New York Knicks: A new front office for a new future

The hires of Brock Aller, Walt Perrin, and Frank Zanin show the New York Knicks have brought in high-quality front office talent to turn the team around.

This time last year, the New York Knicks had their fans in a tither. KD and Kyrie are coming to New York!  They came to New York alright and headed straight to Brooklyn. As I blogged excitedly about how happy I was that the dynamic duo missed the Garden by 20 minutes. Meanwhile, General Manager Scott Perry and then-Team President Steve Mills were on their way to LA. We know what happened after that.

Mills and Perry came back to New York with Julius Randle (who many hoped was going to kill it in New York), Taj Gibson, Bobby Portis, Elfrid Payton, Wayne Ellington, Reggie Bullock, and Marcus Morris Sr.

Fast forward to today, Mills is gone. Leon Rose is in, and Scott Perry will stay on as New York Knicks GM. There was no press conference to introduce Rose. Just a lengthy statement on Twitter in which he introduced himself and asked for the patience of the fans.

The global pandemic stopped everything, including the NBA. Knicks Owner James Dolan contracted and recovered from the virus. Through it all, the Knicks front office was continuing to make changes.

It’s reported in an article on Cleveland.com by Chris Fedor, that Rose’s first call was to Brock Aller, the Cavalier’s senior director of basketball operations.

"Rose needed a smart, forward thinking executive, one with a knack for successful team building, savvy salary cap managment and long-term planning."

Aller’s title with the Knicks is Vice President of Basketball and Strategic Planning. He started on May 1 and, as Mike Vorkunov put it, is a “diabolical genius” when it comes to the NBA salary cap.