Knicks reportedly open to discussing Derrick Rose and Immanuel Quickley in trade talks

With the season about 20% of the way through, teams have gotten a better look at where they stand and what they need. And with that comes the development of more and more trade rumors. The Knicks, who are coming off of a fun start to their west coast trip with a pair of thrilling wins, seems to be exploring options to shake things up. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Knicks are willing to discuss Derrick Rose and Immanuel Quickley in trade talks in an attempt to resolve the team’s surplus of point guards.

Rose is an interesting case because he is currently in the midst of his worst season as a pro, with career lows in PPG and MPG. There’s a case to be made that his lack of production can be attributed to the fact that he’s rarely able to get into a rhythm due to his low minutes. There are fans that still believe in the former MVP and think that with more minutes, he’d be able to return to form. And on top of all of that, Leon Rose, like everyone else in the world, knows that Thibodeau and Rose share a close bond. All of that would obviously make trading Quickley (who at this point may bring a better return) seem more possible. That being said there’s a chance that Rose is just not the player we’d seen over the last couple of years.

Quickley, like Rose, has been struggling on offense. He’s averaging just 8.9 PPG on 38% from the field, 29.3% from three, and 80% from the free throw line. If the season ended today, those would all be career lows for him. But Quickley, who is much younger than Rose, may be more enticing for teams to take a chance on. Besides the potential and upside factor, Quickley has also turned himself into a very good perimeter defender. But those are both reasons the Knicks may want to prioritize keeping him over Rose. And we can’t forget that just a few months ago, this front office seemed hesitant on including Quickley in a package for Donovan Mitchell.

Ultimately, which one of the two backup point guards gets traded may depend less on who the front office values and more on what their returns from the interested teams are. Regardless, with both point guards having down years offensively, it will be interesting to see what a potential return could be and how they both play after a trade were it to happen.