When it comes to the New York Knicks, nothing is easy. They looked like they had the inside track to making a much-needed blockbuster trade this offseason when the Utah Jazz made three-time NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell available in a trade.
For weeks it was reported that the Knicks were the leaders in the clubhouse for Donovan despite the two sides hitting an impasse on multiple occasions. Eventually, the Jazz reached their breaking point and the Cleveland Cavaliers swooped in and made a deal for Mitchell.
It was a move that surprised him, as Mitchell thought that he was going to be heading to his hometown Knicks in a trade. So, how did the Knicks come up short in what seemed like a deal that was there for the taking?
According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, it could be because of the team’s confusing front office hierarchy. “Leon delegates too much—delegates to a fault,” one coaching source told Berman. “They had a breakaway layup and blew it.”
While president Leon Rose is the face of the front office, he wasn’t actually the one who took the lead on the Mitchell negotiations. Instead, according to Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe, Gersson Rosas was leading the Mitchell negotiations with the Jazz.
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Rosas previously held the president title with the Minnesota Timberwolves before being fired in 2021 and was brought on with the Knicks as a consultant in February. His responsibilities clearly grew as Rose never actually talked to Danny Ainge in trade negotiations.
That is certainly not something that Knicks fans will want to hear as it sounds like the front office dropped the ball a little bit when it came to trade talks surrounding Mitchell. However, it is anyone’s guess what Rose’s presence would have done, if anything, as Ainge was asking for a lot more from the Knicks than what he accepted from the Cavaliers.
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Outside of Rosas and general manager Scott Perry, there is a lot of inexperience in New York’s front office. In addition to Rose, William Wesley, who is executive vice president, didn’t have any front office experience when joining the Knicks.
