Over the last few days, it had appeared that former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin was in line to take the New York Knicks‘ vacant president of basketball operations job.
However, things quickly fell apart due to the team's unwillingness to allow Griffin to bring in his own staff.
According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, this included a desire to let Allan Houston go from his assistant general manager position.
In addition, Griffin’s preference to bring in his own front-office staff was an issue with the Knicks, whose current group of Steve Mills (the GM), Allan Houston (assistant GM), Jamie Mathews (vice president of basketball operations) and Kristian Petesic (director of scouting) have kept jobs at MSG and James Dolan’s trust through multiple regime changes.
A source told the Daily News that one of Griffin’s requests was to remove Houston, who has been with the Knicks as a player or an executive for the majority of the last 20 years. With Dolan’s support as one of the owner’s all-time favorite players (remember that $100 million contract extension), Houston rapidly ascended in New York’s front office and many believe he’s being groomed as the next GM under Mills.
The 46-year-old is reportedly being groomed to be the eventual successor for current general manager Steve Mills. The Knicks likely didn't want to prevent that projected chain of command to be altered by bringing in Griffin.
That said, this may have prevented the organization from bringing in someone who could help turn around the franchise. He has a proven track record over the last three years with the Cavaliers, having played a significant role in forming a team that has reached three consecutive NBA Finals.
Only time will tell if this was the right decision made by the Knicks.
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