NEW YORK _ The Knicks high hopes for this season centered around the acquisitions of veterans Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose. And in fitting fashion for a season gone awry, both of them will be sidelined for the remainder of the season.
Noah had already undergone surgery on his knee in February and now, cleared to return, is serving the start of a 20-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. And Rose, who was an injury-risk all along, saw his season come an abrupt end with a torn meniscus in his left knee.
Before the Knicks fell, 110-94, to the Boston Celtics at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks confirmed that Rose was done for the season, one more blow in a lost year.
Rose, who was unavailable to the media Sunday, will undergo an arthroscopic procedure which will heal likely in two months, but is more troubling for the effect on his impending free agency. Rose has been plagued by injuries for years, missing 228 out of a possible 394 regular season games over his final five years in Chicago before the Knicks traded for him in June. The left knee is the same one that started his stumble through an injury-riddled career with a torn left ACL in 2012.
"I feel bad for him," said Kristaps Porzingis, who had 14 points as the Knicks fell behind by as many as 27 points and never led Sunday. "I know how hard he worked throughout the season to maintain the shape that he has and make sure he avoids all those injuries as much as he can and to see that happen to him right now at the end of the season, it's tough. I'm sure he will come back stronger."
"Well that's a quick healing injury," Courtney Lee added. "What is it, six, seven weeks? So I mean it could have been worse. You can look at it that way. But I feel for him and going to shout out a lot of prayers for him for a speedy recovery."
Rose was believed to have suffered the injury last Monday against Detroit, coincidentally one of his best performances of the season, feeling stiffness and soreness in the knee. He needed to play just three more games to have played his most games in a season since his MVP season in 2010-11. Instead, he will head to free agency with one more question added to an already troubling list.
"It's tough for Derrick," Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said. "He's played hard all year. ... He'll get that taken care of and probably get back. He's worked hard last summer with yoga, those kind of things, to get his body in great shape. I feel bad for him. I thought he's played well. The explosiveness that you saw from years ago, you saw that quite a bit this year."
Rose was healthy and athletic most of the season, missing 12 of the first 76 games with minor problems. He was sensational at getting to the rim and finishing, in a class with the best point guards in the NBA at that. But he struggled defensively all season long and his off-court troubles were more problematic.
Rose missed nearly the entire preseason while attending a sexual assault civil trial in Los Angeles and when the regular season began with a loss in Cleveland he started a season-long frustration with the Knicks' triangle offense. When he came to New York he believed the team would be a contender _ even a super team _ and also thought after spending the first seven years of his career in his hometown of Chicago that he would earn a big contract with the Knicks, a team in desperate need of a point guard to support Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis.
But he proved an ill fit in New York and at one frustrated point in the season, went AWOL, missing a game in January as he flew home to Chicago without answering the desperate calls and texts from the team.
He returned to the team but still seemed already headed out the door. At the trade deadline he was nearly shipped to Minnesota, which would have reunited him with his long-time coach from the Bulls, Tom Thibodeau. While the Knicks could not get the deal done, it showed Rose that he was not in the long-term plans for the team.
Rose sat out March 23 in Portland after injuring his foot in the prior game, but returned to play two more games and was productive and healthy, scoring 24 points with 5 assists and 5 rebounds in San Antonio and then adding 27 points, 6 assists and 4 rebounds, hitting 12-of-17 shots, against Detroit on Monday.
He sat out Friday's in Miami and was going to held out Sunday before word came out about the MRI and season-ending injury. It made little sense to rush Rose back, just as Anthony has already sat out the last two games with a sore knee, with the Knicks officially eliminated from contention for a playoff spot and instead positioning for the NBA draft lottery.
"I think it's tough for everybody in here," said Ron Baker, who has started in Rose's place the last three games. "We're all a pretty close group. Derrick is obviously a great player, a great friend. Now that we're out of the playoffs, it's tough to see a guy that's worked so hard all year like him hit that injury. And I kinda know he's low in spirit, but we'll support him the best we can as teammates and hopefully he can get back to 100 percent during this offseason."
