The New York Knicks often make the headlines when they play poorly, but now everyone is talking about them thanks to a notable offseason addition.
In a move that was part of a multi-player trade, New York acquired former Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose, after he had spent his entire seven-year career in the Windy City. Rose is certainly an upgrade over anyone that the Knicks currently have to offer, but it still remains to be seen if he is really the long-term solution to all of their problems.
For anyone who has followed Chicago Bulls basketball throughout his tenure there, Derrick Rose was the man for many years. In fact, at one point the Chicago native and former University of Memphis product was among the league’s elite at the point guard position on both ends of the ball, having managed to win the league’s MVP honors in the 2011 season. However, a year later he tore his ACL, and since then it has been a downward spiral.
Rose has suffered injury after injury to his legs and he has struggled to finish a regular season in each of the following years (In 2015 he only played 66 games, making him just short of being eligible to qualify for Player Efficiency Rating). He has had moments within those injury-riddled campaigns where he has looked like the Derrick Rose of old, like when he had an admirable performance in a second-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James in 2014 that saw him hit a game-winner in one game and nearly claim the hero role in another with a game-tying layup late.
Besides that, he has been unable to fully regain his MVP form. It does not help that during Rose’s absence, Chicago witnessed the rise of shooting guard Jimmy Butler into one of the NBA’s premiere two-way players, and is now the unquestioned leader of the Bulls’ team. Rose’s goodbye story basically wrote itself.
Enter the Knicks; they were a disaster this past season, but exactly how bad were they? They only won 32 games last year and have only won a grand total of 49 games the last two years (as well as 86 in the last three seasons combined), which is one of the worst records in the league over that span.
Out of 30 NBA teams, they were ranked a miserable 27th in points per game with an average of 98.4. They were equally miserable at sharing the ball, ranking 26th with 20.5 assists per game. Even the 2011 version of Derrick Rose would not be enough to fix all of that by himself.
The modern day Rose certainly will not be enough; he posted career lows across the board in points (16.4 points a game), rebounds (3.4 a game), and assists (4.7 a game) during the recently-concluded season. His percentages were not the greatest either; he shot just 29 percent from beyond the three-point line, his free throw percentage dipped under eighty (as well as the fact he did not get there as frequently as he usually does), and his field goal percentage of 42.7 was also down.
Rose definitely needs to improve his numbers and of course stay healthy if he is going to play like we all know he can and if he is going to help the Knicks become relevant in the East.
Luckily for Rose, he is not alone. The Knicks team he is joining, abysmal as it is, does have some pieces in place capable of helping him make this turnaround a reality. Most notably, he will be sharing the backcourt with Carmelo Anthony.
Anthony is a guy who is in a miserable situation; he has consistently been the best option – and at times the only option – for the Knicks, leading them in three of five major categories (He led the way with 21.8 points per game, 7.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists, and his Player Efficiency Rating of 20.38 ranked 17th in the NBA).
Anthony has consistently been one of the league’s elite scorers year in and year out, but he too has gone through his own share of injury problems, especially in recent years.
Even more daunting for Anthony is the fact that he is entering the thirteenth year of his career and he has yet to win an NBA title or much less reach one; he has never even managed to get to an Eastern Conference Final or a Western Conference Final from his days playing with the Denver Nuggets.
If Carmelo is one of the only bright spots on the Knicks’ team that Rose has to work with, another bright spot has to be the 7-foot wonder boy, Kristaps Porzingis. The selection of Porzingis with the 4th pick in last year’s NBA Draft was heavily criticized by critics and many fans alike, but the former European ballplayer really captured the hearts of everyone with his play during his rookie campaign.
He was a guy who, at 7’3″, offered solid protection at the rim, averaging nearly two blocks per game. He has also showed an ability to step outside and knock down both long two-pointers and even three-pointers (He shot 33.3 percent from three-point land as a rookie). His numbers on paper did not look eye-popping, but they did not need to while playing alongside a guy like Carmelo Anthony.
Just imagine the kind of growth this guy could make if Anthony can stay healthy, and if Rose can come in, rejuvenate himself and play even half as well as he once played.
Overall, Derrick Rose is a guy who has endured so much in the last several years, and therefore has skeptics who are not even sure if his addition to this team is even worth the attention. But a fresh start, especially one in the bright lights of New York City, could be exactly what the former All-Star needs to get his once-promising career back on track.
The three-man show of Rose, Anthony and a maturing Porzingis all under a new head coach in Jeff Hornaceck is something New York Knicks fans ought to be really excited about.
Could the New York Knicks finally be turning that corner?
(Feature image: Nathaniel Butler/Getty