CAA's Leon Rose is close to an agreement to become the Knicks' team president, reports SNY's Ian Begley.
Begley was first to report New York's interest in Rose.
In addition to the expected hire of Rose, William 'World Wide Wes' Wesley is under strong consideration to be part of the Knicks' organization under Rose, per an SNY source. Wesley and Rose have a strong relationship.
Rose, one of the top player agents in the NBA, is currently the agent for Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, Joel Embiid, Victor Oladipo, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, LaMelo Ball, and a host of others.
While Towns and Booker are not free agents after the 2019-20 season, there have been whispers about the futures of both. The Knicks, who maintained their salary cap flexibility while signing players to only one- and two-year guarantees this past offseason, could potentially be players for one or both of them if they hit the trade market.
Rose is close with John Calipari, Tom Thibodeau, and Mark Jackson, who could all be potential candidates to replace interim head coach Mike Miller after the season.
If Rose and the Knicks finalize a deal, he would be the latest NBA agent turned executive, with both the Warriors and Lakers recently hiring former agents to prominent executive roles.
The Warriors hired Bob Myers away from Wasserman Media Group to be their president of basketball operations, and the Lakers hired Rob Pelinka away from SFX Management to become their GM.
Earlier Thursday, Begley reported that people around Knicks owner James Dolan continued to have "strong concerns" about the compensation it could take to land Raptors president Masai Ujiri, who was initially viewed as a top candidate to replace Mills.
According to Begley, there was "serious pessimism" about the Knicks' pursuit of Ujiri. Meanwhile, the Knicks had continued to gauge the interest of player agents, Begley reported.
The Knicks' president job has been vacant since Tuesday, when the team fired Steve Mills.