- The slumping Knicks could use a boost from Immanuel Quickley, who is mired in a long shooting slump, writes Peter Botte of The New York Post. Quickley, who’s expected to become a primary ball-handler off the bench with Derrick Rose and Kemba Walker both unavailable, is shooting 30.7% from the field and 26.6% from three-point range in his last 19 games. “Teammates tell me all the time, sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t, but you just gotta keep the main thing, which is playing defense every night, playing hard every night and just bringing other things to the table,” Quickley said. “You can do other things good when you don’t shoot well. You can still bring other things to win.”
The Knicks are expected to pursue a roster shakeup this summer, but the Heat’s Jimmy Butler believes there’s already a future star to build around, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. RJ Barrett impressed Butler and his Miami teammates with a 46-point outburst Friday night.
“He had a helluva game, an all-around game at that,” Butler said. “We all know he’s capable of that. I don’t think anybody is surprised or should be surprised. He’s definitely going to be playing in this league for a long time and he’s going to be the face of the Knicks.”
Barrett is averaging a career-high 18.6 points per game in his third NBA season, but Bondy points out that he’s still a streaky shooter and has trouble beating defenders off the dribble. The question for the Knicks, Bondy adds, is what to do about Julius Randle, who needs to handle the ball often to be effective and isn’t an ideal complement to Barrett. Bondy notes that Randle and Barrett have only reached 20 points in the same game seven times all season.
There’s more from New York:
- Executive vice president William Wesley has been lobbying owner James Dolan with a plan to acquire a star and is focused on Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell, a source tells Steve Popper of Newsday. There are some New York connections for Mitchell, who is a former client of team president Leon Rose and worked closely with associate head coach Johnnie Bryant when he was in Utah. Popper points out that Mitchell will make $30.4MM next season and won’t hit the open market until 2025 at the earliest, and any deal the Knicks could offer would have to include almost every asset at their disposal.
- Rookie guard Quentin Grimes, who suffered a subluxation of his right patella in Friday’s game, will be re-evaluated in two weeks, the Knicks announced (via Twitter). Grimes was at the team facility today and was “walking around pretty well,” tweets Ian Begley of SNY TV, who adds that Grimes’ response to physical therapy will determine how much time he has to miss. Surgery won’t be necessary, a source in Grimes’ camp tells Ashley Nicole Moss of Sports Illustrated (Twitter link), and he will likely be sidelined two to three weeks because of slight ligament bruising.
- The medical procedure that Derrick Rose underwent on his left ankle Friday won’t affect Kemba Walker‘s decision to sit out the rest of the season, per Marc Berman of The New York Post. Walker made the decision in the belief that he wouldn’t have a spot in the rotation once Rose returned, but a source told Berman that he’s unlikely to change his mind and coach Tom Thibodeau also dismissed the possibility.
Gonzaga big man Chet Holmgren remains atop ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz’s latest mock draft, with Auburn’s Jabari Smith moving up one notch to No. 2. The G League Ignite’s Dyson Daniels has moved into the lottery while Milwaukee Panthers forward Patrick Baldwin Jr. has dropped from No. 15 to No. 25.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- The G League’s Westchester Knicks are acquiring forward Louis King, JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors tweets. King had been on a two-way contract with Sacramento but was waived by the Kings on February 17th. In 16 career games with Sacramento, including 10 this year, King averaged 5.6 PPG, 1.9 RPG, and 1.1 APG in 11.8 MPG.
- Former NBA guard Shabazz Napier has left Russia and Zenit Saint Petersburg, according to EuroHoops.net. Napier, who has been sidelined most of the season with an ankle injury, was already preparing to return to the United States prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because he did not feel he was ready to play.
- The NBA will hold its annual Summer League in Las Vegas on July 7-17, Shaw adds in another tweet.
The speculation over Zion Williamson‘s future with New Orleans has Knicks fans dreaming of acquiring the 2019 top pick. Williamson’s former coach and current TV analyst Stan Van Gundy scoffs at the notion that big-name players want to go to New York, Ethan Sears of the New York Post relays.
“No matter how many times people have proven they don’t want to play for the Knicks, the Knicks have this idea that everybody in the league wants to play for the Knicks,” Van Gundy said on the Dan Le Batard Show. “Now, what is the last time it actually happened that somebody came and tried to get their way to New York? Like, never in the last 20 years? But still the Knicks and Knicks fans think everybody is trying to get to the Knicks. I’m not saying [Zion] won’t end up there — there’s all kinds of ways people can end up somewhere — but this idea that everybody wants to be a New York Knick, I mean if that were the case, then they wouldn’t be as bad as they’ve been for the last 20 years.”
- Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau played rookie center Jericho Sims ahead of Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson on Friday, which may signal a shift in philosophy, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. Thibodeau typically relies on veterans, so it was unusual to see a late second-round pick get 18 minutes of playing time. “We’ll see how it unfolds. Taj did a good job for us,” Thibodeau said. “Nerlens did a good job for us. Jericho, the opportunities that he’s had, he’s played well. So just let him get in there; let him gain some more experience.”
Knicks rookie guard Quentin Grimes suffered a subluxation of his right patella on Friday, the team’s PR department tweets.
The non-contact injury to the first-round pick occurred during the first quarter against Miami as he tried to fight past a screen. He required help from his teammates to leave the court and could not putting any pressure on his right leg as he headed to the locker room, according to Greg Joyce of the New York Post.
Grimes will undergo an MRI. It’s an injury that can take four-to-six weeks to heal without surgery and sometimes requires surgery depending on the severity, Steve Popper of Newsday tweets.
Coach Tom Thibodeau didn’t have an update on Grimes’ injury after the game, Fred Katz of The Athletic tweets.
Grimes had earned more playing time this month due to his defensive commitment. He was averaging 9.5 PPG in 28.3 MPG in six February appearances, including a 40-minute stint against Oklahoma City in which he scored 19 points.
The injury to Grimes comes on the heels of the announcement this week that Kemba Walker would sit out the rest of the season. Derrick Rose‘s return to action from ankle surgery was delayed after he underwent another minor procedure on Friday.
7:02pm: The procedure was performed on Friday and addressed a skin infection on his right ankle, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. There’s optimism that Rose will be able to return to action in one or two weeks, Woj adds.
1:39pm: Knicks guard Derrick Rose will undergo another procedure on his right ankle, the team announced today (via Twitter).
The Knicks’ announcement is scarce on details, simply referring to the procedure as a “minor” one and noting that no timeline has been set for Rose’s return. The ankle is the same one that the former MVP underwent surgery on in December.
Rose, 33, has appeared in 26 games (24.5 MPG) for New York this season, averaging 12.0 PPG, 4.0 APG, and 3.0 RPG on .445/.402/.968 shooting. He last played on December 16.
Recent reports had suggested Rose was nearing a return to action, but it now seems unlikely he’ll play anytime in the short-term future. As of this Sunday, there are just six weeks left in the regular season, so there’s no guarantee we’ll see him again before 2022/23, especially if the Knicks continue to fall out of play-in contention.
With Rose still on the shelf and Kemba Walker shut down for the season, Alec Burks will likely handle be the Knicks’ starter at point guard, with Miles McBride and Immanuel Quickley potentially in the mix as well.
Kemba Walker has already been bought out of a contract once since the 2021/22 league year began, having reached a deal with Oklahoma City that paved the way for his New York homecoming.
However, even now that he has been shut down for the rest of the season by the Knicks, Walker isn’t seeking a second buyout agreement, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said during an appearance on NBA Today on Thursday (video link).
“There are a number of teams who would love to have Kemba Walker in a buyout,” Wojnarowski said. “That’s not gonna happen. He’s not interested in that with New York.”
The decision to shut down Walker for the rest of the season was made by the point guard’s camp as well as the Knicks, with an eye toward getting him healthy for the 2022/23 campaign, so it makes sense that Kemba wouldn’t be eager to jump ship for an immediate role with a new team.
Walker also sacrificed a bit of money when he gave up $20MM in his buyout agreement with the Thunder and then signed a two-year, $17.9MM deal with New York, so he probably isn’t looking to do that again just six months later.
The Knicks have no real motive to pursue a buyout with Walker either. They’re not in urgent need of a roster spot, and once the offseason arrives, Kemba’s expiring $9.2MM contract could be useful as a salary-matching chip in trade talks. Wojnarowski said during his NBA Today appearance that New York will likely peruse the trade market for an impact player this summer.
“The goal has been – since Leon Rose was hired as president and William Wesley was brought into the front office – that they would be in the market for franchise-type players who became available in trades,” Wojnarowski said. “This isn’t a team that has cap space this summer, but they do have assets. They have draft assets, they have all their own picks, they still have Dallas’ 2023 first-round pick, which is protected. That certainly would have value.”
A player who is bought out must be waived by March 1 in order to retain his playoff eligibility for a new team. Once that date passes, we can be even more certain that Walker will finish this season with the Knicks.
- RJ Barrett (left ankle sprain) and Nerlens Noel (sore left foot) are both listed as questionable Friday for the Knicks, while Derrick Rose is doubtful as he continues to recover from right ankle surgery (Twitter link from Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel). Rose was a full participant in practice Wednesday and is inching closer to a return.
Amid speculation that Tom Thibodeau’s job may be in jeopardy as the result of a disappointing Knicks season, the coach told reporters Wednesday that his relationship with the front office is fine, writes Greg Joyce of The New York Post.
A report last week stated that executive vice president William Wesley has been blaming Thibodeau’s coaching decisions for recent losses, particularly the defeat against the Nets in the final game before the All-Star break when New York squandered a 28-point lead. But Thibodeau said he’s not feeling any heat from management and he doesn’t play attention to media rumors.
“I talk to Wes all the time,” he said. “I don’t respond to rumors or any of that stuff. I know the drill here. I’ve been here before, so I don’t worry about any of that stuff.”
After grabbing the fourth seed last season, the Knicks stumbled into this year’s All-Star break at 25-34, 12th in the Eastern Conference and three and a half games out of the final spot in the play-in tournament. Since his hiring, management has talked about a close working relationship with Thibodeau, but there have been signs this year that it may be fracturing. The latest involves Cam Reddish, who Thibodeau has kept out of the rotation after the team sent a first-round draft pick to Atlanta to acquire him last month.
Thibodeau, who has three more years remaining on his five-year contract, emphasized that his relationship with the front office has remained solid despite the losing.
“I talk to (team president Leon Rose) every day, talk to Wes every day,” Thibodeau said. “So that doesn’t change.”
Joyce also noted that Thibodeau talked last week about making lineup changes to try to spark a team that is 3-13 over its last 16 games. However, he didn’t mention any potential changes on Wednesday, other acknowledging the decision to shut down Kemba Walker for the rest of the season.
Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau isn’t sure whether Kemba Walker will be around the team moving forward, stating that those conversations were between Walker and management, per Ian Begley of SNY.tv (via Twitter). Walker did not attend Wednesday’s practice.
It was announced Wednesday that Walker won’t play for the remainder of the season and will work out in preparation for 2022/23. He’ll be on an expiring $9.2MM contract this summer, which might make it easier to trade him.
“We knew there was risk involved (in signing Walker with his balky knee),” Thibodeau said, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. “We thought it was worth it. There were some good moments. If he’s healthy, he’s good. So, that’s about it.”
Here are a few more notes on the Knicks:
- Derrick Rose and RJ Barrett were full participants at practice Wednesday and will be evaluated Thursday, Thibodeau said (Twitter link via Begley). It was Rose’s first day taking contact.
- Although Rose’s return to action appears imminent, Thibodeau indicated he’d likely start Alec Burks at point guard, Bondy relays. “Digging into the numbers and stuff, Alec has been our best option so far,” Thibodeau said.
- Barrett had no qualms about being on the court at the end of a blowout loss when he sprained his ankle earlier this month, Begley reports (via Twitter). Barrett said he always wants to be on the court and an injury like the one he suffered can occur at any stage of a game. “To sprain my ankle like that, it could happen in the first 10 seconds of the game,” Barrett said.