We expect so much from what the Knicks presented on Sunday: 48 minutes of effort, 48 minutes of faith. The Heat may have an ugly track record right now, but they are still the defending champions of the Eastern Conference, and Sunday afternoon at The Garden they showed why, a bunch of me-the-ball alphas with a game on the game.
There’s Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, there’s Kendrick Nunn and Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson. In the end, there were too many Miami players who were able to play in this 109-103 Heat win, and too few Knicks who did. Again, that’s not a new behavior with these Knicks, no matter how closely watched they may be.
“We have not completed our defense,” was the way Tom Thibodeau put it. Give them credit. They are not just Jimmy. They move the ball well and shoot great. “
More telling were the things Thibodeau didn’t say, couldn’t say, didn’t want to say. In many ways, The Heat possesses exactly the DNA that Thibodeau wants: willing to play defense every night, able to stay tough in difficult moments, able to close the door when begging to be closed.
The Knicks have Julius Randle, who meets all these requirements at the moment. And they have a roster of vets that can do that some nights, and a roster of kids who might learn how to do that most nights.
So you can understand why Thibodeau was craving this seemingly inevitable reunion with Derrick Rose. This year marks exactly 10 years since Rose’s MVP season, when he was 22, and it looked like he’d be throwing basketball haymills at LeBron James for the next several years. But that was before the knee became curb.
That was before he returned as a highly skilled point guard who would never become what he was, except for a few stolen nights here and there. The Knicks saw this four years ago, when he was only 28, playing 64 games for them and occasionally playing his biggest hits for them.
He is now four years older, but he remains in Thibodeau’s eternal circle of trust. The Knicks don’t surrender much for him, one of their team of round two picks plus the remnants of Dennis Smith Jr.’s career. But that’s really not the problem. This is the problem:
Once he’s here, once he’s allowed to play, he’s going to play. The Knicks already have a rotation of 10 men. Who will be knocked out? There are only three options:
It could be Elfrid Payton, who has been playing better lately, but is still frustratingly limited in just about every aspect of point guard play.
It could be Austin Rivers, who has had some fun moments as Knick, but has been shaking as well lately, and if he is, that means Payton will be backed up and Immanuel Quickley a 2-way guard off the bank will be – a position he could certainly play.
Or it could be Quickley, and that’s not a development any Knicks fan would endorse, even if many hadn’t heard of him in the hours, weeks, and months before his recall. He’s quickly become a conversation starter around Knicks fans and the fact is that he’s not just a cute wind-up toy: he’s a good player and, more importantly, a fearless player. He’s earned his spot on the Knicks rotation.
If Rose’s arrival changes that even a little bit?
Then this would be some more of the same nonsense, during a season when the men who run the Knicks were determined to steadfastly avoid more of the same. The Knicks have already sent Kevin Knox into witness protection. Frank Ntilikina, when he returns, is taken back to the abyss.
This season should be about keeping an eye on the prize, even if it certainly seems plausible that barring a gravity collapse, the Knicks will play for one of 10 slots in the temporarily expanded Eastern playoff tournament. That’s actually a worthwhile goal. And for Thibodeau, who mainly played good company from day 1, it would be a tangible root to get the team to work towards.
“[Rose] has been through the whole system, ”said Knick’s backup center Taj Gibson, who has played more games than anyone under Thibodeau. “We know what Thibs actually wants, and we can be valuable to young players who are still learning.”
That sounds to everyone. If Rose can come and play at a still above average level and if he can mentor Quickley and the other Knicks kids, good for Leon Rose for pursuing the deal and good for Thibodeau for longing for it. There are two more parallel tracks for this team: continuous improvement and a plan for future prosperity.
Now is not the time to forget that, as frustrating as it may be like Sunday.