Knicks closing in on front office help

When the Knicks rolled out their new leadership Monday afternoon, Steve Mills introduced Scott Perry as the new general manager and insisted that Perry would be his own man, able to assess the staff in place and do what he needed to do.

The first evidence arrived Sunday with the Knicks close to bringing Gerald Madkins aboard as assistant general manager, a move first reported by ESPN. While the deal was not done Sunday, it was expected to be completed.

Madkins, who held the same title with the Los Angeles Clippers, will return to the Knicks, where he served as a scout when Mills was serving as Madison Square Garden president and Isiah Thomas was running the Knicks. 

“As we look forward we’re going to rebuild what the front office of the Knicks look like,” Mills said last Monday. “I feel really good about a lot of the people we have working for us. But we also know there’s room for us to grow and get better if we want to be a first class organization . and Scott will have the freedom to sort of meet with everyone in our organization where he sees there’s opportunities to bring new people into the organization. He has the flexibility to do that and we’ll work as a tandem in making sure  that we have a first class operation.”

While Mills was general manager the last three seasons while Phil Jackson served as team president, the Knicks had Allan Houston as assistant general manager with Jackson’s pal, Clarence Gaines Jr., as vice president of player personnel. Houston is also the general manager of the Knicks developmental league franchise.

“I’m going to give Scott the room to make basketball decisions and make recommendations to me,” Mills said. “He’s going to have a chance to manage the coaching staff, manage the scouting staff, and make recommendations as to where we should go as a basketball organization. I think we’ll be partners in that in the sense that he’ll come to me with his recommendation and we’ll debate it back and forth. But at the end of the day, I’m giving him the room to make those decisions.”

Madkins, who had a brief playing career in the NBA, worked in scouting for the Knicks when Thomas made some of his best selections, landing Trevor Ariza in the second round, David Lee and Wilson Chandler. 

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