The New York Knicks just wrapped up a five-game road trip that they capped off with a victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday Night. That gave them a winning record on the trip, pushing their record back to the .500 mark at 9-9 on the NBA season.
During the trip, New York gave two teams, the Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets, their first home losses of the season. They lost to the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns before the win over the Thunder. All five teams had winning records at home heading into the matchup and had a combined record of 23-5 entering the contests.
It was an impressive showing for a Knicks team that has struggled to find consistency throughout the season and had to fight against an illness falling over some players on the team. That stretch of games could have also saved the job of head coach, Tom Thibodeau.
As shared by Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the coaching seat of Thibodeau’s is getting warmer by the day. If the Knicks have another stretch as they did near the end of October and beginning of November, when they lost three games in a row by double-figures, Thibodeau could be given his walking papers.
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The future of point guard Derrick Rose, who missed the Thunder game because of an injury, is also up in the air. Rose being made available in a trade isn’t too surprising given the logjam that the Knicks have in their backcourt.
He has admitted that he and Thibodeau have not discussed his role, which has been diminished greatly thus far this season. Rose is a proven scorer that would bolster the bench of a contender should they be willing to offer some draft compensation to the Knicks. With a team option for next season, he can be viewed as an expiring contract.
Another player to keep an eye on in the backcourt is Immanuel Quickley. His name has been brought up by other teams calling the Knicks, who will have some difficult decisions to make in the near future as he is eligible for an extension next offseason. Young point guard Deuce McBride is another player that executives around the league believe the Knicks would be open to trading.
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Veteran Evan Fournier has fallen all of the way out of the rotation in recent weeks as he was replaced by Cam Reddish in the starting five. His minutes disappeared altogether at the start of the west coast trip as he was removed from the rotation after Thibodeau tightened things to only nine players.
New York isn’t currently willing to attach draft compensation to move on from Fournier, which is the right decision. They are likely stuck with him unless it is as salary filler for a bigger deal.
