Knicks Face Familiar Foe in Tug-Of-War for Former No. 1 Pick

Leon Rose and Scott Perry are on a collision course.

According to NBA insider Jake Fischer, Rose’s New York Knicks and Perry’s Sacramento Kings are in a tug-of-war for the services of former No. 1 pick Ben Simmons.

“The two teams that we can report on that have ongoing interest in Ben Simmons are Sacramento and New York. That’s the last word we got as we’re leaving Las Vegas,” Fischer said on his “Insider Notebook” livestreamed on Bleacher Report on July 17. “So, generally speaking, the Kings are still a player in the veteran guard market, and you can absolutely put Ben Simmons in that conversation, even though he’s obviously more of a hybrid player than Malcolm Brogdon, than [Russel] Westbrook, than Chris Paul.”

SNY’s Ian Begley was the first to report about the Knicks’ strong interest in Simmons.

“Simmons has met with three other teams and is expected to make a decision soon, per people familiar with the matter,” Begley wrote on July 2.

It turns out the Kings are one of them.

The Knicks only have the veteran minimum to offer Simmons, who signed a one-year, $1.08 million deal with the Los Angeles Clippers after his buyout with the Nets for the remaining portion of his five-year, $170 million rookie extension contract he originally signed with the Philadelphia 76ers.

The 6-foot-10 Simmons has fallen off the cliff since he left Philadelphia over mental health and mysterious back issues. His once promising career went south in Brooklyn.

Last season, he averaged 6.2 points, 5.2 rebounds and 6.9 assists in his final 33 games in Brooklyn. He only played 17 games for the Clippers and was an afterthought, averaging career-lows 2.9 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

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Last Knicks GM

The Knicks did not renew Perry’s contract after it expired in 2023. He was a holdover from the Steve Mills front office, which Rose succeeded. Perry served as the experienced voice in the Knicks’ front office under Rose, who was a first-time team executive.

The Knicks did not name a new general manager after Perry. But they promoted Gersson Rosas to senior vice president of basketball operations.

Perry has more than two decades of front office experience. He’s been a league executive since 2000 and has held front-office positions with the Detroit Pistons, Seattle Supersonics, Orlando Magic, Kings until the Knicks let him go in 2023. He returned to the Kings this summer, succeeding Monte McNair as the general manager.

Perry was part of the Pistons front office that built their 2004 championship roster. He was also partly responsible for drafting Kevin Durant when he was the assistant general manager for the Seattle Supersonics before the team relocated to Oklahoma City.

Perry returned to Detroit for four more seasons as vice president of basketball operations before moving to Orlando, where he selected Victor Oladipo and Aaron Gordon. Then he constructed the Knicks’ core led by Julius Randle and RJ Barrett that ended an eight-year playoff drought in 2021.

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Scott Perry Blamed For ‘Bust’ Deal

Perry was blamed for the Cam Reddish trade that did not pan out, according to Newsday’s Steve Popper.

It was the beginning of his end in New York, Popper wrote.

When Leon Rose arrived as team president, bringing with him his own advisers, he kept Perry in place, signing him to a contract extension in July 2021, and he remained an active voice as the team made the playoffs in two of the last three seasons. But his voice diminished with time as William Wesley, along with Gersson Rosas, who joined as a senior basketball consultant, took a more prominent role in shaping the roster.

While the Knicks have been successful in recent years with this combined leadership in the front office, there is the occasional finger-pointing, and when the team traded for Cam Reddish and then discarded him in a deal a year later, blame was put on Perry for advocating for the deal — which in the end did bring Josh Hart to New York.

Shortly after the January 2022 deal, which sent Kevin Knox and a first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks for Reddish, was consummated, The Athletic reported that recently fired Tom Thibodeau was not a fan of the trade. And it showed in Reddish’s lack of playing time. He had 37 DNP-CDs (did not play-coach decision) across parts of two seasons.

For taking a flier on the former 10th overall pick, the Knicks gave up Knox (another draft lottery bust) and a heavily protected future first-round selection, which the Atlanta Hawks used as part of the three-first-round pick package that landed them All-Star guard Dejounte Murray from the San Antonio Spurs.

The Knicks later flipped Reddish for Josh Hart.

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