New York Knicks general manager Scott Perry started the NBA season on shaky ground. But along with Julius Randle and the Knicks’ rise, Perry is believed to have found his solid footing on the new regime.
ESPN’s NBA Insider Brian Windhorst posited on his podcast that Knicks team president Leon Rose would retain Perry on Tuesday.
Brian Windhorst just dropped that Scott Perry will get a new contract with the #Knicks. pic.twitter.com/GH2UQ1JtB5
— alder almo (@alderalmo) May 18, 2021
“Scott Perry only got a one-year contract extension,” Windhorst said on Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective podcast.
“I think someone should want to hire him,” his guest, ESPN’s The Jump host Ramona Shelburne replied.
“I’ll get in trouble for saying this because it will get aggregated, but I hear Scott Perry will be around the Knicks longer,” said Windhorst. “He will be. I hear it is all going to be worked out.”
Perry is a remnant of the Steve Mills era. But he’s not at all a stranger to the new regime. He has prior connections with the Knicks’ current team executive vice president and Rose’s senior advisor William Wesley.
The two executives have known each other since Perry’s days with the Detroit Pistons in the early 2000s. Wesley has become an influential figure in the Pistons’ locker room, being Rip Hamilton’s confidant and a close friend of coach Larry Brown.
While Perry was there, he helped the Pistons build a consistent playoff roster that went to the Eastern Conference Finals six times and won an NBA championship in 2004 under Brown.
Before this season, Perry’s future with the team was murky.
But to Perry’s credit, as Shelburne discussed on the Windhorst’s podcast, he was responsible for pivoting quickly to Randle after Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving spurned the Knicks.
Perry locked up Randle to a team-friendly deal, and his gamble paid off.
Randle has emerged as an All-Star this season, leading the surprising Knicks to the playoffs for the first time in eight years. He is the favorite to win the Most Improved Player of the Year and a cinch to be selected in one of the three All-NBA teams at the end of the season.
Perry has also stuck to his guns during the 2019 NBA Draft picking RJ Barrett with the third overall pick despite some quarters in the Knicks organization wanting to trade down and pick up additional draft assets in return.
After an All-Rookie Team snub last season, Barrett bounced back and has added an outside shot to his developing all-around game that has become vital in Knicks’ success this season.
He also signed Reggie Bullock and Marcus Morris and flipped him for a first-round pick that eventually became Immanuel Quickley.
Perry was also responsible for drafting Mitchell Robinson in the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft and locking him up to a team-friendly contract. But he also had his shares of misses, like picking Kevin Knox over Mikal Bridges, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Michael Porter, Jr, and hiring Dave Fizdale over Mike Budenholzer.
Before coming to New York in 2017, Perry also had stints with Orlando — where he drafted Victor Oladipo, Aaron Godron, current Knick Elfrid Payton, former Knick Mario Hezonja, — and the Kings after his first stop in Detroit.
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