As we head to the draft and free agency, SNY is doing a series on the different factors surrounding potential free agents for the Knicks.
We have previous stories on Julius Randle here, Damian Lillard and Chris Paul. Here’s a look at some of the factors surrounding a potential Derrick Rose signing:
Rose was one of the driving forces behind New York’s success last year. The Knicks were 25-11 in the regular season with Rose in the lineup. Rose, 32, averaged 15 points on 49 percent shooting in those games. He was the Knicks’ best player in their postseason series against the Hawks.
Tom Thibodeau was strongly in favor of acquiring Rose via trade. So logic tells you that he’d want to re-sign Rose this offseason.
Rose has a strong bond with Thibodeau. And he wanted to be traded to New York. So again, logic tells you that he’d want to return to the Knicks this offseason.
The question is: Can both sides agree on a contract?
Rose will be able to earn much more than the $7.5 million he got in the last year of his current contract. According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Rose’s production made him a $15 million player last season. Marks cites ProFitX for that number, and it makes sense.
You can be sure that Rose will garner interest from other teams (it’s worth noting that the Clippers had interest in trading for Rose prior to the 2021 trade deadline).
The Knicks have Rose’s Early Bird Rights. So they can exceed the cap to re-sign him and offer him as much as $10.7 million in the first year of a deal that has to be at least two years. If they offer Rose more than that number (which is 175 percent of his previous salary), then they would have to use cap space to re-sign him.
The Knicks are projected to have around $50 million in cap space, depending on how they handle the free agents on their roster. So they would have enough cap space to offer Rose a deal that starts above $10.7 million.
If Rose signs a contract that starts around that number, do the Knicks decide against spending big money on a starting point guard?
As noted last week, during the season, the Knicks internally broached the possibility of signing a lead guard who isn’t ball-dominant. The reason? Assuming he re-signs, Rose will play regular minutes at lead guard next season. And if Randle and RJ Barrett are going to have the ball in their hands regularly - as they did in 2020-21 - then the Knicks may want to sign a lead guard who’s comfortable with the ball out of his hands.
Kendrick Nunn, Devonte' Graham, Lonzo Ball and Jalen Brunson are among the guards who may be able to fill that kind of role. Nunn, Graham and Ball are restricted free agents. Brunson is under contract, so the Knicks would need to send assets to Dallas via trade to acquire him.
If the Knicks commit long-term to Randle, they’re committing to the idea that Randle will have the ball in his hands regularly on offense. Based on how Randle played last season, it seems logical that New York would commit to that idea. If Randle has the ball in his hands regularly, you’d need a scorer in the second unit to give New York a lift. Rose filled that role almost flawlessly last season.
What about putting Rose and Randle in the same lineup?
If the playoffs were any indication, the pairing may not be a great fit. With Rose and Randle on the floor, New York was outscored by 30 points in 137 minutes during the Atlanta series.
Rose was in the starting lineup for three of the Knicks’ five playoff games after mostly coming off the bench in the regular season. In 592 regular season minutes, the Knicks outscored opponents by 103 points with Rose and Randle on the floor.
Will Rose, a former MVP, be upset if he’s coming off the bench in 2021-22? That seems unlikely.
“He’s a great teammate and he’s never changed,” Kentucky’s John Calipari, who coached Rose at Memphis, said late last season. “He’ll create for teammates, yet he’ll take over the game if he has to. When he feels ‘We need baskets and I’m the best to do it,’ he does it. If he thinks someone else has it going, he’ll do it. If he wants to throw a lob to Nerlens Noel, if he wants Immanuel Quickley in the open court to shoot that runner, he’ll do it. He’s not, ‘It has to be me.’ That’s not who he is. It is ‘us’, it’s ‘winning.’”
Rose fit that description throughout last season in New York. He repeatedly said that he’d play whatever role Thibodeau chose for him. And he mentored the younger Knicks.
Something else worth noting for Rose’s free agency? He seems comfortable with the organization. Rose knows Thibodeau, William Wesley, Leon Rose and Scott Perry well. Taj Gibson, who knows Rose as well as anyone in the NBA, believes that comfort factored in to Rose’s play last season.
“One thing about Derrick I’ve noticed, when he’s in a familiar situation, in a situation that he’s comfortable in (and) he understands it’s family, he understands that it’s a good environment, a winning environment, he’s going to flourish,” Gibson said late last season after one of Rose’s standout games. “And right now he’s around familiar faces he’s been in battle with for a long time. It’s no coincidence how he’s been playing.”
