Veteran point guard Derrick Rose said last week that he hasn’t sought a buyout from the team, and that’s just fine with the Knicks, according to Ian Begley of SNY.tv, who says the club has little interest in negotiating a buyout agreement. As Begley explains, New York values the 34-year-old’s veteran leadership and recognizes that he would provide important backcourt depth in the event of an injury.
Although Rose has been out of the rotation since December, he saw some action in garbage time on Saturday for the first time in nearly two months, playing the final 2:21 of a blowout win over New Orleans. The former MVP wasn’t effective, going scoreless on 0-of-4 shooting, but his enduring popularity was on display, as he got a huge ovation from the home crowd, notes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News.
“D-Rose, that’s a legend,” Julius Randle said of the crowd’s reaction to his teammate. “That’s a legend and he’s not playing. Obviously he’s still got some juice and he can still play. But that’s not his role on this team. I would argue that he’s having just as much if not more of an impact vocally as a leader for us. He’s constantly talking to me, giving me advice. His impact is huge. I love to see him out on the floor.”
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- Tom Thibodeau‘s decision to trim the Knicks’ rotation and relegate Rose and Cam Reddish to the bench in December turned the club’s season around, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. New York is 26-14 since Thibodeau made that move on December 4 and has climbed from 11th in the Eastern Conference standings to fifth.
- In a mailbag for The Athletic, Fred Katz discusses Jalen Brunson‘s chances of winning the Most Improved Player award, the possibility of ownership paying the tax in future seasons, and the likelihood of the Knicks negotiating a new contract with Josh Hart this summer, among other topics. Katz believes Brunson will get some MIP votes but won’t win the award, speculates that ownership would be happy to go into the tax if there’s a move that makes the club a contender, and says he’d be surprised if Hart and the Knicks don’t work out a new deal in free agency.
- Quentin Grimes remains a part of the Knicks’ starting lineup, but his minutes have tailed off since the trade deadline. Grimes had been averaging 34.2 minutes per contest in his previous 40 starts, but has logged just 22.1 MPG in his last six games. As Peter Botte of The New York Post relays, Thibodeau says that’s not an indictment of Grimes’ performance. “The big thing is, when you have quality depth, you have versatility. Just go out and go as hard as you can,” Thibodeau said. “That’s what I like about Quentin. He’s played long minutes, he’s played short minutes. You can start him, you can bring him off the bench and he’s going to be the same every day.”
- In case you missed it, the Knicks intend to sign Duane Washington Jr. to fill their open two-way contract slot.
How do we feel about the Knickerbockers? I feel like they’re a good team, but the record is deceiving, before we heap too much praise on Thibs.
Wins like last night against Celtics off a b2b are a win, no doubt, but come playoffs do we really think they’ll be a threat or even a tough out?
Thoughts?
I don’t see them being a true contender yet, but they could really make themselves into a menace the same way the Hawks did in the ’21 playoffs. Brunson, Randle, even guys like Barrett and Quickley can just instantly take over for stretches. And it’s not like they have a rock-bottom floor; the Knicks are a deep team.
Well they will be underdogs in any match up. Looks like the 4-5 teams will be the Cavaliers and Knicks. They have a shot but the Cavs are flat out better. It’s a lot of time between now and then though.
In that scenario, it’ll be fun to watch Mitchell light up the Knicks in MSG as the Cavs sweep ‘em.
I think they’re a solid playoff team but they’re not big enough contenders yet. Still a wide gap between them and the Bucks, Celtics, and Sixers. They might sneak out a first round win, but I think that’s it.
Biggest question mark for me is RJ. The last ten games or so have been rough for him. Played great the previous few months and hopefully he can get back to that. He’s a frustrating player sometimes and a bit of a disappointment but he’s still only 22.
SGA has MIP sewn up already I think.
On one hand I think he deserves to win an award now that he’s actually eligible after being benched against his will the last couple seasons.
On the other hand he was always good, they’re just not tanking as blatantly. Do we really want to reward that?
I really feel like Markkanen taking a massive jump and becoming the best player on a not-terrible team should be rewarded over SGA, who was good for a while and is just reaping the rewards of having an actual supporting cast, as opposed to playing 5-1.
I can’t disagree with any of that ^
He doesn’t have it locked up. It’s going to go down to the wire between him and Markkanen
True enough, maybe depends on which team pulls out a play-in, play-off berth? Utah has some guard injuries, and trading away Vandy out of the rotation hurts too. It will pad LM’s stats though if Utah doesn’t rest him for any games toward the end of the season
Knicks are deep. The key in the playoffs will be… who will step up when teams double team or focus on Randle and Brunson. Time for Quickley, RJ and Grimes to step up.