It’s premature to speculate on where the Knicks might go if they decide to let Hornacek go after the season. The group of available candidates could include Jason Kidd, David Fizdale, David Blatt, Monty Williams and current ESPN broadcaster and former Warriors coach Mark Jackson, who has strong relationships with several people in the Knicks organization. San Antonio Spurs assistant Ettore Messina will likely draw interest from teams with vacancies as well.

In a more general sense, the Knicks also need establish — or re-establish — a strong player development program. Mills and Perry hope to continue to acquire young talent via the draft, free agency or low-risk trades such as the Mudiay deal. It’s incumbent upon the organization to then develop these players as part of the club’s young core or as attractive assets to opposing organizations. Knicks executive Craig Robinson was hired by Mills and Perry over the summer to lead the organization’s player development program.

With the Super Bowl complete, the 2018 NFL Draft order is finally set. We’ve already seen one major quarterback move this year, with the Redskins opting to trade for Alex Smith instead of paying Kirk Cousins. It looks as though the 2018 NFL offseason will be one of the most intriguing in recent memory, especially regarding quarterbacks.

The 2018 NFL Draft will see teams fighting to move up the board for new franchise passers. In this mock draft, two teams trade into the top 10, and a host of offensive linemen are drafted in Round 1.

Harden heads into the break as the clear favorite for the MVP award after finishing as the runner-up in the last two seasons. He leads the league in scoring at 31.3 points per game and is third with 9.0 assists, making him by far the most important player on a team that has vaulted ahead of Golden State for the top seed in the West.

Harden missed seven games in early January with a hamstring injury, but since he has come back, the Rockets have won 14 of 15, including a 60-point barrage from Harden in a win over the Magic.

For the first five years he owned the Nets, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was more concerned with how HELLO (INSERT STAR HERE) would look on a billboard than he was with how much basketball sense a trade or signing made. Part of it was understandable — with a new arena in Brooklyn and a decades-old Knicks fanbase in New York to compete with, they had to make a splash.