Derrick Rose on Future With Knicks: 'I Want to Play The Rest of My Life Here'

Derrick Rose is only under contract with the New York Knicks for this season, and at the end of the year he’ll become an unrestricted free agent. Rose is putting up 16.4 points, 4.8 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game. Whether the Knicks will make a serious push to keep Rose in blue and orange remains to be seen, but we know where he stands on the issue.

Rose wants to stay in New York for a long time—to hear it from him, he wants Madison Square Garden to be his home arena for the rest of his career.

“We’re building the culture,” Rose said in an interview with SLAM. “We’re building the foundation now. I’m under a one-year contract so of course I want to play the rest of my life here. But it takes time, it takes patience to figure out how everyone is going to fit, if it is going to fit and going from there.”

Obviously, this is not big news; it’d be big news if Rose implied he wanted to leave New York. It’s a cliché at this point for an athlete to say “I want to spend the rest of my career in X city.” It is telling, however, of how Rose feels about his time with the Knicks so far.

At 9-9, it’s hard to say whether New York is “building the culture,” but it’s a big step up from their 17-65 record a year ago. They’re definitely building something.

The Knicks will have some big decisions to make soon. ​Carmelo Anthony is 32, and he’s under contract through 2019—he’s no longer the clear-cut superstar he once was. Kristaps Porzingis is the future of the organization.

Rose and Porzingis should hypothetically pair well together, but when they have been paired together this season, the Knicks have been outscored by 3.9 points per 100 possessions, per Pro Basketball Talk.

The big questions are whether Rose can stay healthy, and how much money he’ll want. The answers will likely determine whether Rose’s wish is granted and he gets to stay in New York.

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