Scott Perry to add Gerald Madkins as Knicks assistant GM, source says
Scott Perry, the new general manager of the New York Knicks, poses for the media following a press conference at the Knicks training facility in Greenburgh, NY on Monday, July 17, 2017. Credit: Errol Anderson
Knicks president Steve Mills said new GM Scott Perry would be able to add people to the front office, and he’s close to doing just that.
The Knicks are set to bring back former Clippers executive Gerald Madkins to be their assistant general manager, a league source said. Madkins held the same title with the Clippers. ESPN first reported that Madkins was leaving the Clippers to join the Knicks.
Madkins, a former Knicks scout, worked with Perry for one season with the Seattle SuperSonics (which became the Oklahoma City Thunder). Perry was the assistant general manager and Madkins the director of West Coast scouting in 2007-08.
It’s unclear if Madkins’ impending hiring means someone in the Knicks’ front office will be demoted or fired. The Knicks would not confirm that Madkins, 48, would be coming onboard.
But Perry said at his introductory news conference last week that he quickly would “evaluate the entire operations department” and determine whether he wanted to bring in other people.
“Then I’ll be in a position to make strong suggestions to Steve that maybe we need to add some more to our group,” Perry said. “The goal is we want to have first in class when it comes to our front office operational staff. That’s our goal and we’re going to go at this thing together.”
There could be more new faces hired and possibly let go from the Knicks basketball department with Perry in charge of the day-to-day operations.
“As we look forward we’re going to rebuild what the front office of the Knicks look like,” Mills said last week. “I feel really good about a lot of the people we have working for us. But we also know there’s room for us to grow and get better if we want to be a first class organization and Scott will have the freedom to sort of meet with everyone in our organization.
“Where he sees there’s opportunities to bring new people into the organization, he has the flexibility to do that and we’ll work as a tandem in making sure that we have a first class operation.”
Madkins, a journeyman player, was a Knicks scout from 2003-07 under Isiah Thomas’ reign as president. During Madkins’ tenure, the Knicks drafted Trevor Ariza, Channing Frye, Nate Robinson, David Lee and Wilson Chandler.
Madkins also served as director of scouting for the Rockets and vice president of player personnel for the Hornets before he was hired by the Clippers in 2012. He spent five years with Los Angeles as director of basketball operations and assistant general manager.
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
