Cavaliers' Aller agrees to chief strategist position with Knicks

Cavaliers senior director of basketball operations Brock Aller has agreed to take a position as the chief strategist of the New York Knicks, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv.

"League sources say Aller will be one of Rose’s right-hand men and will have influence in many aspects of the organization," Begley reported.

The Knicks expect the deal to be finalized within the next week or so, he added.

Aller has been with the Cavs in one capacity or another since 2005. His mastery of the salary cap is widely respected around the league. That and his relationship with Knicks basketball operations chief Leon Rose is what landed Aller the job.

Rose is a longtime successful player agent who took over the Knicks earlier this season. His reshaping of the front office is likely to include several more moves.

Aller has served as Cleveland's senior director of basketball operations since 2017. Prior to that, he spent a decade as a personal assistant to Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert.

Cavs GM Koby Altman once told AmicoHoops/SI.com that Aller has played a key role in “all of our strategies."

Gilbert once called Aller "instrumental" in the Cavs' 2015 trade with the Knicks for guards J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert. As Stefan Bondy of the NY Daily News pointed out, Smith is a former Rose client.

With the Cavs, Aller is mostly responsible for assisting with contract and free agency negotiations, as well as "the application of the collective bargaining agreement in the roster's development," according to the team's media guide.

"Since the coronavirus shutdown, Rose has been preparing for the draft with GM Scott Perry and the staff he inherited," Bondy reported. "Rose had hoped to use the rest of this season to evaluate the department before making changes. The uncertainty of the ongoing shutdown has made it more likely that Perry remains with the organization, according to a source."

Sam Amico covers the Cavaliers and NBA for SI.com. Follow him @AmicoHoops.