The New York Knicks' recent start to the 2019-20 NBA season has forced owner James Dolan to consider some changes. Among them is a potential change in the front office, which leads to him plotting to make another run at Toronto Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri, according to Frank Isola of The Athletic.
Ujiri is one of the highest-earning executives in the league and one who won't settle for pocket change. Dolan has never been shy about spending, but he has had issues finding the right personnel to run his team.
Ujiri is also a name who often floats as a potential candidate, ever since he transformed an early-decade Denver Nuggets team into a competitive one during the post-Carmelo Anthony era. The 49-year-old was the first non-American to win the Executive of the Year award for his work with the Nuggets in 2013, later returning to the Raptors as vice president and general manager — eventually elevating his role to president in 2016.
Others teams have vied for Ujiri in the past, but the executive seems to be comfortable in Toronto, having married and raised kids in Canada. The English-born POBO is well-connected, and his potential hiring could be the seed that sparks a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo pitch in 2021, after the duo of Steve Mills and Scott Perry failed to get meetings with some of the NBA's biggest free agents in Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Kawhi Leonard this summer.
Dolan has been committed to the trio of coach David Fizdale and his two front office heads, but yet another disappointing start could call for some swift changes in The Big Apple.
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