Jax folds hand to go all in this offseason
LEVELAND — Knicks president Phil Jackson isn’t a fan of Las Vegas — one of his least favorite cities because of the searing heat and crowds. Or maybe because he’s not a wiz at poker.
A second straight trade deadline has passed without Jackson making a transaction. Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose are still Knicks, and Ricky Rubio — a crafty, playmaking point guard who actually may understand the nuances of Jackson’s triangle offense — is still stuck in frigid Minnesota.
Jackson may have overplayed his hand in the Rubio talks that fell apart Thursday. A straight-up Rose-for-Rubio deal wasn’t enough for the Knicks. They wanted more, to expand the deal, to get a draft pick or 6-foot-10 Serbian forward Nemanja Bjelica, who most NBA fans had never heard of.
In the end, word out of Minneapolis was too many of Tom Thibodeau’s advisers worried whether Rose would help the games of youngsters such as Andrew Wiggins. Tired of the stalemate, the Timberwolves decided the chances of re-signing Rose to a moderate contract this summer were risky and it was no time for a rental, currently standing 3 ½ games out of the West’s eighth seed. Minnesota backed off even as Jackson may have been willing to do the straight-up swap at the last moment.
The Knicks still can sign one of the veterans who will be released in the next few days, but any difference-making deal is off until at least draft night and July’s free agency.
Barring a miracle final 25 games, the Knicks will have a lottery pick and Jackson needs to sit on the dais and own it. There’s a slew of point guards — maybe six of lottery caliber — that could take Rose’s spot.
UCLA’s Lonzo Ball, Washington’s Markelle Fultz, N.C. State’s Dennis Smith, Kentucky’s De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk and France’s Frank Ntilikina. You’ll be hearing a lot of these names over and over if the Knicks season collapses further as Jackson hopefully makes the rounds of the postseason college tournaments.
Jackson has yet another June and July to get it right. The benefit of not consummating the deal for Rubio, who has two years and $29 million remaining on his contract, is the Knicks gain a large swath of cap space this summer — possibly $24 million.
This latest win-now-with-Rose experiment appears doomed as the Knicks exited Quicken Loans Arena 12 games under . 500 after Thursday’s 119-104 loss to the Cavaliers, with a starting point guard who now knows he isn’t exactly wanted.
If you listened to Rose on Thursday morning, it seemed evident he was counting the hours until he could leave for Minnesota — or at least free agency. No, the triangle isn’t his cup of tea. Who knew? Jackson surely didn’t when he gave up triangle-savvy center Robin Lopez and young point guard Jerian Grant for him.
“It’s a different offense,’’ Rose said. “As a point guard you’re always in the corner and just got to play off reads and play that way. It’s new for everybody here. I get all my points off random baskets. Unless you see it go to the post, all the other stuff is just random basketball.’’
The free-agent pointguard market isn’t bad until you consider Chris Paul is expected to re-sign with the Clippers and Jrue Holiday has a new running mate in New Orleans in DeMarcus Cousins and may decide he doesn’t want to join his brother Justin in New York. Kyle Lowry and George Hill? There’s more financial incentive than ever in the new collective bargaining agreement to stick with their current clubs.
The collapse of the Rubio deal will give the Knicks — if they renounce Rose’s rights — a ton of cap space for Jackson to work with. If he doesn’t waste it like he did last summer on Joakim Noah and his $72 million contract, then maybe Thursday’s trade-deadline dud will look good.
But Rubio, with his lefty flashiness and deft European passing, may have looked good in the Garden.
“Ricky makes the right play — that’s what the Knicks need more than anything,’’ one NBA scout said.
What they need more than anything is a creative team president — not a Hall of Fame former Zen Master coach.