The New York Knicks were the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference last season. Some of the major reasons would be the hiring of Tom Thibodeau or Julius Randle's All-NBA ascension, but the underrated reason for their success was the signing of Derrick Rose. After his impressive season, Rose has re-signed with the Knicks for three years, $43 million.
Unfortunately, Rose will be out for at least the next eight weeks because of ankle surgery. His career has already been derailed due to a slew of injuries, but this is his first major one over the last few seasons. Adjusting to a new sixth man role in New York has been terrific for the next chapter of his career as Rose has been a scoring machine with their second unit. As his absence will be heavily felt by the team, there are numerous players that need to elevate their game soon.
Kemba Walker was a brilliant acquisition for the Knicks because it was at a low risk of two years, $17 million, but it could be a high reward for them too. He had been struggling to begin his New York tenure as Thibodeau even benched him for 10 straight games. As he was inserted back to the starting lineup against the Boston Celtics, he has been a phenomenal starting point guard for his squad.
He has scored over 20 points over the last three games, highlighted by scoring 44 points, and 41 in three quarters over the Washington Wizards. It seemed like a necessity for Thibodeau to play him because majority of his players were in healthy and safety protocols, but Walker is proving that he deserves his spot for the foreseeable future. Despite Rose's absence, the option of inserting Walker as a floor general could provide wonders for the struggling Knicks.
Evan Fournier
Evan Fournier signed a massive four-year, $78 million in the offseason, but his performance this season has been underwhelming. His main role with New York was to provide a scoring boost to a squad that struggled to manufacture offense in their first round series against the Atlanta Hawks. Shooters were at a premium again in the offseason, thus there are a ton of criticism that they overpaid Fournier.
Fournier's field goal percentage and three-point percentage is at 42% and 37.3%, respectively. This is a huge downfall from his 44.8% and 46.3% last year. Rose's injury will be a tremendous opportunity for him to regain his confidence and shooting touch as Thibdeau will likely give him more minutes than usual. Additionally, it would be difficult to trade Fournier because of the amount and length of his contract along with his subpar season.
Immanuel Quickley
Immanuel Quickley has been a crowd favorite at Madison Square Garden, but he has not been consistent enough for Thibodeau to put his utmost trust on him to run the Knicks offense. He is still more of a sharpshooter from the bench that can light it up from long distance in any given night. Moreover, Quickly has an ironic floater that seems unstoppable because opponents do not know when he will release the shot.
Quickley is still currently in health and safety protocols, but he is due back in a couple of days. He has more than proven himself as a spitfire guard that could bolster the offense of the Knicks. They are in a tough spot right now for a play-in spot in the Eastern Conference, so the team must act quickly and win many of their next games.
Their schedule is light for the following weeks, thus it means the difficult games would be around February or March. If the Knicks are way behind the 10th seed by that juncture of the year, it will be insurmountable for them to even get a shot for the knockout stages. The iteration of the Knicks last year had a defensive and hard-nosed identity, but this season has been disappointing because their players and coaching staff do not know their identity on both ends of the court.
Tom Thibodeau and the Knicks must figure it out soon as these three scorers could hopefully rack up constant incredible games for New York.
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