New York Knicks: Can Derrick Rose Rebound As Season Goes On?
After missing most of the preseason, can New York Knicks point guard Derrick Rose regain his explosive form? Through two games, he’s looked it.
After making adjustments to the roster during the offseason, the New York Knicks have been working on developing chemistry with their new players. With their starting rotation, the Knicks added three new players in Derrick Rose, Courtney Lee and Joakim Noah.
These players are talented players in their own right, but hadn’t played a minute of action together during the preseason. Rose wasn’t available for most of the preseason and Noah missed three games due to injury.
Their anticipated starting lineup saw their first game action in the season opener against the 2016 NBA champions, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It was expected that the team would take some time to get adjusted to each other and develop chemistry. It’s hard for a team to come out of the gate strong when 10 of the 15 players weren’t on the team last season.
Let’s not forget, when LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined the Miami Heat in 2010, the Heat started the season at 9-8. Comparing James and Bosh in their prime to Rose and Noah may be unjustified, but it has a lot to do with the chemistry that the newly acquired players are working to develop.
When it comes to Rose, he displayed some glimpses of explosiveness in the season opener. He was getting to the rim and even took on a four-on-one in transition. Rose was able to show good hustle after picking up a steal off a rebound.
He finished that possession by putting the ball in the basket.
In an interview on The Michael Kay Show, Jeff Hornacek talked about Derrick Rose’s explosiveness in the season opener.
"“Some of those moves he didn’t finish, but he got there. And that’s one of those things that I can remember back at the beginning of last year in some of the games we played them when I was still in Phoenix. He didn’t look like he had that explosiveness, but he worked very hard over the summer. He did some different things in the yoga, and different stretching, and things he did to strengthen his legs and to go out there and play being a healthy player. So I think he has confidence in his legs that he’s not going to get hurt and that allows you to go ahead and attack sometimes. We were happy with his explosiveness the other night.”"
Even after missing most of the preseason, Hornacek said Rose is still working on getting better.
"For the beginning, we’ll probably have to take it a little bit slow. He seems to be a pretty quick learner, so he picked some things up even better today and we’ll keep working at it.”"
While the 2011 MVP hasn’t had the opportunity to get a full grasp of the system, he was able to do what he does best: utilize his speed, attack the basket, and knock down some midrange jump shots. As the season goes on, the Knicks will introduce his skills more into the offense, which could include more pick-and-roll opportunities for Rose and Kristaps Porzingis.
With one game and a few practices under his belt, the Knicks are still looking to get Rose acclimated to the system.
"“We have to kind of reacclimate Derrick [Rose] into the system and what we’re doing. We had a couple days prior to that game, but it’s just like running it in practice then doing it against a team that just won the world championship. He was just running the offense. He kind of did what was comfortable and what he remembered the best, so we just kept on working on those things so he could kind of do some different things.”"
While the 2010-11 Heat took about 15 games to get adjusted to each other’s game, Hornacek didn’t put a number on how many games it will take for New York to get adjusted to each other.
The Knicks’ head coach did state that, “After 15 or 20 games, we should [have] a pretty good idea if we’re improving or not.”
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With the majority of the roster consisting of new players, it’s hard to judge the Knicks after their first few games. After losing to the Cavaliers, the next 10 games will be a challenge for New York.
Seven of those games, including two against the Detroit Pistons, will be against teams that made the playoffs last season.