We expected so much from what the Knicks offered Sunday: 48 minutes of effort, 48 minutes of faith. The Heat may now have an ugly record, but they are still the defending champions of the Eastern Conference, and on Sunday afternoon in the garden they showed why, a struggle of give-me-the-ball alphas with a match up 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 players in Miami who were able to play, but there were too few Knicks who did. Again: this is not a new behavior with these Knicks, just as watchable as they have become.
“We did not complete our defense,” was the way Tom Thibodeau put it. ‘Give them credit. They’re not just Jimmy. They move the ball well and have a great shooting around them. ‘
What was more eloquent were the things Thibodeau did not say, could not say, would not say. The Heat have in many ways exactly the DNA Thibodeau wants: willing to play defense every night, can hang in difficult moments, who can lock the door if he begs to be locked.
The Knicks have Julius Randle, who currently meets all the requirements. And they have a schedule full of vets who can do some evenings, and a schedule with kids who can learn how to do it most nights.
So you can understand why Thibodeau may have longed for this seemingly inevitable reunion with Derrick Rose. This year marks exactly 10 years since Rose’s MVP season, when he was 22 and sure looked like he was going to throw basketball haymakers at LeBron James for years to come. But that was before the knee went cherry blossoms.
That was before he returned as a highly skilled point guard who would never be who he was, except for a few stolen nights here and there. The Knicks saw it four years ago, when he was just 28, when he played 64 games for them and sometimes played his biggest hits for them.
He is now four years older, but he remains in Thibodeau’s eternal circle of trust. The Knicks do not give up much for him, one of their second-round crew and the remains of Dennis Smith Jr. But that’s really not the problem. This is the issue:
Once he’s here, he’ll play. The Knicks already have a ten-man turn. Who will come out of the elbows? 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 scoring.
It could be Austin Rivers, who’s had some fun moments as Knick, but has also struggled lately, and if it’s him, it means Payton will be a backup and Immanuel Quickley will be a 2-winger of the be off the bench – a position he can surely play.
Or it could be Quickley, and it’s not a development any Knicks fan would endorse, even if many people did not hear him in the hours, weeks and months before he was drafted. He quickly became a conversation partner of Knicks fans and the fact is that he is not just a cute toy; he is a good player and more importantly a fearless player. He earned his place in the Knicks rotation.
If Rose’s arrival changes it even a little?
Then it would be a little more-of-the-same-nonsense during a season in which the men who run the Knicks were determined to avoid more of the same. The Knicks have already sent Kevin Knox as witness protection. Frank Ntilikina, when he returns, will be transported back to the abyss.
The season should be about keeping an eye on the prize, even if it looks like a collapse by gravity is likely to happen, the Knicks will play for one of the ten slots in the temporarily expanded Eastern Playoffs. This is actually a good cause. And for Thibodeau, who mostly played the good company man from day 1, it would allow a tangible root to make the team work.
‘[Rose] the system was, ”said Taj Gibson, Knicks rugby center, who played more games under Thibodeau’s watch than anyone. “We know what Thibs basically want, and we can be valuable to young players who are still learning.”
It’s music to everyone’s ears. If Rose can come and play at a still above average level and if he can be a mentor to Quickley and the other children of the Knicks, it’s good for Leon Rose to pursue the agreement and good for Thibodeau to strive for it. There are still two parallel tracks for this team: continuous improvement and a plan for future prosperity.
This is not the time to forget it, however frustrating the results like Sunday may be.