The Knicks are a .500 team. Leon Rose can bow as his birthday approaches as team president. But Scott Perry could take the credit too – if he was here.
One of the benefits of attending games in the Garden in person and not watching on television is that you can see the Knicks executives in attendance.
With fans in the building making another ruckus on Saturday, President Rose and his cabinet members have moved from a celebrity row to behind the baseline.
On Saturday, they saw their club jump to 17-17 with a gritty 110-107 victory over the Pacers – a 16-point comeback to capture a delightful 3-1 home score.
“It was funky, but we just scratched it off,” said coach Tom Thibodeau.
Perry, the general manager of the Knicks, has not been seen during the four-game homestand. The seat card: Rose, executive VP and senior advisor William Wesley, strategy director Brock Aller and VP of player leadership and development Allan Houston.
Perry, in the last year of his contract, is said to be on a G-League reconnaissance mission. But in the pre-Rose days, Perry never missed a game – at home or away.
Even when Perry isn’t around, he’s starting to get credit for the Knicks’ relevance.
Indeed, Rose was dealt a better hand than could have been expected when he took over on Monday a year ago. When a president is fired – as Steve Mills was 12 months ago – it is usually because the present is bleak and the future bleak.
But Mills and Perry, who stayed, gave Rose plenty of ammunition to move the project forward.
In his tenure to date, Rose has not brought in a top-free agent star from his extensive connections. Nor has he performed a blockbuster trade for a stud. Free agency was silent.
Rose explored moving Julius Randle during the long low season to upgrade with a star level player. Randle became that star instead. He had a great first 34 games and on Saturday he beat Domantas Sabonis.
Rose did the right thing by not trading Randle. Randle, first named an All-Star last week, is a future piece to build around. On Saturday night, he racked up another 28 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and several loud ‘MVP’ chants that become routine.
RJ Barrett, for whom Perry was holding on to his guns to go number 3 in 2019, helped Randle with 24 points, and even heard his first ‘MVP’ chants. “For 2000 people they are very noisy,” said Barrett.
Rose thought he was a player who would quickly replace Randle as a starter when he used his 2020 lottery pick on power forward Obi Toppin, in lieu of a much-needed point guard.
Toppin’s rookie year can be summed up like this: he’s a good dunker, good enough to earn a Slam Dunk league game. But that’s where it ends. Toppin, who hasn’t been nearly as prolific as expected, will not be included in the Rising Stars Challenge roster.
Toppin was even benched for Kevin Knox on Saturday when the small ball came forward in the first half after Taj Gibson sprained his ankle. Toppin only played for six minutes.
Rookie point guard Tyrese Haliburton, caught 12th and shined with the Kings, was not high on Rose’s board when he picked Toppin.
Luckily, Rose got another tear in the draft for 2020 as Perry traded Marcus Morris to the Clippers for a late first round 12 months ago. To the credit of Rose, he had extensive Kentucky information to put him at ease grabbing Immanuel Quickley as most teams lowered him.
Hiring Kentucky assistant Kenny Payne proved valuable. Rose and Wesley, who are widely said to have a good relationship with John Calipari and his program, deserve credit for choosing Quickley.
But the best move Rose made, due to previous connections, was to lure Thibodeau as a coach at the end of July. Yes, Rose was lucky on that front because of the way Commissioner Adam Silver constructed the season restart in the bubble, picking 22 of the 30 teams. The Knicks were among those left out.
A number of coaching vacancies surfaced after teams were eliminated at the end of August. However, when the Knicks went on their long quest, they had no competition.
Sources at the time indicated that Thibodeau preferred choices. We will never know whether he would have accepted Knicks’ offer over that of another team. Thibodeau decided not to wait for another job because of his confidence in Rose.
Thibodeau’s defense is on top and the Knicks do all of that with mostly Mills and Perry players. Coaching and culture make a difference.
One of Rose’s few additions was a trade for point guard Derrick Rose, but that was more that the president agreed to his head coach’s wishes. In a great stat, Thibodeau’s win rate with Rose on the roster is 63 percent. Without Rose, that’s 46 percent. Rose stole four times on Saturday.
An NBA source said of the new government’s decision-making, “Ultimately, what matters is what Thibs wants.”
Knicks supporters are thrilled with progress with the bar so low. The 6,000 fans who rolled through Garden turnstiles in the first three games for which the public was allowed were noisy.
The fans love this team. They like this coach. And they like an Eastern conference without depth. The Knicks are now in a tie for fourth place with the Raptors.
Leon Rose has been the strong, quiet type so far. He hasn’t addressed the media in seven months. Approaching his one-year anniversary, Lucky Leon has gotten away with it because his Knicks are having their talk on the field.