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Although the New York Knicks were dispatched in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, their season will largely be viewed as a big success.
Not many people out of New York itself expected the team to compete for a playoff spot, let alone secure home court in the first round.
While they won’t be holding a championship trophy up this year, the team is still getting plenty of hardware. Julius Randle won Most Improved Player while Tom Thibodeau came away with the Coach of the Year trophy.
Surprisingly, the team had a decent showing in the MVP voting. Earl Monroe has already stated he believes Randle should be in the conversation, but there was a surprising addition to the final vote.
Rose and Randle Get Votes
The news is out that Nikola Jokic came away with the MVP award, and that really shouldn’t be a shock to anybody who was paying attention to the NBA this season.
What is surprising is the fact that both Randle and Rose showed up on the list together. Randle and Rose finished 8th and 9th respectively according to the results tweeted by Marc Stein. In the case of Rose, he is buoyed by the fact that his lone vote is for first place, meaning he gets a total of 10 votes.
Randle, on the other hand, received one vote for third, two for fourth and nine for fifth. The way the voters voted isn’t made public unless they come out and say who they decided to vote for, but we do know how Rose got a first-place vote.
According to Stein, this is the result of a cumulative fan vote rather than a member of the media.
By getting that single vote, he finished ahead of the likes of Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, James Harden and Russell Westbrook. Rose definitely proved he has a lot left in the tank, especially when he’s leading the second unit, but you won’t find many people out there who’d say he was deserving of an MVP vote.
Chris Paul, who was a dark horse candidate late in the season, finished with two first-place votes, so his impact on the Phoenix Suns was noticed.
Where Do The Knicks Go From Here?
Derrick Rose becomes a free agent this offseason, but it’s expected that he’s a strong candidate to return to the Knicks considering his relationship with the coach.
Julius Randle will almost certainly be brought back via his team option and the team will likely look into signing an extension with their star player.
However, there are plenty of 1-year deals that are expiring and the team will have a lot of big decisions to make on that end. There is a report that the Knicks will look to bundle their later draft picks and try to swap with a team to get into the lottery.
With lots of cap space available this offseason, there are plenty of ways the team can improve going into next season. It’s possible more free agents will look at New York as a viable destination considering they’re coming off a playoff berth as well.
It will definitely be an interesting thing to keep an eye on.
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