Golden State Warriors consultant and NBA great Jerry West seems to have doubts about whether New York Knicks president Phil Jackson can succeed as a front office executive. West also doubted whether Jackson could draw big-name free agents this summer and believes being an executive will be an entirely different challenge for Jackson.
Jackson brought with him high hopes of turning around the Knicks franchise when owner James Dolan hired him last year. New York, though, finished with the second-worst record in the league after its first full season under Jackson, and everything increasingly seems to hinge on how successful Jackson is in the offseason. The Knicks have the fourth overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft, but West didn't sound so sure about whether Jackson will make the Big Apple a draw for free agents this summer.
"It will remain to be seen whether they'll be able to turn their fortunes around. They have a lot of money to spend on free agents, but a lot of times people don't want to play certain places for different reasons," West said on SiriusXM Radio, according to the New York Post.
He then stressed that being a successful NBA coach doesn't necessarily translate into being a successful NBA executive - especially if Jackson can't land a top-tier free agent.
"If you're not successful in getting free agents it will set their progress back," West said. "It's a completely different challenge for him. He's had teams with enormous talent. He's coached them brilliantly and won championships, but it's a different challenge for him."
Although Pat Riley made the successful transition from coach to executive, West indicated Jackson may not turn out to be the next Riley.
"It's a little easier for Pat,'' said West. "He's had a lot more experience in both sides in coaching and now in the front office. With Phil, it's going to be interesting to see what happens back there. They didn't have the kind of year I'm sure they wanted to have. Everyone in the league feels like they made two trades that made helped Cleveland tremendously and one that helped Dallas this year.''
This summer, as West suggested, will be telling for Jackson. The two trades - Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Tyson Chandler to the Dallas Mavericks - were more about dumping salaries and changing the locker room culture than bringing in star-caliber players. With New York projected to have around $22 million in cap space to use in July, the question now is what Jackson can do with it.
