2 pm Press Conference

Remember this ....

Mills saying all the right things...
?Today is a new day for this franchise. Scott will immediately begin to put together a basketball operations department that is among the best in the league. We will all be united in implementing our strategy, which is to build our team by developing young players, emphasizing athleticism, length and defense. We have several rising young stars in the organization and we expect to add more young talent to this core. Our message to our fans is clear: we will be disciplined in sticking to this strategy, hold our players and staff accountable to the high standards that we have set for ourselves, and deliver results.?

As does Perry...
?As general manager, I will work tirelessly to develop a culture that demands results, commitment and pride from everyone fortunate enough to be associated with our team - from our staff to our players."

Today ...
Mills spoke! Looked nervous but reiterated the commitment to a youth movement. Perry sounds enthusiastic, talking about his father, Dad, what a privilege to be the GM of the Knicks. Emphasizing enthusiasm, likes the young core. Great opportunity to do special things.
Perry with a good point on culture - you can have all the slogans you want, but it comes down to individual behaviors day in and day out. He gets it.
The more you talk about culture more it will go down. Best to never speak about and just expect what you want. Telling other about culture and all that just gives media fuel. This to me is just a waste of a press conference.
Culture is nothing but the collection of individual behaviors. What they are saying by focusing on culture is that they will not recruit, support, or enable me-first players. As if there name is Pat Riley/Gregg Popovich. They want to build a team, which requires individual players to play within a team concept. When you get players on board with that and executing a team game on the floor you will see success and that is the culture change they are looking to enact.

Hornacek emphasizing defense first, arent just going to try and outscore the other team.
He is saying the right things. I don't think of him as a defense first coach though.

Bondy: "Could you possibly see a buyout with Melo happening?"
Mills: "No."
Mills said he is giving room for Perry to make decisions.
Mills seems slimmy as he been for decades with the Knicks.
Noticed Perry looking at Mills after responding. As though looking for approval and making sure he did not say anything wrong. Seems like this will be the same ole Mills/Dolan show.

Perry wants to bring in a veteran PG to mentor Frank.

I would have gave Perry more Props if he would have told Mills "when u sign pass-first Rondo, then I will sign on as GM"

Carmelo Anthony will not be bought out and "could easily be a part of" the Knicks next year, team president Steve Mills said on Monday.

Mills said the team wanted to "slow down and regroup" regarding a potential trade of Anthony after hiring new GM Scott Perry last week.

"We've been in contact with his reps and other teams," Mills said, adding that "If there's an opportunity that works for Melo and works for us" the team will consider trading him

Hey, did you guys hear the hot news that the Knicks want to bring in a veteran PG to mentor Ntilikina?

...this friggin team.

htr10 said:

Hey, did you guys hear the hot news that the Knicks want to bring in a veteran PG to mentor Ntilikina?

...this friggin team.

Click to expand...

For real .. u would think after selecting 18 yr old PG Frank Nitty, plus having no intention on resigning D.Rose .. our vice President Steve Mills first priority for Phil Jackson to do on July 1st FA market were to sign a veteran starter PG for the upcoming season.
Signing a FA starter PG in August only means your looking to sign a back-up tier 2 PG to lead the Knicks to a Lottery-Season :smokin::smokin::smokin:

htr10 said:

Hey, did you guys hear the hot news that the Knicks want to bring in a veteran PG to mentor Ntilikina?

...this friggin team.

Click to expand...

We're gunning for the almighty great Eric Bledsoe, you ain't heard?

They're throwing their championship victory celebration right now, this isn't going to end well. The Melo situation is very embarrassing, even with Phil long gone. I guarantee you Leon Rose will not appreciate one bit how we're handling this and he'll keep this in mind for the future. Most of the media circuit is laughing at us right now. I kind of feel sorry for Perry, he deserves better.

Heard it before about the culture change when they hired PJ and it was more convincing then with his 11 rings. I'm not buying it, firing Phil after the draft, why didn't you do it before. Signing TJH to a contract the rest of the league is shaking their heads at. And giving Baker a very generous contract for the underwhelming year he had last year. And what happened to the most obvious need which was to get a vet PG in here. Only thing I heard that made sense was not buying out Melo.

Knicks president Steve Mills justified G Tim Hardaway Jr.'s pricey contract saying the team had to be "aggressive," per Newsday's Al Iannazzone.

Many bashed the Knicks for giving Hardaway a four-year, $71 million contract being that he has never been a starter in his career, and spent time in the Hawks' development system. However, Mills defended the deal saying they couldn't pass up on a young guard with his potential.

"We watched him, in our opinion, grow over his time in the player development program that they had in Atlanta," Mills said. "So we decided he was a target."

"We felt like there are not that many opportunities in free agency that you have the opportunity to go after a 25-year-old. We made the decision that if you want to pry a restricted free agent away from the incumbent team, you have to be aggressive. So we made a decision to be aggressive."

With the amount of money shelled out, it is apparent the Knicks view him as a starter. Mills assured this fact as he said the team will implement in that role this season.

"As we look at the number, we believe Tim is a starting two-guard in this league," he said. "Our trajectory for him is to be a starting to-guard, the capability of being a starting two-guard for the rest of his career. And those guys average 16, 16.5 million dollars today. So that's how we came to the decision."

New GM Scott Perry "applauded that move from afar" as well. However, Hardaway's contract combined with G Ron Baker's two-year, $8.9 million deal leaves the Knicks with little space to add the veteran point guard they want to groom first-round pick PG Frank Ntilikina.

"I'm excited about young Frank but also I think we'll need some veteran guidance," Perry said. "We'll find out who that will be in the days and weeks to come, but you definitely want to bolster that position."

Last season, Hardaway started in 30 of the 79 games he played with the Hawks. He averaged 14.5 points, 2.3 assists, 2.8 rebounds while shooting 45.5 percent from the field.