The final quarter of the Knicks' season featured none of Derrick Rose, which felt off given how much the veteran point guard meant to the resurgence of the team this season, but a nagging knee injury kept the 32-year-old off the floor in the final 12 minutes of game five.
Now, as his contract expires and he becomes an unrestricted free agent, will Rose be a part of New York's future after being a vital piece to the team's offensive awakening during the regular season?
"That's not up to me, that's up to the front office," Rose said Wednesday night. "They've got big plans. Who knows if I may be back, I don't know."
Rose doesn't know if he'll be back as the Knicks enter a fascinating offseason in which they will look to build themselves into a contender after making the playoffs for the first time in eight years, but Rose does know that he wants to be a part of the franchise's continued rise.
"I would love to come back," Rose said. "Who wouldn't want to play for the Knicks or be in New York? I would love it. But at the same time, I know it's out of my hands and they may have bigger plans."
Rose was an unquestionable catalyst for the Knicks' strong second half of the regular season, bouncing back from his bout with COVID-19 to average 14.9 points and 4.2 assists as a Knick, while shooting 48.7 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from downtown (which would be by far a career-best over a full season). He became the starting point guard in the playoffs and immediately made an impact, scoring 26 points in a game one win, dropping 30 in game three and 18 in game four, though a knee injury limited him the rest of the series. The Knicks will likely look for a higher-profile point guard in the prime of his career as the team looks to put together a stable core, but if they want Rose back in a bench role, it seems like he would be all for it.
"I'm gonna let my agent and them talk about it, but it's really not up to me at all," Rose said. "I'll just leave it at that."
Rose also talked about the desire to rejoin the Knicks even before he was traded from Detroit, seeing what Julius Randle, RJ Barett and company were accomplishing under Tom Thibodeau, and he believes others around the league see it as well, which could help New York finally succeed in free agency, an area that has typically resulted in heartbreak for Knicks fans since 2010.
"I think there's a lot of people in the league that thinks the same thing," Rose said. "But like I said, it's out of the players' hands, it's up to the people in the front office."
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