraged; I’m encouraged when they keep it close; I look back for plays that cost them the game; I think about what they should’ve run or done differently; I point fingers; I search for silver linings; I focus on good for those that played bad and on bad for those that played well; I go on Twitter, look at the extremes, and settle into a middle-ground…
But sometime during this recent run of futility, I became enlightened. Honestly, I don’t know how I missed it before. Even at 4-20, I couldn’t see it. I’d ask myself, “We signed all these players. The front office talked about winning more games. How are we worse than last year when last year was a blatant tank?”
Then it hit me.
We were lied to.
Knicks Kicks
by Tiffany Salmon (@tiffstarr815)
The Knicks started their 4-game west coast trip against a familiar face on Tuesday night as they played Carmelo Anthony and the Portland Trailblazers. Marcus Morris did not disappoint as he stepped on the court in the Nike Zoom Lebron 3 “Home”. Originally introduced in 2005, this fan-favorite silhouette made its return to stores in April 2019. They retail for $175 but currently can be found on Flight Club for below retail price.
News & Notes
compiled by Michael Schatz (@mschatz99)
Here’s a link to the Shams mailbag referenced above, which also contains some info on Marcus Morris. He basically says that the Knicks probably want to keep Mook but also won’t be able to avoid trading him given how the season is going.
On This Date: Knicks sign Jonathan Bender
by Vivek Dadhania (@vdadhania)
Donnie Walsh went into his rolodex to sign former Indiana Pacers forward Jonathan Bender. It was Walsh, himself, who traded Antonio Davis to the Toronto Pacers for the rights to Bender, picked 5th overall in the 1999 Draft.
That’s it for today! For those of you who watch my postgame periscopes, I will likely be taking tonight off to enjoy some time with the woman of my dreams, and you probably won’t see me on Twitter much this weekend either. Rest assured though, she will be sick of me again soon.