On right court now, Rose must catch up
The preseason came and went with Derrick Rose spending more time in a Los Angeles courtroom than on the Knicks practice court.
How Rose’s two-week absence plays out the first month of the season remains to be seen. For a player with a history of injury problems, it’s unrealistic and perhaps too risky to expect Rose to play 30-plus minutes his first time out.
Rose will get a crash course in Triangle 101 when he meets with head coach Jeff Hornacek on Friday before finally returning to practice with his teammates on Saturday. Better late than never, right? The plan is for Rose to get in three days of training and start the season opener on Tuesday against the defending NBA champs in Cleveland.
Rose’s teammates are excited to have him back and they’ll also be happy to know that Hornacek will likely run even fewer triangle sets since Rose, who famously called the offense “complicated” after two practices, has missed so much time. This should please Carmelo Anthony, who led the way with 21 points in the Knicks’ 116-111 win over the Nets Thursday in their final preseason game.
“It’s all pretty simple stuff,” Hornacek said. “I don’t think guys who played basketball and played for years…this stuff isn’t that complicated.”
It’s hard not to feel for Hornacek, who has to make excuses for an offense he doesn’t seem enamored with running. But he signed up for this and now his job entails getting his star point guard up to speed in four days.
“I’ll probably overload him with a lot of information and then when he comes in the next day he’ll try to learn by fire,” Hornacek said.
It will be good for Rose to get back to doing what he does best while also trying to distance himself from the seedy civil trial that, despite the jury’s ruling, was embarrassing for both Rose and his new employer. A jury cleared Rose in the $21 million civil lawsuit in which Rose and two of his friends were accused of gang raping a former girlfriend. Some of the testimony from the plaintiff and Rose was at times disturbing.
The fact that some jurors posed for photos with Rose after the verdict was announced is tasteless indeed. And if that didn’t make you cringe, Joakim Noah saying it was unfair that Rose had to miss most of the preseason “all because some girl was trying to make money off my friend” probably did the trick.
We can all agree that this has been a less than ideal first month for Rose, the former MVP point guard who was acquired the day before the NBA Draft as part of Phil Jackson’s quick fix to get the Knicks back into the playoffs. Rose is still worth the risk from strictly a basketball standpoint assuming you can ignore what happened in his private life. Rose is in the final year of his contract and if he plays below standard and/or is injured, the Knicks can simply cut their losses and look at Rose as a one-year rental.
The Knicks finished their exhibition schedule by beating the Nets in Brooklyn and will open the regular season in Cleveland Tuesday on what will be a historic night for the city. The Cleveland Indians will play Game 1 of the World Series that night while LeBron James and the rest of the Cavaliers will receive their championship rings right next door.
For the Knicks, the night will be significant because it will mark the first time Hornacek will have his regular starting lineup together. Noah didn’t play in the preseason opener due to a hamstring injury. Last season, Noah appeared in just 29 games and yet Jackson still gave the center $72 million over four years.
Besides the fact that Noah has been injury prone, the Knicks best lineup may be Kristaps Porzingis at center and Carmelo at power forward. Hornacek will have to figure it out. It starts today when he gets with Rose, the player who has been gone for two weeks and needs to start winning on a very different court. AP