Derrick Rose believes team ‘can’t be bad forever’

Detroit Pistons veteran point guard Derrick Rose gives an optimistic take regarding his former team, the New York Knicks.

It’s turning out to be another lost season for the New York Knicks. At 19-44 heading into Sunday’s matchup with Detroit, the struggling group is en route to a seventh consecutive playoff-less season.

Fans always wonder when the organization will surpass its many on-court issues and return to postseason ventures. Future-predicting isn’t possible, but that doesn’t mean supporters should be pessimistic. Success will arrive at some point…at least according to one of the team’s former players.

“From the outside looking in, it just seems like they’re still looking for someone to lead them,” Detroit Pistons guard Derrick Rose told Peter Botte of the New York Post prior to Sunday’s matchup at Madison Square Garden. “I’m not here, I wouldn’t even know what goes on up there on a day-to-day basis, but from the outside looking in, it looks like they’re stuck in a rebuilding mode again.

“But I do think they’ll have their time. Nobody can be bad forever.”

Rose spent time with the Knicks during the 2016-17 season after the Chicago Bulls sent him there for multiple players. At that point, Rose was a few years removed from an ACL tear that caused him to miss the entire 2012-13 campaign.

In his lone year with the Knicks, Rose averaged 18.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 4.4 assists on 47.1% shooting. He tore his left meniscus in April of that season, an injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the campaign. Rose totaled 64 appearances with New York, all of which were starts.

Despite Rose’s optimism for the Knicks, he won’t be participating against them on Sunday, citing a sprained right ankle. New York sits in 13th place in the Eastern Conference but could move up a spot with a win over the 20-44, 12th-place Pistons.