NY Knicks Lineup: How will the team handle Derrick Rose and Kemba Walker?

NY Knicks: Who will start? Kemba Walker or Derrick Rose?

This is one of the easiest questions to decipher here.

I will say, both Derrick Rose and Kemba Walker have similar player profiles and I could see both thriving in the 6th man role. With that being said, I see no reason why the team wouldn’t keep Derrick Rose in that 6th man role that worked so well for him last year, where he finished 3rd in the league in 6th Man of The Year voting. 

New York’s 2nd unit was a lot of fun to watch. In contrast to the slower-paced, methodical half-court offense that they used with the first unit, the bench was a much different style of play.

They still incorporated much of the same offensive philosophy, but the backcourt tandem of Derrick Rose and Immanuel Quickley brought a much more high-octane, dynamic style of offense that wasn’t present with Knicks starting guards.

You can expect that 2nd unit of Rose, Quickley, Burks, Toppin, and Noel to continue to be a little more run-and-gun than NY’s first unit.

For Walker, he will be the injection of life that is much needed for the NY Knicks starters. Walker gives them a sure-handed ball-handler who has boatloads of experience being the focal point of an offense.

In the same ways that the NY Knicks looked like a different team with Derrick Rose starting instead of Elfrid Payton, Kemba Walker will have that same positive impact, except this time, New York will actually have an experienced, high-level guard in Rose to come off the bench.

Expect New York to continue to run a lot of their starting offense through Julius Randle, with Walker, Evan Fournier, and RJ Barrett all playing important secondary scoring roles.