Ever since Leon Rose took over as Knicks president two years ago, the home run has lurked. It has taken on different forms and players, but it’s always chilling in the background, even if only confirmed once on the record by the team’s brand ambassador, Steve Stoute.
It also makes sense: if not for their networking and relationships with star players as longtime agents with CAA, why hire the inexperienced duo of Rose and William Wesley to run the Knicks’ front office?
“With having Leon in, World Wide Wes and myself, the three of us, we’re the best sort of team as it relates to being able to speak with free agents,’ Stoute said not long after Rose took over. “Our relationship with talent will bring them to New York. They haven’t had this level of talent in the last 10 years that can go out and pitch free agents and convince them why New York is great.’
Of course, we’re still waiting for that superstar to force his way into Rose’s arms. And as this Knicks season careens toward the draft lottery, it’s worth mentioning that the latest candidate played at the Garden on Sunday.
Hello, Donovan Mitchell.
It’s no secret around the NBA that the Knicks are monitoring Mitchell’s situation with the Jazz, hoping against odds they can finagle a deal to bring the All-Star to the home of his youth. There have been rumblings of Mitchell’s discontent in Utah, despite the team’s success, which isn’t surprising because Salt Lake City is among the least appealing markets for NBA players.
Mitchell has plenty of connections to the Knicks, adding to the speculation:
· He’s from the area and played his AAU ball in NYC. He was hoping to get drafted by the Knicks, telling The News in 2018, just a day before he won the dunk contest during his rookie campaign with the Jazz, “Obviously, who wouldn’t want to play back home where they grew up?”
· His father, Donovan Mitchell Sr., works for the New York Mets as the Director of Diversity, Opportunity, Inclusion & Training.
· One of Mitchell’s agents out of the draft was Leon Rose, and the CAA connection has defined the Knicks over the last two years. Here’s what Mitchell said after Rose took over: “I think with Leon — who I know personally — things are going to trend upward. I love Leon to death. He’s a great dude, great person and a really good businessman. So I think they’re going to start going in the right direction when he gets in there.”
· The Knicks current associate head coach, Johnnie Bryant, was one of Mitchell’s favorite assistants with the Jazz.
Unfortunately for the Knicks, there are too many qualifiers to deem Mitchell’s arrival in New York anything more than unlikely. The most important is that he’s under contract with the Jazz through at least 2025. The only hope would be that the Jazz flame out in the playoffs and Mitchell not only demands a trade, but makes it specific to the Knicks. People who know Mitchell doubt he’d turn into such a villain because, “it’s not in his personality.” And even if Mitchell focuses on the Knicks, Danny Ainge just joined the Jazz front office and isn’t known for forsaking leverage.
The Knicks would have to give up the house for a player of Mitchell’s caliber, leaving him without much of a roster to contend in the improved Eastern Conference. So there are plenty of forces fighting against Mitchell coming to the Knicks, at least as of Sunday, when he and the Jazz took their lone season trip to MSG.
The Knicks had a much better opportunity to acquire Mitchell in the 2017 NBA draft, when they took Frank Ntilikina eighth overall and watched Mitchell fall to 12th. That was Phil Jackson’s final move as team president, and apparently it went against the recommendation of Rick Pitino, who coached Mitchell at Louisville.
“I tried to get the Knicks to take (Mitchell), and (they said), ‘Nah,’ they can’t take him at that number,” Pitino once explained. “Because they didn’t think he could play point guard. They questioned certain things.”
()