Knicks hire David Blatt as consultant

Earlier today the Knicks announced they hired former coach David Blatt to be a basketball operations consultant. Blatt is an absolutely legendary coach and he was one of the finalists in the last two coaching searches the Knicks had. He recently retired from the bench after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Don’t get all weird about it. Montel Williams is doing fine and he first started noticing complications from MS in 1980! That was long before he was diagnosed, but the point is: he good. No seriously, go buy weed from him. So, right, anyway, Blatt!

I might be crazy but I think this a very pointed quote.

I officially retire from coaching.

Granted the Knicks made the quote “On behalf of David Blatt”, it should still leave Mike Miller on very solid ground. A good run to open his NBA coaching career certainly hasn’t hurt either. There is no need to be confused about this hiring though. It appears to be a straight forward and level headed move to help shape their future.

Blatt played college basketball with Steve Mills and Craig Robinson at Princeton. It would seem nepotism has poked its fingers into the fanbase’s anus once again, but honestly, this just seems like a simple case of- he’s the smartest basketball guy we know.

What will ultimately happen is Blatt could be a sort of scouting gatekeeper. He’ll offer his insights on G-League, international and domestic prospects. Don’t know much about Deni Avdija? Well guess what, David Blatt knows just about as much as anyone can know. Mills, Scott Perry and Blatt will probably shoot the shit about basketball and pick David’s brain about what kinds of guys actually help propel team success. To me, it’s another sign of a group that truly wants to figure it out and is actually given (more than) enough rope to do so. This is probably a vote of faith for Steve Mills from James Dolan and that will freak people out, but a good move is a good move.

Firing David Fizdale, for instance, was a good move. Not waiting too long to fill the David-void with Blatt should be applauded as a good move too and that’s the size of it. Now they need to fire Wally Szczerbiak and replace him with Baron Walter Louis Davis. Maybe we can toss Rebecca Haarlow out and sign Laura Dern to be sideline reporter too. Problems solved.