Here's our weekly Knicks mailbag with SNY's NBA Insider Ian Begley...

@The__Cooler: Why do you think the Knicks are so against a proper rebuild? In my opinion it's James Dolan. He owns many venues, and has the mentality that you always need a name on the marquee. Look at the last 10 years: He signed Amare to a 5 year deal, even though his knees per the Suns doctors, only had 3 years left in them. The Melo trade. He traded 5 starters on a young rising team that had chemistry, for another name on the marquee, Carmelo Anthony. Didn't matter that Melo was not a great fit. The Bargnani trade. Phil Jackson. Derrick Rose. I can go on and on.

Dolan has run the Knicks like a concert promoter and not someone who cares about winning. These Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul, and Carmelo Anthony rumors only reinforce that.

The irony here is that Knicks fans do not care about names. They love the KNICKS. Case in point, Jeremy Lin. Undrafted out of Harvard, waived by 3 teams, Knicks fans fell in love with him. Steve Novak. Kristaps Porzingis. Knicks fans do not need a big name to cheer for. They love the team and will always support the team. If you put up a poll online tomorrow asking: Would you support the Knicks next season if they went 0-82 but Frank Ntilikina, Kevin Knox, Mitchell Robinson, and RJ Barrett all showed significant improvement and the team played hard every night, and they ended up with a Top 5 pick in the loaded 2021 NBA Draft, I think 80 percent or more would be in favor. Your thoughts?

Hey, Cooler. We asked for a question, not a guest column lol.

You bring up some interesting points here. Let’s start with Dolan. I’m not here to defend the owner. The Knicks have been mostly bad under his watch and he bears some responsibility for that. He’s been a part of several unforced errors on and off the court that have set the organization back. But I don’t think he’s been the driving force behind moves made in the last six years or so.

He said publicly that he was going to let Jackson do what he wanted to do, without interference. He had some influence on some team staffing decisions in Jackson’s tenure. But, by and large, it’s my understanding that he let Jackson run the team as he saw fit. It’s also my understanding that Dolan took the same approach with former president Steve Mills and GM Scott Perry. I wouldn’t be surprised if Dolan wanted Leon Rose and his group to construct a winning team as soon as possible because the Knicks haven’t made the playoffs since 2013. But I expect that Dolan will take the same (mostly) hands-off approach with Rose & Co. that he had with Jackson and Mills.

Will the Knicks, under Rose, take the approach that you suggest in your question: playing the young guys a ton of minutes, lose a ton of games and hope that the players can improve by playing through their mistakes? I don’t expect them to take that route. But if the price to trade for Paul is too high and trades for Westbrook or another veteran point guard don’t make sense, then maybe they go that route by default. I think that their primary plans involve adding veteran experience to the roster.

Just how much veteran experience is added -- and whether those veterans take minutes away from the younger players -- remains to be seen. I think a lot of it will depend on how much it will cost to add starting-caliber vets.

One other note on the offseason approach: several people in touch with decision-makers at MSG say they expect that the Knicks will take a player’s fit with/impact on RJ Barrett into account when considering a potential move.

@Knickzfeed: Any updates on who the Knicks have interviewed, have interest in in the draft (Doesn’t have to be a top pick)?

We listed the players the Knicks have expressed degrees of interest in in an earlier story. Here are those names: Isaac Okoro, Devin Vassell, Killian Hayes, Kira Lewis Jr., Cole Anthony, Tyrese Haliburton, RJ Hampton, Theo Maledon, Tyrell Terry, Precious Achiuwa, Isaiah Joe. The Knicks have probably talked to dozens of other players and there will probably be dozens of names added to the list as we get closer to the draft.

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