The New York Knicks appear to be turning over a new leaf.
Having long operated as a rash, overeager free-agent player content to overpay any half-decent veteran willing to take their money, the Knicks' front office now insists it's practicing prudence and patience ahead of what's shaping up to be a wild free-agency period.
"Our goal is to get our house in order, develop the foundation," Knicks president Steve Mills said Thursday on ESPN Radio, as transcribed by Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. "We are not going to be players this year. If we sign guys, it's going to be for one-year contracts."
That's a novel concept for a team that has consistently tried to short-circuit the rebuilding process and still owes Joakim Noah and Tim Hardaway Jr. a combined $92 million over the next three years.
If Enes Kanter picks up his $18.6-million option for next season, as he's reportedly leaning toward doing, the Knicks won't have much cap space to work with this summer, anyway. That's why Mills says he's operating with the 2019 offseason in mind.
"We'll be able to make room for a max guy (in 2019)," he said. "We feel like we're going to put ourselves in a position where stars are going to want to come to us. That's what we think."
Next summer will see the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, and Klay Thompson hit unrestricted free agency, and that's before considering the possibility of 2018 free agents like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Paul George signing one-plus-one deals this year and hitting the market again in 2019.
As for whether notoriously meddlesome owner James Dolan might step in at some point to try to accelerate the Knicks' long-term plan, Mills said that won't be an issue.
"Jim has given me the autonomy," he said. "As long as we stay with the plan, he's on board. And he's given me the room to do that. And he wants to be involved in other things - growing the business of the Garden, new arena development, different kinds of things. He doesn't want to get involved in what we're doing."
