David Platt has had regular-season and postseason success with the Cleveland Cavaliers His experience with handling a dysfunctional team is what New York needs exactly.
Blatt once said that he’s retiring from coaching after getting diagnosed with multiple sclerosis as he left Olympiacos. He might be feeling better this time after agreeing to such a workload with the Knicks.
It was obvious New York was looking to bring out its guns to hire a good coach after after firing David Fizdale. The team then promoted Mike Miller as interim head coach before hiring Blatt.
Knicks hire Blatt as Head Coach
Blatt has ties with the Knicks front office dating back to his days at Princeton. He was a teammate of Knicks president Steve Mills at Princeton. The two were also teammate with another Knicks executive in Craig Robinson.
The team already had Blatt in their list of candidates before they hired Fizdale. Knicks owner Jim Dolan named Mills as Phil Jackson’s predecessor and successor which didn't come as a surprise when Mills hired someone close to him.
Blatt is highly qualified
Blatt knows what he's doing. He has steered teams around Europe to winning records and championships. He's had problems communicating to NBA players in the past however, particularly LeBron James.
James has his inputs that only give room for coaches to work around. With the Knicks however, they need Blatt's first hand inputs in the hopes of possibly diffusing some of the franchise's diysfunction.
New regimes are also imminent at New York’s front office.
Knicks search for new executive
Rumor has it that the Knicks are highly interested in hiring Masai Ujiri as its new lead executive. The problem however is that whoever they get will likely ask for hiring/firing authority.
Blatt might just be another person to clear out once a new executive runs the place. That might be the reason he accepted this gig. He might as well get front-office experience while he can.
Maybe the team wants to keep Mills for some time, allowing him to build up his own staff. Mills on the other hand might be making scenarios where it will be more complicated for someone to replace him. It's happened before.
Will David Blatt coaching the Knicks be a long-term deal? How will a potential hiring of a new executive affect his tenure in New York? Tell us your thoughts.
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