Hey, remember that time Donnie Walsh left the Knicks and James Dolan appointed Glen Grunwald as the interim GM and said they would immediately start looking for replacements? Well, he hasn't really followed through on the latter part of that. Since that day in June, the Knicks have interviewed exactly zero candidates to replace Walsh. Dolan's been mired in lockout negotiations and the front office has had little else to do but golf and twiddle their respective genitals. According to Alan Hahn's article from last night, that's because Grunwald is the man for the time being.
Knicks owner James Dolan appointed Grunwald, whose official title remains senior vice president of basketball operations, to the role of interim general manager in June when Donnie Walsh decided not to return as team president. It is likely, according to several sources with knowledge of the situation, that Grunwald will hold the position for the entire 2011-12 season.
Dolan said in a statement in June that the franchise would "begin an immediate search for a new president and general manager," but according to multiple sources, the team has yet to formally interview any candidates to replace Walsh. The sense is that Grunwald, a former Toronto Raptors general manager who has been with the Knicks since Isiah Thomas hired him in 2006, can handle the job for now.
The question, then, is when "for now" ends. As Hahn and everybody else on the planet notes, we're approaching 2012 free agency and the massive managerial endeavor therein. The hope is to get, say, Chris Paul to join the Knicks, (a fate that is both highly definitely likely and totally completely impossible depending on which ESPN article you're reading) and it would seem less than ideal to have a front office in flux during that process.
So, this is confusing and I am confused. I just wrote a bunch of confused words about this for the Sports Section, if you don't believe me. If Grunwald's the guy, that's awesome, and I hope they've made that clear to him. If he's not the guy, then it might be wise to find the guy quite soon, since a most important juncture isn't far in the future. Even if the guy is someone from within the organization like Mark Warkentien or Allan Houston, why not make the promotion sooner rather than later?
Right? What say you? Am I reading too far into this, or misreading it entirely?