Leon Rose deserves credit for the Knicks success
MIAMI — No matter how the Eastern Conference semis unfolds for the Knicks, accomplishment will and should matriculate into the postseason narrative.
After all, their optimistic projection was for the play-in tournament. The over-under to start the year was 38.5. Then the Knicks won 47 games and advanced to the second round for the first time in a decade.
And much of the congratulations belongs to the man behind the scenes.
For Leon Rose, the team president of silence and mystery, it was a needed redemption campaign. His summer of 2021 was a disaster, an 0-fer in free agency with copious cap space wasted on Kemba Walker, Nerlens Noel, Alec Burks, Evan Fournier and Derrick Rose.
The pre-deadline trade for Cam Reddish was also a waste of a first-round pick.
Today, all those players are either gone or out of rotation. Rose’s failing grade for 2021 is settled.
But he hit a reversal with his 2022 summer (and into February). Forgetting Rose’s two home runs for a second, the lesser moves — signing Isaiah Hartenstein and Mitchell Robinson — provided coach Tom Thibodeau a reliable paint presence necessary for his game plan. Hartenstein certainly earned his $8 million salary while playing all 82 games. Robinson’s offensive rebounding makes him a good value as long as he’s healthy (not a certainty with him).
Skipping ahead to the trade deadline, Rose’s maneuver for Josh Hart was a a clear victory — a wipeout. He dumped Reddish, who was out of the rotation, and acquired a work horse with an impact so immediate and fierce the Knicks won nine straight games after Hart joined the roster.
The production means Rose will have to pay a lot more for Hart in the summer (a four-year deal worth about $70 million is projected by ESPN front office insider Bobby Marks), so perhaps we’ll rethink his acquisition in a couple seasons.
But for now? A homer.
Then there’s the Jalen Brunson signing. Once viewed around the league as an inside job to get a family friend and former client more money (the Roses and Brunsons have long been tight), it can now be celebrated as not only a Knicks coup, but a huge victory over nemesis Mark Cuban.
Rose’s relationships as a former power agent, which were touted upon his hiring as a pathway to superstars, paid off in an unexpected way with Brunson. The point guard, believe it or not, has the potential to become New York’s greatest free agency signing. Ever.
The only downside is Cuban’s Mavericks became so bad after losing Brunson that their top-10 protected pick this year — which was dealt to the Knicks as part of the Kristaps Porzingis deal — probably won’t convey.
Worth it.
There are still two of Rose’s big 2022 moves hanging in the balance, with outcomes based on factors too far in the future to predict. The first is re-signing RJ Barrett to a four-year deal that doesn’t start until next season. Barrett is young, mature and motivated, but his inconsistency could turn that contract into a negative.
The other was failing to acquire Donovan Mitchell. Rose clutched his unprotected first-round picks too tightly for a deal to reach the finish line.
The restraint looked better after the Knicks handled Mitchell and the Cavs in the first-round of the playoffs. But judgement can’t be rendered until the Knicks use those draft picks for something else — perhaps the next star to hit the trading block, whomever that might be.
The latest rumors about targeting Giannis Antetokounmpo in a couple years at least gives hope that this is about a player worth the wait.
In the meantime, Rose deserves his flowers and an A for the calendar year. New York’s pandemic season unexpected run was built on a roster he inherited from the previous regime. This season’s success has Rose’s fingerprints all over it.
