Knicks inexplicably fire team president Steve Mills as trade deadline looms

The New York Knicks rarely have good timing, but firing team president Steve Mills the week of the trade deadline is a new level of insanity.

Based on their track record under owner James Dolan, nothing is too surprising regarding the New York Knicks. But things reached a new level on Tuesday, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting the team has parted ways with team president Steve Mills.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, general manager Scott Perry will take over basketball operations in Mills’ stead.

Mills took over as Knicks’ general manager in 2013, working under team president Phil Jackson starting in 2014. He was elevated to the president role when Jackson was let go and had been in that job since then.

It’s not that the Knicks have had success with Mills involved in basketball operations, with the worst record in the league (178-365) since 2013. But the timing of the move is curious, to put it mildly.

The trade deadline for this year is Thursday, as in 48 hours from now give or take, and the Knicks have been fairly heavily involved in some rumors. The quick announcement that Perry will stay in and add to his general manager role offers some sense of continuity, but the search for a new President of Basketball Operations is also starting immediately. The candidate who’s atop Dolan’s wish list, Toronto Raptors’ president Masai Ujiri, is still a pipe dream.

It’s fine for organizations to make changes when things aren’t working. But the Knicks are constantly chasing change in an effort to spark something or create headlines when the dysfunction starts at the top with Dolan and there’s no sign that will ever change.

If you somehow bet on the next weird move by the Knicks being “firing a top executive the week of the trade deadline”, congratulations. But truly, the Knicks are gonna Knicks until further notice and dismissing Mills when they did fits the organization’s template perfectly.