Chris Mannix and Howard Beck get into NBA All-Star predictions, dissect the Derrick Rose trade to the Knicks and speak with Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen.
This week on The Crossover Podcast, Mannix and Beck dive into their NBA All-Star picks and discuss which Pelican deserves a spot, how many Nets should make the team, Tobias Harris's case for being the 76ers' second All-Star and Jaylen Brown's argument for being a starter, plus more. They also consider the backlash to holding an All-Star game from top NBA players and debate if the Knicks made the right decision by re-acquiring Derrick Rose. Later, Cavs forward Jarrett Allen joins to talk about his journey from Texas to the NBA, getting labeled as a player who didn't love the game, his early years with the upstart Nets, the James Harden trade rumors, getting traded to Cleveland, playing outside the bubble, if "SexLand" will stick and more.
Subscribe, rate and review The Crossover NBA Show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you download pods.
The following transcript is an excerpt from The Crossover NBA Show. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.
Chris Mannix: We did have a trade this week, the first significant deal we've had in the NBA. Derrick Rose getting shipped from Detroit back to New York, Dennis Smith Jr. and a second-round pick go to the Pistons.
My instant reaction to this deal, Howard, was it's fine as long as Derrick Rose isn't sliding into the minutes occupied by Immanuel Quickley. If you're the Knicks and you've been one of the surprise stories of the season, that's great. You want to give yourself a little bit of extra juice to make a run at the playoffs. Fine.
But keep your eye on the ball here. The ball is making sure that the young players who are going to be part of your future get the minutes they need. If Derrick Rose winds up taking minutes occupied currently by Austin Rivers or Reggie Bullock or Elfrid Payton, that's fine. All those guys are kind of in the same place in their respective careers. But if there's a couple of DNP-CD's for Immanuel Quickley, so Derrick Rose can get 28 minutes from Tom Thibodeau, his former coach, I'm not so sure I'm on board with that one, Howard. So, give me your reaction to Rose to the Knicks.
Howard Beck: The first thing is this: I don't care what they gave up. They gave up Dennis Smith Jr., who most of the league had given up on long before the Knicks acquired him as part of the Porzingis deal.
Chris Mannix: Dennis Smith Jr. was telling the Knicks, send me down to the G-League bubble to get me playing time. So, he wasn't a part of what you are doing one way or the other.
Howard Beck: To his credit, he wanted to do whatever it took. That's fine, but most of the league had moved on from Dennis Smith Jr. as a prospect before the Knicks even acquired him in the Porzingis trade and tabbed him as the key piece of that trade. So clearly, he was not critical to them going forward. The second-round pick, I think it's a pick from Charlotte that they're sending out, that's fine. Second-round picks can be useful as trade chips. However, as we know, they are very much a crapshoot in terms of getting any actual players. I don't care about anything that they gave up. It's a flier and it's not hurting their cap; Derrick Rose comes off the books after this season.
But that points out the real question, which is: why are you doing this? You're a rebuilding team. You've got all these intriguing young players. Quickley, Knox, Barrett, Toppin, I think Frank Ntilikina is still hanging around somewhere. What exactly is a late-career Derrick Rose doing for you? And before anybody says the words mentor or leader, is there anything that Derrick Rose is bringing to the table that Elfrid Payton can't already give Immanuel Quickley at that position? Or that Taj Gibson can't give Immanuel Quickley and the other young guys as an overall veteran, not by position, but just in general? What does it do? Because Derrick Rose was an MVP 10 years ago, is he more qualified to impart wisdom to Immanuel Quickley? I don't see what he has added to them.
And if the idea is, they want one more solid piece in the backcourt to make a run at the eighth seed or the play-in [game], that's fine. But I'll tell you, I've got a lot of friends who are Knicks fans, because I live in New York. The vast majority of them are concerned with exactly what you underlined Chris; this can't take minutes away from Immanuel Quickley. Everything right now should be about development. It's easy for me to say, I don't care about the Knicks making the playoffs because I'm not a Knicks fan, it doesn't bother me one way or the other. But there are some Knicks fans who would very much like to be not only developing young guys, but also making the playoffs as a short-term payoff and a sign that they're making progress and are moving in the right direction. That's all valid. But if you're getting Rose just to make a run at the eighth seed and if it comes at the expense of Quickley, then I think that's the wrong move.
I have to be honest, it feels like Tom Thibodeau reaching for a security blanket. He wanted another one of his old guys. But again, I don't know that this really moves the needle for the Knicks short-term, it certainly doesn't long-term. Derrick Rose isn't part of their future. And so, I don't hate it, I just don't quite get it.
Chris Mannix: I'm a little curious why Derrick Rose wanted to be back in New York. To say his one season in New York was a disaster is an understatement. There was a lot of off-the-court stuff. He quite literally quit on the team during that season. That was a big story during that [2016-17] season and in the aftermath of that year, most people believed that his career was either over or on the cusp of being over.
Now, he revitalized it in Minnesota and in Detroit, to his credit. He figured some things out. He became a better three-point shooter. Those things all work in his favor. But I'm a little surprised that Derrick Rose wanted to go back to New York. I do think he's a better player than Elfrid Payton. You can certainly make the argument that he might be more reliable than someone like Austin Rivers. And I do think it's valuable having somebody that you trust, like Thibodeau clearly trusts Derrick Rose and vice versa.
Listen to The Crossover NBA Podcast
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart
Find recent episodes on SI.com