Report: Leon Rose Starts as Knicks President Sunday, March 1
As per a report by Marc Stein of the New York Times, Leon Rose will be joining the Knicks as their President of Basketball Operations this Sunday, March 1. This matches up with our own Jonathan Macri's report on February 23 that Rose would be taking over as soon as this week. Rose agreed to replace the then-recently fired Steve Mills in early February. He has yet to officially assume the position because he had duties to fulfill as an agent before he could leave behind his profession of agency and transition to President of the Knicks. These duties included detaching from the players he represented and his hand in the Dwyane Wade "Legacy" Celebration in Miami last weekend.
The Knicks have yet to formally announce Rose's hiring, but regardless of the date of the announcement, it sounds as if all systems are go for Sunday.
Rose's resume includes being the agent of numerous top players in more than two decades as an agent. These clients include LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Allen Iverson, Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Devin Booker. It remains to be seen whether his wealth of knowledge of the basketball world acquired from being an agent can translate to his ability to run the most valuable franchise in sports with no prior experience in a front-office.
In terms of direct impact of personnel, Rose has been heavily linked to Head Coaching candidate Tom Thibodeau - to the extent where, again, our own Jonathan Macri reported that a source familiar with the Knicks' thinking estimated a 90 percent chance that Thibodeau is brought on to replace Interim Head Coach Mike Miller (who is expected to be retained in some other capacity).
The Knicks' rotations have possible change coming, as Ian Begley reported for SNY that current GM Scott Perry gives lineup input "every day", according to Mike Miller. When Rose begins to have true involvement with the team, he might decide to give the veterans signed by Perry last summer less minutes as a means of giving the members of the team's young core more playing time.
Whether Perry will remain General Manager past this season under Leon Rose remains to be seen.
