What did the New York Knicks gain in the Derrick Rose trade?
The Wednesday trade that sent Derrick Rose from his hometown Chicago Bulls to the New York Knicks is not a blockbuster deal by most metrics, but it does feel like one. While all those knee injuries have robbed Rose of the explosiveness that made him the 2011 MVP, he remains a prominent figure in the league and served as the most visible member of the 2015-16 Bulls, though not the best player on the team. He now heads to another of the league’s marquee franchise, a squad that can’t help but capture the public interest even if it rarely sees success. This trade is a big one if only for the media stature of the involved parties.
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Whether it means much on the court is another question altogether. The Bulls’ rationale for the deal is fairly clear — cutting ties with Rose a year before his contract expires allows them to speed up the process of rebuilding around All-Star Jimmy Butler. A city of Bulls fans will no longer have to assess Rose’s health and form after every game in the mistaken hope that he suddenly morphs back into his pre-2012 postseason self. With Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah soon to follow him out the door, the Bulls can add new players that fit what head coach Fred Hoiberg wants to do instead of trying to force Tom Thibodeau’s guys into unfamiliar roles. An opportunity for a fresh start made the deal worth it, even if defense-first center Robin Lopez, rookie point guard Jerian Grant, and veteran point guard Jose Calderon do not represent an especially bountiful harvest.
The Knicks angle is altogether more difficult to assess, because it’s likely that this is just the first of several moves to come for team president Phil Jackson. Regardless of what happens over the next few weeks, Rose joins a team with one ball dominant scorer already in Carmelo Anthony. The greatest task for the Knicks will be to figure out a way for Melo and Rose to co-exist while simultaneously ensuring that high-potential big man Kristaps Porzingis gets to touch the ball enough to develop into a star. At first glance, it doesn’t seem likely that either Rose or Anthony would be entirely happy with giving up the ball so much. Even if they’re not, though, it’s entirely possible it will be a lesser issue given that both have histories of missing notable time due to injury.
That’s not to say that Rose can’t be beneficial to New York. While Rose depends on pull-up jumpers far more than he ever did in his best seasons, the Knicks desperately need a perimeter player who poses even the threat of penetrating the lane to collapse the defense. Melo was the only man on the 2015-16 roster who could do it, and an offense built around one such player is going to go through plenty of ineffective stretches. That sort of player is especially needed if Jeff Hornacek tries to play anything like the fast-paced offense he used as head coach of the Phoenix Suns. Rose also figures to benefit from leaving Chicago, where it was impossible to watch him without thinking of what might have been.
Then again, it’s very fair to question if Rose is still capable of getting to the basket with any kind of regularlity. Although he boosted his percentage of attempts within three feet from 26 percent in 2014-15 to 30 percent this season (a figure much closer to his career averages), Rose still seems content to pull up for 17-footers. For that matter, he has yet to develop a dependable three-point stroke. It’s possible and maybe even probable that the Knicks have traded for a player who needs the ball to be successful, creates inefficient offense when he has it, and doesn’t space the floor when anyone else tries to make a play.
The good news for the Knicks is that the worst-case scenario for Rose doesn’t figure to harm the team over the long term. He makes $21.3 million for this upcoming season before becoming an unrestricted free agent in July 2017, at which point the Knicks could have enough cap space to add two big-time players. Perhaps the Rose trade will have a mostly positive impact by convincing Melo the team is committed to adding stars without disrupting the current rebuilding process.
Of course, if that were all, Knicks fans would have been only their standard “mildly anxious” instead of the “extremely anxious” that attended news of the trade. The extra bits are what made the news of the deal so concerning. Here’s how The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania broke the story:
For the Knicks, they’re free to pursue two more Bulls in free agency to fortify the frontcourt: Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol. Gasol has a strong relationship with Knicks president Phil Jackson, with whom Gasol won two titles as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. The arrival of Lopez – partnered with Bobby Portis and Nikola Mirotic – will likely end the tenures of Noah and Gasol in Chicago. Another possible free-agent target for the Knicks: center Dwight Howard.
Yes, the Knicks may not be done. Adding Noah, Gasol, or Howard to replace Lopez at center would certainly qualify as a notable move, although not necessarily a good one. All three players are on the steep downsides of their career, with none of the trio appearing to be an especially good value on a multi-year deal. Unless Phil somehow convinces his old friend Pau to sign a short-term deal below his market rate, bringing in one of these players will diminish the Knicks’ cap position moving forward and, more crucially, turn them into the sort of team that challenges for low-end playoff berths without really building towards anything.
A lineup that includes Melo, Rose, and Dwight Howard is meant to challenge the Miami Heat in the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals. It will not bring the Knicks into a brighter future.
Although it’d be foolish to predict exactly what the Knicks do over the next few weeks, the idea of adding past-their-prime veterans would certainly fit with past efforts. Jackson is a fairly new addition to the Knicks front office, but he seems to have inherited his predecessors’ and bosses’ tendencies to make headline-winning moves that do not necessarily help the team progress. If the Knicks spend these next few months assembling veterans, they’ll only put off this rebuilding process longer. Is it really time to put together a supposed contender, especially when the rest of the East spent the whole offseason proving just how far ahead the Cleveland Cavaliers really are?
It’s telling that the apparent best-case scenario of this move — Rose plays solidly enough to help the cause without derailing Porzingis’s path towards becoming face of the franchise — could have occurred without making this move at all. The Knicks could have challenged for a playoff spot next season with Lopez at center (with a contract that doesn’t look so big with the new cap) and Grant perhaps developing into a contributor. Instead, they’re either going to see if Rose has anything left or give over the future to diminishing returns in the present.
The latter is something that teams do often enough. The Knicks have turned it into an art form. Just once, it’d be nice if they were OK with sitting still.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
