We expect a lot of what the Knicks presented on Sunday: 48 minutes of effort, 48 minutes of faith. The Heat may have a bad record now, but they are still the champions of the Eastern Conference, and on Sunday afternoon at the Garden they showed why, a bunch of alphas give me the ball with a game in play.
There’s Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, there’s Kendrick Nunn and Tyler Herro and Duncan Robinson. In the end, there were a lot of Miami players able to make moves throughout this Heat 109-103 win, and very few Knicks who did. Again: this is not a new behavior with these Knicks, however assistable they become.
“We haven’t finished our defense,” was like Tom Thibodeau said. “Give them credit. They are not just Jimmy. They move the ball well and have an excellent kick around it.
What was most telling was the things that Thibodeau did not say, could not say, would not say. The Heat, in many ways, has exactly the DNA that Thibodeau wants: willing to play defense every night, able to resist in difficult times, able to close the door when it is begging to be closed.
The Knicks have Julius Randle, who currently meets all of these requirements. And they have a full list of vets who can do it on some nights, and a full list of kids who can learn to do it most nights.
So you can understand why Thibodeau may have been looking forward to this seemingly inevitable reunion with Derrick Rose. This year marks exactly 10 years since Rose’s MVP season, when he was 22 and looked like he was going to play basketball against LeBron James for many years. But that was before the knee went crazy.
That was before he came back as a highly qualified shipowner who would never be what he was, except for a few stolen nights here and there. The Knicks saw this four years ago, when he was only 28, when he played 64 games for them and occasionally played his greatest hits for them.
He is four years older now, but remains in Thibodeau’s eternal circle of trust. The Knicks are not surrendering much for him, one of his second round picks team plus the remnants of Dennis Smith Jr.’s career. But that really isn’t the problem. This is the problem:
Once he is here, once he is allowed to play, he will play. The Knicks already have a rotation of 10 men. Who will be eliminated? There are only three options:
It may be Elfrid Payton, who has been playing better lately, but is still frustratingly limited in almost every aspect of the point game.
It may be Austin Rivers, who had some fun moments like Knick, but has also struggled recently, and if it is him, it means that Payton becomes a reserve and Immanuel Quickley will be a 2nd guard off the bench – a position he could certainly play in. .
Or it could be Quickley, and this is not a development that any fan of the Knicks would endorse, even though many hadn’t heard of it in the hours, weeks and months before it was called up. He quickly became a conversation starter among Knicks fans and the fact is that he is not just a cute rope toy: he is a good player and, most importantly, a fearless player. He earned his place in the Knicks’ rotation.
If Rose’s arrival changes that a little bit?
So that would be more of the same nonsense, during a season when the men who run the Knicks seem determined to avoid more of the same. The Knicks have already sent Kevin Knox for witness protection. Frank Ntilikina, whenever he returns, will be taken back to the abyss.
This season has to be to keep an eye on the prize, even though it certainly seems likely that, save for a gravity-defying collapse, the Knicks will be in play for one of 10 spots in the temporarily expanded East playoff tournament. This is a worthwhile goal. And for Thibodeau, who played mostly as the man of good company from day one, it would be a tangible carrot to keep the team working.
“[Rose] it’s been around the system, ”said Knicks reserve center Taj Gibson, who played more games under Thibodeau’s supervision than anyone. “We know what Thibs basically wants and we can be valuable to young players who are still learning.”
This is music to everyone’s ears. If Rose can come in and play at an even higher level and if he can be a mentor to Quickley and the children of the other Knicks, good for Leon Rose for seeking the deal and good for Thibodeau for wanting it. There are still two parallel trails for this team: continuous improvement and a lay-away plan for future prosperity.
Now is not the time to forget that, however frustrating Sunday’s results may be.