For the first time in over two weeks, Derrick Rose suited up in his Knicks practice gear and hit the hardwood floor with his teammates. Both Rose and his new crew eagerly anticipated the opportunity to reach normalcy once again while preparing for a monumental matchup on opening night.
“I’m very appreciative,” Rose said on Saturday afternoon at MSG Training Center. “I love the position I’m in. I love the mindset that I have right now and I love the shape I’m in right now.”
Friday was a scheduled off day for the team following back-to-back preseason games against Boston and Brooklyn. However, Rose traveled back from Los Angeles to join the Knicks coaching staff on Friday to watch film and go over the new aspects of the offensive and defensive schemes head coach Jeff Hornacek installed since the first preseason outing. In that contest against the Rockets, Rose was solid, scoring 16 points on 7-for-14 shooting and dishing out five dimes in just 25 minutes of court time.
“I think my basketball IQ is very high,” Rose stated. “We run the same sets, just a couple wrinkles here and there. For the most point, we’re running an up-tempo type of game and on out of bounds plays that’s when we are throwing the Triangle on dead balls, so it’s very simple.”
The good news for Rose is that he participated in the entire training camp session for the Knicks at West Point, played in a preseason game in Houston, and maintained conditioning while in Los Angeles.
“Basketball court workouts and just by myself,” Rose described his routine out west. “It reminded me of when I was a kid, just playing outside, hooping by myself and having time to think about things.”
In four of New York’s five preseason games without Rose in the lineup, Hornacek started Brandon Jennings at the point guard position. Jennings played a similar role to Rose, using his startling speed to penetrate the defense and setup teammates in transition. On Thursday night in Brooklyn, Sasha Vujacic received the starting nod and Jennings resumed his projected role as the sixth man.
“We did some stuff with him yesterday, just talking about different calls we have,” Hornacek confirmed. “We had sent him stuff prior to that, so he obviously had studied that because it has not taken him long to pick the new stuff up.”
Hornacek expects to start Rose on Tuesday night against the defending champs alongside Courtney Lee, Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis, and Joakim Noah. Visions of this starting group injected a great deal of excitement into the fan base prior to training camp. Noah, unfortunately, dealt with a sore hamstring for the first three preseason games and was unable to participate in game action. Three days from the opener, the Knicks starting unit is whole again.
“I’m very confident, man. I really believe this is why I’m here to hoop. I still have a lot of confidence in my ability. Confidence never left, if anything it made me focus in a little more, like having time by myself in the gym and just working on things on thing that I need to work on,” Rose explained.
New York will have two more available practice sessions prior to making the trip on Monday afternoon for Cleveland. On Tuesday night, Rose and the Knicks will look to play spoiler on the Cavaliers ring ceremony night in front of a nationally televised audience.
