Maybe, just maybe, if the Knicks can pull this off, they will be the ones committing highway robbery and doing the fleecing.

Torontos Masai Ujiri is emerging as the hoped-for candidate for the Knicks to replace Phil Jackson. After three years of Knicks wandering in the wilderness under a great coach but dreadful executive, Ujiri would be as wise a choice as anything they have done at the Garden in a long time.

Assuming they cannot get R.C. Buford to leave San Antonio, Ujiri is a logical target not only because hes good, but because the Knicks wouldnt have to negotiate with him anymore. But wanting and getting are two different things.

Ujiri has won as a GM in Denver and Toronto. And he has won virtually every trade, twice crushing the Knicks. He is demanding of coaches, as was Jackson. But as a rival exec said, Hes less egomaniacal and willing to listen.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

It might be.

Ujiri has a better team in Toronto a much better team if free agent Kyle Lowry stays. Ujiri signed a five-year extension in the fall. He likes the autonomy in Toronto, which, while not as big a market as New York, isnt Mayberry, either. But give it a shot, Knicks.

I would be shocked if he took it. He has good gig there, he runs his own show. He has an owner who stays in the background, one league source said. I dont think hed want a chaotic situation.

Chaotic? The Knicks? Hey, they made the playoffs. Not under Jackson, but they made the playoffs. And whats chaotic about firing your president three days before free agency and six days after he made your lottery draft pick?

But if the Knicks are determined, they should try, offering sound compensation, if for no other reason than to ensure they never deal with him again.

Quick refresher course: Ujiri traded Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks for half their roster, the gross national product of Sweden and an apparent promise to corroborate on at least one more lopsided trade in the future.

That subsequent deal which until the Nets cozied up on a phone call with Bostons Danny Ainge on 2013 draft night was the poster child for worst basketball trade in New York since, well, ever.

The Knicks got Andrea Bargnani with two years left on his deal at $11.5 million and $11.8 million, for Marcus Camby, Quentin Richardson, Steve Novak, a 2016 first-round pick, and two second-rounders, in 2014 and 2017. Bargnani played 71 games in two years for the Knicks, averaging 13.9 points. The Knicks won 37, then 17 games with Bargnani. The Raptors won 48 and 49, making the playoffs each year.

Yeah, take that Masai Ujiri.

One irony is Ujiri traded Anthony, who wanted out of Denver and wanted New York. With that narrow window, Ujiri, in a three-team deal including Minnesota, still fetched Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, a 2014 first-round pick and second- rounders in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The Raptors, under Ujiri, have been a playoff team in all four of his seasons, reaching the Eastern Finals last year. With Denver, the Nuggets made the playoffs in each of his three years and he earned Executive of the Year in 2012-13 after a 57-win campaign. The Nuggets, though, never got out of the first round.

In New York, just make the playoffs and youre a god. Under Jackson, the Knicks barely made March before being eliminated from playoff contention.

Ujiri, to the average New Yorker, might best be known as the exec who famously shouted F Brooklyn to frenzied playoff fans outside Air Canada Centre in 2014. He apologized, was fined, but has yet to wear an I (heart) Brooklyn T-shirt. Nets players had claimed they wanted Toronto.

I have to stand up for my team, my organization, my city and the country Canada, Ujiri said. Were not going to sit down here and just be bullied by anybody and be thrown around by anybody.

Sounds like a guy the Knicks need. Good luck trying to get him.

Original post:
Knicks' ideal Jax replacement is a pipe dream worth pursuing - New York Post

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