Austin Rivers: Knicks Trade, Derrick Rose Rumors 'Messed With Me'

Austin Rivers' brief New York Knicks career didn't flow as peacefully as he anticipated.

Currently a free agent, the well-traveled Rivers appeared on the latest edition of The Bill Simmons Podcast to discuss his professional path. Rivers spoke about each of his seven NBA stops over an 11-year career, which included a 21-game stint with the Knicks at the onset of the 2020-21 campaign. He had acquired from Houston in a sign-and-trade about a month before tip-off. The 10th pick of the 2012 draft joined the Knicks nearly two decades after his father, renowned head coach and current ESPN analyst Doc, played three seasons of a 13-year NBA career in New York (1992-94).

The younger Rivers hinted that he never found true peace as a Knick, even though he believed that team president Leon Rose had his back. Favor with Rose, however, apparently paled in comparison to head coach Tom Thibodeau's desire to reunite with point guard Derrick Rose (no relation).

"The Knicks (tenure) messed with me for a little bit," Austin Rivers told Simmons. "I was having some really good success there early on and it just felt like, the whole time I was there, they were kind of waiting for me to either not play well or something to happen so they could bring in Derrick. That's just how I felt."

Rivers' arrival coincided with that of Thibodeau, who oversaw Derrick Rose's rise to power, including his 2010-11 MVP campaign, in Chicago. While Derrick had taken on a nomadic path after leaving the Bulls in 2016 (when he was traded to the Knicks), he united with Thibodeau in Minnesota in 2018. Thibodeau was fired just before the midway mark of the following season while Rose moved on to Detroit in the ensuing summer.

Working in a backcourt picture headlined by Alec Burks and a sophomore RJ Barrett, Rivers reached double figures in four of his first seven showings as a Knick. In that stretch, which included a 23-point effort in a home win over the Utah Jazz, Rivers averaged 12 per game and shot just below 51 percent from the field.

Over his next four, however, Rivers' numbers plummeted to three points a game and he shot just over 17 percent. He closed January on a high note (scoring 25 in a rematch with the Jazz) but opened February by shooting 21 percent from the floor and averaging 3.2 points in the first five games. By then, he was playing only 15 minutes a game after averaging 25.5 in January.

Derrick Rose was eventually acquired on Feb. 8 and Rivers partook in only two more Knicks games after that, playing less than five minutes combined. Rose played well enough to not only warrant Sixth Man of the Year consideration but also guide the Knicks to a 30-17 record that helped secure the fourth seed on the Eastern Conference playoff bracket. Rivers was eventually involved in a three-team trade where the Knicks' primary yield was the draft pick that eventually became Jericho Sims.

To his credit, Rivers felt no ill will toward Derrick Rose, who was the Knicks' leading scorer during their subsequent playoff cameo (a five-game loss to Atlanta). However, he couldn't but feel a tad betrayed by how his metropolitan situation played out.

"Thibs has always been a Derrick Rose guy and I totally understand that, he won MVP under him," Rivers said. "But I was brought there and, from my understanding, (Thibodeau) wanted Derrick from the beginning and Leon Rose kind of went in my direction.”

"As soon as an opportunity came where we lost a couple, or if I didn’t play a couple of good games, it was just an immediate conversation, like ‘Hey, we’re bringing in Derrick.’”

Rivers landed in Oklahoma City as part of the aforementioned deal and was cut shortly after. He eventually latched on with the Denver Nuggets and averaged 8.7 points and 1.2 steals in 15 appearances. That earned him another contract in the Rockies before he spent the most recent season in Minnesota.

Nowadays, Rivers is looking for a new contract as NBA training camps prepare to open. The 31-year-old mentioned to Simmons that he had a productive conversation with Boston Celtics president Brad Stevens, who succeeded his father as the team's head coach in 2013.

“I told (Stevens that) I’d love to be a part of the team," Rivers said. "He said a lot of positive things. We’ll see if that’s something that will come to fruition. I’ve always loved Brad. I’ve always been a fan of him.”

Rose would play two more seasons in New York and watched his role gradually diminish before moving to Memphis this past summer.