The silence has been deafening and it finally will be broken Monday.
President Steve Mills, GM Scott Perry and coach David Fizdale will speak publicly for the first time since June 21 at Monday’s media day as the Knicks open training camp burdened by a six-year playoff drought.
Players are being made available ahead of Tuesday’s first practice as a woebegone franchise integrates seven new free agents and two key draft picks, RJ Barrett and Ignas Brazdeikis, into a season most experts view as another difficult one.
Other than making signee Julius Randle available for four minutes during halftime of their summer league opener in early July, the Knicks have not staged press conferences for any of their new signees. While the new PR philosophy appears to be less said, the better, a three-month-plus media embargo is bizarre even by this franchise’s standards.
Mills has been either GM or president for all six non-playoff seasons, replacing former GM Glen Grunwald after the Knicks went 54-28 in 2012-13.
If the Knicks, who open their preseason on Oct. 7 in Washington, are already in the tank by Dec. 1, it will be interesting whether Mills is around to make their 2020 lottery selection. Hot prospects Cole Anthony, LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, James Wiseman and Nico Mannion are already being projected in the top 5.
If the Knicks sputter, this will be the first time Brooklyn has a chance at attracting as much media buzz in the New York market.
Mills will finally face the music and get a chance to explain losing out to the Nets on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving after reams of rhetoric coming from management and Fizdale that star players now want to play for the Knicks because of their new culture.
That proved erroneous. Mills and Perry never met with a star free agent — not even Bronx product Kemba Walker, who joined the rival Celtics. Making matters worse, DeAndre Jordan, who played for the Knicks late last season, spurred the decision for Durant and Irving to join him in Brooklyn.
In fairness, the Knicks could have landed a meeting with Kawhi Leonard four days into free agency, but they smartly viewed themselves as major long shots and didn’t want to lose out on their other free-agent targets.
On the first night of free agency, after it became clear Durant-Irving-Jordan were headed to Brooklyn, the Knicks released a statement:
“While we understand that some Knicks fans could be disappointed with tonight’s news, we continue to be upbeat and confident in our plans to rebuild the Knicks to compete for championships in the future, through both the draft and targeted free agents,” Mills said.On Monday, Perry and Mills are not expected to dwell on the Knicks’ chances of making the playoffs after a 17-65 tankfest.
Sources have indicated, however, the perception of tanking redux is not what the franchise seeks to encourage after signing a slew of young veterans. The front office wants to win a lot more games in 2019-20 to make the Knicks more attractive to trade prospects and star free agents in 2020 and 2021.
Fizdale has not met with Knicks writers since the night of their season finale on April 11, when he said, “Hopefully all things that we go after puts us in the mix of being a winning team. I think we’re sitting in a very optimistic place.”
During July’s summer league, Fizdale said the club was “holding me hostage.’’
Fizdale’s media boycott is stunning considered he was hired partly for his outsized personality, charisma and media friendliness.
Fizdale is focused on a mammoth task of figuring out a sensible rotation for a deep roster that has no certifiable star and developing No. 3 pick Barrett, whose offensive efficiency and rigid shooting stroke looked like a problem at the Las Vegas summer league.The point-guard battle will be fierce among Dennis Smith Jr., Elfrid Payton and Frank Ntilikina. Second-year man Kevin Knox has to fend off veteran small forward Marcus Morris.
The Knicks coach has told his players he wants to increase their pace. MSG analyst/legend Walt Frazier told The Post the coach may play a pressing defense to take advantage of their enormous depth.
Fizdale is free to explain his plan Monday. But no matter how many public-relations officers the Knicks hire, perception of this franchise won’t change until the losing stops on the court.