Photo Credit: CBS New York
The New York Knicks hold the fourth overall pick in next weeks draft, and Knicks president Phil Jackson has a big decision to make to get things turned around.
With the fourth overall pick the team endured a 17 win season which fans and the Knicks themselves probably couldn’t wait for the season to end so they could make improvements.
Phil Jackson thinks the in season moves he made deserved some recognition, and that recognition is Executive of the year.
Jackson sat down with New York Times Scott Cacciola to discuss the draft and the state of the Knicks right now.
Q. You came to the Knicks a little over a year ago. Knowing what you know now, would you have still taken the job?
JACKSON: Without a doubt. I knew it was going to be a challenge. We just didn’t have any room to work last year. We knew that we were going to have to make big changes with the limitations that we had, being in a locked-in situation as far as the salary cap goes. That’s why when I said recently that I didn’t know why I wasn’t given some votes for executive of the year, I wasn’t kidding. I was really serious. We had a yeoman’s job of having to get rid of a lot of fat on our roster to get to where we are. I saw Mitch Kupchak got a vote, so I know some people valued what the Lakers were doing obviously.
The in season moves of trading Pablo Prigioni, J.R. Smith, and Iman Shumpert helped clear cap space for the team which will help them possibly land a top tier free agent.
I’ll give Phil a pat on the back, but I don’t know of any Executive of the year that made moves to get their team to 17 wins on the 82 game season.
I do understand what Phil’s talking about by gutting the Knicks roster by ridding themselves of all the bad contracts and guys that don’t fit into Derek Fisher’s system.
Now we will see if Phil can get the right pieces with a top 5 pick in the first round and cap space to work with, and hopefully he can surround Carmelo Anthony with the players he needs to succeed.
If Phil wants an executive of the year vote the time is now to make it happen with less than a week away from the NBA Draft and the NBA off-season starting.
