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This year’s trade deadline saw the New York Knicks make some solid moves to better bolster their rotation heading into the final stretch of the 2022-23 regular season and now, with the buyout market in full swing, there’s a possibility that the club could once again prove to be rather active, though, this time, for offloading purposes.
As has been the case since mid-November, head coach Tom Thibodeau has emphasized the use of a regular nine-man rotation, meaning several talents have been and will continue to be relegated to the end of the bench with no hope for consistent playing time whilst donning orange and blue.
Because of this, there’s a chance that the Knicks could simply opt to part ways with some of these unused individuals by means of a contract buyout, and, of the possible candidates found on their roster, Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey believes that, if available, point guard Derrick Rose should be considered as being one of the top targets on the open market.
“Given the fact that Rose has fallen entirely out of the rotation and injuries limited him to 26 appearances in 2021-22 (and an average of just 44 over the four seasons prior to that), it may be hard to imagine him being helpful to a contender this season. But Rose was tied for 33rd in the league in offensive box plus/minus from 2018-19 to 2021-22, behind averages of 22.9 points, 6.5 assists and 1.5 threes per 75 possessions…If Rose has his legs under him and doesn’t need to go through the grind of an entire 82-game campaign, he could have some moments in 10-15 minutes off the bench,” Bailey wrote.
As Bailey noted, Rose may not be having all that active of a season in 2022-23, but this could very easily be due to his lacking role within the Knicks’ lineup more than anything else.
Throughout the four seasons leading up to this year’s campaign, though perhaps no longer the perennial All-Star and league MVP he once was with the Chicago Bulls, the point guard was consistently proving to be a trusted contributor whilst predominantly coming off the pine as he was posting impressive per-game averages of 16.2 points, 4.6 assists, and 2.6 rebounds on 47.7% shooting from the field and 36.2% shooting from distance.
While Bailey may not believe that Rose would be an immediate help for a contending team at this point in the campaign, considering he was generating a considerable amount of interest from contenders such as the Milwaukee Bucks heading into the February 9 trade deadline, if he were to be bought out there’s a strong possibility that the veteran will wind up being scooped up rather quickly.
Should the club’s intentions still be to “do right” but the 34-year-old, perhaps a buyout could prove to be the best way to accomplish such an objective.
Rose Not Worried About Knicks Buyout
Despite the type of interest Derrick Rose may draw should he wind up being bought out by the Knicks, it appears that the guard isn’t all the concerned about such a possibility, as Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News shared in a February 11 piece that he’s now seemingly shifted his focus toward simply being present in New York.
“I’m still here,” Rose said. “So my mindset has to be, ‘OK, I’m gonna be here.'”
Currently in the second season of a three-year, $43.5 million contract with the Knicks, Rose is posting middling per-game averages of 5.8 points, 1.8 assists, and 1.5 rebounds and is currently amid a 23-game DNP streak with seemingly no end in sight.
Knicks Must Add to Roster
While the concept of seeing the Knicks buyout Derrick Rose may be exciting to think about, it’s not exactly all that realistic due to the fact that, even with him in tow, they still find themselves below the required minimum of rostering 14 players attached to standard contracts.
Following the February 8 trade that brought Josh Hart to New York, the ball club currently carries just 13 of such individuals.
Now, according to Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors, teams who dip below this number are permitted a two-week window to try and fill their vacancies, and, for the Knicks, this only gives them until Thursday to add to their collection of talents before penalties are issued.
With this, it makes the odds of seeing Rose parting ways rather low, though, perhaps more interesting, this now makes the likelihood of Leon Rose and company adding on another player or two to their rotation rather high.
While many may wish to see the Knicks make a splashy and highly entertaining move by bringing on someone like former franchise cornerstone Carmelo Anthony, arguably the more realistic scenario that could wind up being seen is the front office promoting one of their own two-way talents, with HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto suggesting 25-year-old wing DaQuan Jeffries could be a possible candidate.
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