- Derrick Rose
- Justin Holiday
- 2017 2nd Round Pick
The Knicks needed to change things up at the point guard position. Their floor generals were 30th in points (by a wide margin) and 27th in assists during the 2015-16 season. To turn things around, Jackson decided to swing for the fences.
In a move that grabbed headlines all over the country, the Knicks acquired former MVP Derrick Rose from the Chicago Bulls. Rose’s once-promising career has been derailed by injuries, but with his contract expiring it was a calculated risk.
The Knicks were able to dump Jose Calderon‘s salary, and Jerian Grant wasn’t a huge blow, but Robin Lopez started at center in all 82 games last season and was arguably the Knicks second best player. Even Phil Jackson said that losing him was like, “getting a tooth pulled.”
Phil Jackson: "Losing Robin Lopez was like getting a tooth pulled. It was not easy. We did not want to lose him."
— Ian Begley (@IanBegley) July 8, 2016
Rose’s aggressive play will be a refreshing change of pace, but he’ll need to become a more willing passer with his new team.
Per Nylon Calculus, 27.9% of his assists came at the rim area, and 29.7% came on 3-point shots. Rose’s ability to find teammates from downtown could benefit Kristaps Porzingis and Courtney Lee.
Last season he averaged 8.9 drives per game and passed only 23.3% of the time. Rose will need to be smarter with the ball as well. He turned the ball over (7.1%) on drives more often than he assisted (6.5%) on baskets (via NBA.com).
https://youtu.be/w1WLwfsgue8
Despite the negatives, there is still one big positive. Rose scored 6.9 points per game on those drives, good for top ten in the NBA.
The other player, the Knicks, received along with Rose was Justin Holiday. The 27-year-old shooting guard only played 121 games in his first three years in the league, and the Knicks are now his fifth team in four seasons.
The numbers say that Holiday is a shooter as the career average distance on his FGAs is 16.1 ft, and 45% of those attempts have been threes.
While Holiday is just a mediocre 32.6% from downtown for his career, he’s an impressive 39.1% on 2-point attempts greater than 16 ft. away from the basket (via Basketball-Reference.com).
Holiday can be most effective for the Knicks if he can make threes off the catch — he was 37.6% on catch and shoot 3s last season — and play good defense. Holiday has an above average career defensive box plus-minus (0.3), and he was Defensive Player of the Year his senior season at the University of Washington.
Don’t be surprised if this throw-in becomes an important part of the rotation.
