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Amid a 2019-20 season that had the Knicks headed into yet another draft lottery, reports flew that Knicks owner James Dolan was ready to pounce on Raptors president Masai Ujiri to lead the team’s front office.

According to sources, Dolan felt Ujiri, who built the Raptors into a championship team in 2019 and whose contract was set to expire in 2021, didn’t squash those reports because he was using the Knicks to drive up his price in Toronto. That was untrue. Furthermore, Dolan didn’t want to give up draft-pick compensation luring Ujiri out of his Raptors deal would have cost.

As a result, Dolan ended up replacing then-president Steve Mills in March 2020 with two individuals from the agent universe: Leon Rose and his unofficial right-hand man at CAA, William Wesley.