Mark Spears recently penned a piece for The Undefeated called, "Is the Knicks Culture Working?," where (spoiler alert) he suggests that it may very well be coming along quite nicely. That's not the prevailing narrative around the NBA media world however, where spamming the world with #lolKnicks takes for clicks is a cherished business model.

When ESPN editors say the quiet part out loud. #LOLKnicks is a business model. @JCMacriNBA



ESPN writers/pods/analysts know the deal. https://t.co/hgrjoEcGVt — Pachacutec (@Pachacutec_) July 6, 2019

Confession: I'm a psychologist with almost 25 years of coaching executives and helping organizations build sustainable success through actively cultivating talent and shaping their cultures. So for a long time, watching the ways the Knicks organization has operated has been a special kind of hell for me, given what I do for a living. Because of that, I can't entirely blame the NBA world for its long time mockery of the Knicks. It's just that the narrative is outdated, even if the results on the court have not caught up to the new reality yet.

From my particular perspective, I see reasons for hope that began July 14, 2017 - appropriately enough, Bastille Day, when one nation celebrates the overthrow of a despotic, failed regime. No guillotines this time, but on that day when Scott Perry was hired, a new order took hold at MSG. Let's take a step back and look at what's been happening and why it should make you hopeful:

Reason #1 for Hope: Scott Perry

Let's talk about Scott Perry and what he brings to the table. First, he's no Isaiah Thomas or Phil Jackson. When hired, he's not a recognizable name for the back pages. He's a long time NBA executive who has been around the league and knows the business of basketball. Even more important, he's a student of organizations and organizational excellence in sports through his father's connections to the Steelers. So let's not underestimate the value of a base level of organizational and business competence with experience in the NBA inside the Knicks front office, given their history. Resume? Check.

I've spent two and a half decades listening to leaders and assessing their abilities and coaching them. I've listened to Scott Perry very closely since he was hired. This is what I hear, from a distance: his greatest strength is probably his emotional intelligence and ability to read people, build relationships and promote the conditions where people around him are set up for success by putting them in the right roles, with the right support and processes around them. That's an ideal profile for a leader tasked with building a positive culture and organization for the long term. Leadership talent? Check.

What's more, he's able to ground these practices in a values-based story that clearly and succinctly tells people what he is about and why, all connected to his stories about his father. This ability to define and clearly communicate a values-based mission and vision is critical for any leader, but especially for one tasked with turning the dumpster fire of the Knicks organization around from where it was in 2017. Communication and vision? Check.

Reason #2 for Hope: Steve Mills

Yes, you read that right. Hear me out. I was just as apoplectic about the Tim Hardaway Jr. and Ron Baker signings at the time as anyone - actually much more than most Posting and Toasting commenters back then. My theory now is Mills was making decisive moves as a way to audition for keeping the top job and hire a number two guy in the wake of Phil Jackson's firing. David Griffin was out there at the time and was angling for Mills' job. Whatever the cause of those bad contracts, that's not the version of Mills we have in place now. The current version is a net positive, and I'll tell you why.

Jim Dolan does not trust a lot of people. He has made terrible choices about whom to hire for key jobs over the years. He is the opposite of Scott Perry when it comes to emotional intelligence. But he trusts Steve Mills, and he also doesn't like being a back page piñata. Because of that, he's okay outsourcing the team decision making if he believes it won't embarrass him. Steve Mills is a reason for hope because 1) he fully supports Scott Perry's decisions and organization building practices and 2) he keeps Dolan at bay and provides whatever handling is needed to give Perry the space to do what he needs to do without interference.

For that, Mills is worth every penny Jim Dolan pays him. Jim Dolan insurance policy? Check.

Reason #3 for Hope: Organization

By definition, an organizational culture should be bigger than any one leader. Future leaders have to align with and sustain a high performing culture, and one bad leader in a key position can undo everything (more on that later), but beyond Perry and Mills, what are the Knicks doing to stick the landing on building a culture? How are they building out their organization? This is admittedly less visible to us, but we can look at some signs.

First, let's look at decision making. Without cataloguing all the things we've seen since summer 2017, I would argue that the organization's decision making processes are, first of all, notable for being thorough, with lots of due diligence and preparation. They also appear to be cleanly aligned to support and amplify Perry and Mills' relationship-based vision for how people within an organization should function together and treat each other.

Examples of being thorough include the lengthy head coach interviewing process before pulling the trigger on Fizdale, the well prepared contingency options already vetted before the meeting with Porzingis when he demanded a trade, and the immediate pivot to a well developed plan B in free agency last week when it became clear that neither Kevin Durant nor Kawhi Leonard would be available.

We also hear some occasional leaks about diversity of opinion about draft prospects inside of MSG, which to me signals an environment that invites healthy internal debate and collaboration to arrive at basketball decisions. When you value people you have to listen to them and really give them a sense that their talents and perspectives are wanted. If that's what's happening, it's a good organizational sign - unlike what we hear about the Lakers these days, for example. Sound decision making process? Check.

Next, let's look at organizational alignment. Does each part of the organization complement or dovetail with the other parts of the organization? We can't see this directly but we see some signs. The G-League team, it's playbook and its developmental program are all, we are told, built to align with the NBA squad and what Fiz and his coaches are teaching. We saw G-League guys like Kadeem Allen and Luke Kornet come up and play meaningful minutes within the team's concepts on short notice last year, so this seems to be working. If they are emphasizing alignment on this level, its fair to guess that this is a principle they are trying to build into all of their basketball operations, at a minimum. Sound organizational fundamentals? Check.

Finally, let's look at people, the greatest of all influences on culture. Do the people they bring in fit the values and style Perry and Mills want to promote? Well, their biggest decision was hiring a head coach, and Fizdale clearly has strengths that fit right in. We can probably assume that the assistant coaches, developmental coaches, head of player development Craig Robinson and others brought into the fold all fit this model as well.

What's even more interesting and telling are the kinds of people they eject as not fitting with the culture. Joakim Noah was effectively banished after his blow up with Jeff Hornacek. When he was stretched rather than returned to the locker room for a final cap space eating year, a lot of people criticized the front office for it. But I would argue they were acting on their principles and showing how serious they are about the culture they are trying to build.

All of that is even more true when you look at the decision to trade Porzingis. Granted, KP made it easy for them by demanding a trade, but it's not as if they weren't ready. I expect, as has been rumored, that they had their own serious doubts about making him the cornerstone of their franchise anyway, ranging from injury concerns and related contract considerations, to the idea that they just don't want people who don't want to be part of what they are building. "Culture" is easy when the decisions are easy, but you earn your culture when you use your principles to make the hard decisions. Finding - and rejecting - the right people for your culture and style? Check.

Reason #4 for Hope: David Fizdale

What is the job of an NBA head coach? Is it the X's and O's of basketball and making lineup choices? Yes. But it's much more than that, and the basketball technical parts of the job are not the most difficult or rare competencies to find out there in the market. Lots of great assistant coaches can scheme and draw up ATO plays. The toughest part of the job is doing all that - either directly or by surrounding yourself with great assistants and helping them grow - while managing a lot of young people who make a lot more money than you do and who may have a lot more power than you do if they are league stars.

No matter the industry, it's almost always easier to find technical competence than it is to find threshold level technical competence combined with high end leadership ability. That leadership ability includes all those things I wrote about Perry above, including the ability to build trust and relationships, to identify strengths and set guys up for success, and to develop people and assess talent well (including assistant coach talent). And on top of all that, it requires the ability to keep learning and to be curious, to adjust from your mistakes and take tough feedback from people you can trust.

As much as I've listened to Scott Perry since he was hired, I've been listening to and watching David Fizdale as closely. My read on him, admittedly from a distance, is that Fizdale fits all the things I just mentioned. Keeping that locker room playing hard through a 17 win season with one year deals up and down the roster is no small feat. With the obvious outlier of Marc Gasol, people who have played for him as a coach or as an assistant rave about him as a guy to play for.

When you look at how free agency played out this summer, it's obvious that star players want to play for organizations and coaches they respect. The Knicks did not have enough of a foundation to attract top talent this summer, but Fizdale is still a potential asset for those kinds of opportunities in the future.

Does he also learn? After losing his Memphis job, he spent a year reaching out to experts in all kinds of fields, even outside of basketball, to identify what he should learn from the experience and where he went wrong, taking full responsibility for the rupture in Memphis. Maybe he's even learned something from Mike Miller's player development success in Westchester, because he just hired him to become a Knicks assistant coach this coming year. It's a sign of strength for a head coach to keep building his coaching staff and rewarding talent and success without being threatened by it.

Finally, he's good with the media. I know some fans think he's too smooth, maybe all talk and nothing to back it up, and I obviously disagree. But we can all agree that a Knicks head coach who can't handle the media will not be head coach for long. Coaches can grow and develop too (not just players), so what you want if you're New York is the right kind of head coach for long term success who fits your culture. Do the Knicks have that kind of coach? Signs point to yes. Head coach? Check.

Reason #5 for Hope: Strategic Judgment

Since Perry took over, we've been hearing him and Mills talk about "not skipping steps," suggesting they had a clear, realistic read for where they are as a franchise. Everything they have done since then suggests they do actually get it, because they have stuck to their word when it comes to building slowly and deliberately from within.

For example, they did not overreach for mid-tier free agents on bad contracts whose performance primes do not line up with the timelines of their developing core prospects. Though they've been widely mocked this summer, they made sound choices to add incremental talent that fits a personality mold and style for the locker room while maintaining maximum cap flexibility going forward. They recognize they are still in talent development and acquisition mode even as they need to begin to show more signs of organizational growth by winning more games.

I'd also add that they have not signed any bad or dumb contracts since Perry took over. This may seem like the equivalent of walking and chewing gum, but look around the league and look at the Knicks history. This is a very big deal. Teams kill themselves and set themselves back years with one or two bad contracts. This front office is looking reality in the eye and managing its team building strategy rationally.

It's true they have taken criticism for not acquiring bad contracts with picks attached. That's one strategic approach, but not the only way to advance organizationally. They have a lot of first round picks in the coming years, as well as some tasty looking (probably early) seconds. I think this year they decided to target players who they believed would fit their culture and style around the young core as a priority instead of sitting back and waiting for some team to need a salary dump partner.

You never know what kind of guy you're going to get as a dude in the locker room, maybe demanding minutes, in a salary dump and asset grab scenario. Plus if you wait, you miss out on your other targets. They made a deliberate choice, and it's a justifiable and understandable one. As it turns out, there were not a lot of tasty salary dump options out there anyway, once you look at the deals made and the pick protections on that Harkless trade. Sound strategic judgement? Check.

Cautions, Risks and Conclusions



This is an article about hope, not achievement. Dolan is still out there, ready to pop out of the water and ruin everyone's day.

On top of that, just becoming normal and competent is not as tough a hurdle as taking the next step to become a potential champion. Just because they are doing ok so far, doesn't mean they won't slip on a banana peel later.

Finally, luck is a thing. Some examples: What does this past offseason look like if Joel Embiid is not sick during the playoffs? Philly almost won that series and the major difference was Embiid's on-off stats. 76ers gave the eventual champion Raptors all they could handle. Or what if Dame Lillard missed that 3 point shot and Oklahoma City hangs on for that series? Does Paul George leave to join Kawhi to the Clippers? What if Miami had not signed Tyler Johnson's offer sheet and that contract went onto Saint Sean Marks' cap sheet? Do the Nets ever unwind enough cap space after that to eventually sign Kyrie and Durant? What if the Pelicans had not jumped up to the #1 pick to select Zion and the Lakers don't get #4? Does Anthony Davis even go to the Lakers? The margins for error in the NBA are razor thin. Luck is a thing. As with all things in life, you have to be good at what you do, but you also have to be lucky in a lot of ways.

Here's my bottom line: when it comes to the Knicks, my eyes have me watching the team with a particular slant, because of my experience and what I do for a living. I can't help it. Because of that, I think there are genuine reasons for Knicks fans to be hopeful - reasons bigger than any given player on the team. The organizational approach and foundations are looking healthier than they have in my lifetime, and there's a pretty fair chance I'm older than you are! Those organizational foundations are what's hardest and yet most critical to build and sustain.

Knicks fans shouldn't get too caught up in what ESPN, NBA writers, NBA pundits, NBA podcasters and Twitter users are selling when they put out non-stop #lolKnicks takes these days. I'm here to tell you there's a method to what the front office is doing, and that the method is sound. Let's hope they can keep it up and that it pays off.