NEW YORK — The grand debut of Derrick Rose’s “super team” remains on hold — if it ever actually materializes.
Rose’s vision of a team to rival Golden State (insert laughter here) must wait as the Knicks’ new playmaker sits 3,000 miles away in a Los Angeles courtroom at the center of an unseemly $21.5 million civil trial for rape and as oft-injured center Joakim Noah continues to miss valuable pre-season games with a hamstring injury.
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These are trials and tribulations Jeff Hornacek doesn’t need in his first season in New York, where expectations are higher than ever for a big season in the Garden. But at least there’s been significant progress on one key front.
He might look overmatched with his awe-shucks looks, frequent smiles on the bench and easy-going manner, but Hornacek has already scored a major victory. He’s managed to win over his locker room by being a pit bull with his boss.
Hornacek has made it clear that he won’t bow to Phil Jackson’s demands to be a slave to Jackson’s antiquated Triangle Offense and made no bones about that the other day. “Guys don’t like to run it,” he said.
Take that, Zen Master.
Apparently, Jackson has taken Hornacek’s shot across his prodigious bow without any push-back. So far, he’s willing to allow Hornacek the freedom to coach the team the way he sees fit. Talk about finally seeing the light! Somewhere, Derek Fisher must be thinking, why couldn’t have Phil done that with me, someone he really knows?
Jackson didn’t give Fisher any latitude to tweak his sacred offense, one that Carmelo Anthony has never been a fan of, to the point where when asked about the Triangle back in July during Team USA’s practices, he said, “I can’t use that word.”
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He no longer has to. Jackson is still a big believer in it and even proudly showed it on his laptop when recruiting free agents this past summer. But now it’s a much different story in year three of his tenure running the Knicks. After upgrading the roster, at least on paper, there’s a mandate from ownership to make the playoffs after three straight misses and a combined 49-115 record in Jackson’s first two full seasons in New York. So the man with 11 championship rings has swallowed hard and is willing to allow Hornacek to play 2016-style basketball and use the Triangle sparingly, as when the Knicks are in-bounding off a dead-ball situation.
Even with two-thirds of his starters missing, Hornacek has laid out his vision for what he will run when he has all hands on deck. Whether it works is another matter, but he makes no secret of the fact that he wants to play at a fast pace, put Rose in pick-and-roll plays, where he’s been most effective. He does not want to have him become a Triangle robot, where he reads the defense, passes the ball into the post, runs to the corner and stands there, awaiting the next move. That would not be playing to his players’ strengths.
“We want 'em to push the ball,” Hornacek said before the Knicks defeated the Washington Wizards on Monday night in the Garden. “It’s up to our point guards, Derrick Rose and Brandon Jennings. Guys are going to want to run if our point guards are dribbling up the court very fast. That will push 'em.”
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Even Anthony, no gazelle, is going to be the beneficiary in Hornacek’s new halfcourt non-Triangle sets.
“When you want to push the pace, it’s not a matter of flying down there and taking a shot,” the former Suns coach said. “You’re getting into early stuff. You’re swinging the ball. Getting down screens early in the offense, where teams are not set up defensively. That’s where it will benefit not only Carmelo, but any of our wings. Of course it starts with Derrick pushing it. That will open up the floor.”
Rose hasn’t been pushing anything for the Knicks over the last week. After debuting when the Knicks mailed in their pre-season opener in Houston, he has missed the last two games as he’s been testifying in court about whether he knew the meaning of the word “consent,” and answering allegations that he and two friends raped and drugged a woman when he was a member of the Bulls.
“He’s doing as good as he can, due to the circumstances,” said Anthony, who has talked to Rose over the last few days.
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Between the trial and Rose’s long-held desire to be rewarded this coming summer with another mega-contract, even as his play has deteriorated due to his knee injuries, the Bulls look shrewd in finding a trading partner for their one-time MVP. The Knicks, on the other hand, don’t look so smart, as Jackson admitted that they didn’t do a deep dive into his legal problems. He said they were “aware,” but “investigation is a big word.” Ordering a full-blown investigation was the mandatory course of action, at least for most NBA teams, but their point guard play has been so abysmal in recent seasons, they felt the reward far outweighed the risk.
Noah was another gamble, even ballsier in a basketball sense, given that they rushed to give him a four-year, $72-million deal as his first suitor. His play has been on the decline and there’s been a lot of wear and tear from the Thibodeau years. As Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf explained in letting his one-time MVP candidate walk, “Noah wasn’t going to be a frontline guy anymore.” Keep in mind, he’s only 31.
Before his injury, he became embroiled in a controversy during the Knicks’ training camp at West Point when he boycotted a team dinner with cadets because, as he said, he’s firmly anti-war. (As if they might not be.) He only managed to insult his hosts and cause an uproar within the West Point community. The Knicks stood behind him, difficult as that was, but that’s now blown over.
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It’s what the two old, embattled Bulls — plus a declining Anthony, an emerging Kristaps Porzingis and a dangerously thin bench — can do together that really counts now. There’s only two weeks to go before they open the season at Cleveland. Not much time for three new starters to learn a new coach and a new system.
“I don’t think the flow and the rhythm is going to happen overnight,” Anthony said late Monday night before leaving the locker room. “I think it’s gonna take time. How long, I have no idea. Right now we’re still trying to find our way, and trying to figure out everybody out there on the court.”
Doesn’t sound like much of a “super team,” now does it?
