In a surprising move, this morning New York Knicks President Donnie Walsh announced he would be stepping down as of the end of June. Knicks owner James Dolan release the following statement:

“Following a long series of discussions regarding his future role with the New York Knicks, Donnie Walsh and I have mutually agreed that he will be leaving his position as president, basketball operations of the Knicks at the end of June. Donnie will remain with the team as a consultant for the 2011-12 season. In a relatively short time with the Knicks, Donnie made a tremendous impact, which will be felt for many years to come. We thank Donnie for his leadership, hard work and many contributions to the revitalization of the team. With some of the NBA’s premier players, an outstanding coach and one of the league’s most passionate and loyal fanbases, we are extremely confident about the future of the Knicks franchise.”

Walsh had been in contract discussions for the last few months and was seeking assurances that his would be the final say in personnel decisions. Ownership’s unwillingness to give Walsh that control is likely behind Walsh’s decision to step back and take a lesser role with the team.

Glen Grunwald, the Knicks’ senior vice president for basketball operations will serve as interim GM beginning July 1st.

HOOPSWORLD’s Tommy Beer in on this story, so expect more as this story develops.

Chandler Off The Market?

Most discussions about the top free agents of 2011 start with the hard-to-find big men, and among those none are bigger than Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol and Dallas Mavericks center Tyson Chandler. The jury is still very much out on Gasol, who isn’t sold on returning to Memphis, but as for Chandler it sounds like he won’t be part of the discussion at all.

Sources with knowledge of the situation in Dallas tell HOOPSWORLD that the Mavericks will extend Chandler before the lock-out, and more importantly, before Chandler can test the waters of free agency.

Not that he was too concerned about doing that. Chandler has enjoyed the best year of his career after being acquired by the Mavericks in a deal that sent Erick Dampier Matt Carroll and Eduardo Najera to the Charlotte Bobcats. In 74 regular-season games with the Mavs, Chandler averaged 10.1 points and 9.4 rebounds while shooting a career-best 65% from the field. And now, of course, he’s competing for his first NBA championship. Retaining Chandler is the easiest decision Mavs owner Mark Cuban will have to make in for some time.

It’s not a complete no-brainer, of course. These decisions never are. It was just a little over a year ago when the Mavericks were sure they had found their starting center of the future in Brendan Haywood, who was acquired in a mid-season trade. Last year was a contract year for Haywood, and he put up solid numbers in making a case for his next deal. He averaged 9.8 points and 10.3 rebounds in 49 games with Washington and then
8.1 points and 7.4 rebounds in 28 games for Dallas. He signed a contract that could extend to six years and pay him nearly $9 million per season.

In retrospect, that’s a contract the Mavericks would like to have back. Haywood was promised the starting role, but lost that spot to Chandler before the regular season even started.

So the question has to be asked: Will Tyson Chandler be as good when he’s not playing for a contract?

The former #2 overall draft pick has struggled with consistency, and has been traded six times in his decade in the NBA, even traded twice by the New Orleans Hornets after he failed to pass a physical when they dealt him to the OKC Thunder and wound up getting him back. It’s hard to believe, based on his positive impact on and off the court in Dallas, that he could wear out his welcome to many times . . .especially in a league so short on quality centers. It’s a risk the Mavericks will take however, and rightly so. Sometimes a player just needs to find the right situation, and for Chandler the right situation appears to be in Dallas.

Rockets Introduce McHale

Houston Rockets fans were less than impressed when the team announced that they had signed Kevin McHale as their next head coach earlier this week. First and foremost, McHale was a player on two Boston Celtics teams that beat the Rockets in the NBA Finals (1981, 1986), and sports fans have long memories. Second, though, is the simple fact that McHale has a brief an unimpressive record as an NBA head coach.

There has been a story widely circulating that the Rockets weren’t interested in retaining former head coach Rick Adelman, whose contract expired at the end of the season. HOOPSWORLD head learned, however, that this is simply not the case. The Rockets put a lucrative contract on the table for Adelman and the veteran coach turned it down. Piecing together make-shift lineups while not getting the help he needed from the front office is very likely the reason why. As good as Adelman was at getting the most out of unlikely players, it wore on him last season, especially after the Rockets traded Shane Battier to the Memphis Grizzlies very much against Adelman’s wishes.

In speaking with a Houston source about what McHale would bring that Adelman didn’t, the source admitted there wasn’t a really good answer . . .eventually settling for: “a fresh voice.” After interviewing more than a dozen candidates and talking to both fans and detractors of McHale’s, the Rockets decided his was the fresh voice their franchise needs.

“Kevin McHale is a proven NBA champion who has the leadership skills and basketball knowledge necessary to guide our team into the future,” Rockets owner Les Alexander said in a press conference this morning. “Kevin’s hard-nosed work ethic and tenacity on the court led him to a Hall of Fame career and a legacy as one of the NBA’s greatest low post players of all time. I’m looking forward to seeing Kevin share his unique basketball knowledge and experience as he leads our talented group of players into the next era of Rockets basketball.”

“I’d like to thank Mr. Alexander and the entire Rockets organization for offering me this exciting opportunity to return to coaching with a first-class organization like the Rockets,” said McHale.  ”As we explored the opportunity to come to Houston, it felt like the right situation for me.  I enjoy the competitive nature of our game and I am looking forward to getting to work with the very talented roster of players that are already in place here in Houston.”

It’s clear that the Rockets believe they have their man, but not everyone in attendance was happy to just swallow the company line. Some expressed concerns that the three finalists for the coaching vacancy, including McHale himself, were all sub-.500 career coaches. McHale admitted that was an issue and said he’s looking forward to this opportunity more than his previous two stints because he’s not just inheriting a system mid-season. He will be able to take an already very good offensive team (he gave Rick Adelman a lot of credit for the groundwork he laid) and mold them through his own training camp process and with his own group of coaches.

{AUTHOR_BOX}”It would be silly for me to go out there and not do a lot of stuff that Rick Adelman does on the offensive end,” McHale said. “Chris (Webber) used to play for coach Adelman. He knows what a good coach he is. Chris and I talk all the time in the studio about how much we love that offense and how much we like the different things coach Adelman brought to the game. I’d be silly not to incorporate a lot of that into my offense.”

To his credit, Rockets guard Kevin Martin flew in from Florida, where he trains during the summer, just to attend the press conference and help welcome his new head coach to town.

McHale still has some duties to perform for his previous employer, Turner Television, but he will soon get to work filling out his coaching staff and preparing for the draft. He did state very clearly the one thing that everyone wanted to hear:

“Our goal is to make the playoffs, and if we don’t, it’ll be on me and my staff.”

Honestly, Kevin McHale is going to have to win over the Houston Rockets fan base. The team can say all of the positive things they want to say, but for all of McHale’s amazing accomplishments on the basketball court his performance as a general manager and head coach has left a lot to be desired. He has that in common with former players like Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Michael Jordan, who have all struggled to find the same success off the court that they enjoyed while on it.

Still, McHale is now a Houston Rocket, and fans should be excited about that and hopeful for next season. It’s a new era in Rockets basketball. Let’s hope it’s a good one.

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