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Ian Begley, ESPN Staff Writer 7y

Knicks' Jeff Hornacek: Derrick Rose will 'learn by fire' new offense

NBA, New York Knicks

NEW YORK -- To pick up the portions of the New York Knicks' offense he missed during his civil trial, Derrick Rose will have to "learn by fire" this weekend, head coach Jeff Hornacek said.

Rose missed five preseason games and seven practices during his civil trial in Los Angeles over the past two weeks. A jury on Wednesday found Rose and his two friends not liable in a civil lawsuit that accused them of gang-raping Rose's ex-girlfriend when she was incapacitated from drugs or alcohol.

Rose missed Thursday's preseason finale against the Brooklyn Nets. He is expected to meet with Hornacek and other Knicks coaches on Friday to go over aspects of the Knicks' offense that were implemented during his absence.

"I'll probably just sit with them and go over some things. I'll probably overload him with a lot of information and then when he comes in [Saturday for practice with teammates], he'll try to learn by fire," Hornacek said Thursday. "We'll get him in early probably and run him through some stuff with some of the guys. But I want to talk to him a bit with that stuff and maybe take him out on the court and at least show him some different things. He got some of it at least in training camp. So some of it will be a review but we'll start to show him the new things."

Rose will use Friday's tutorial and three practices to get up to speed prior to the Knicks' season opener Tuesday against the Cleveland Cavaliers. That isn't much time to pick up on what he missed during his absence.

It's also worth noting that he and new Knicks center Joakim Noah haven't shared the floor together during the preseason. Hornacek, though, believes that Rose won't have much trouble getting acclimated to the offense.

"We hope it comes together well," Hornacek said. "[Rose is] a veteran player. He's played with Jo before. Obviously him and Jo and Justin [Holliday] were teammates in Chicago so they have that familiarity. He's probably played in All-Star Games with Carmelo [Anthony]. So he has that and we have training camp. It's not like we just traded for him yesterday and he's got to come in there and pick it up. He has a little background with these guys. So hopefully it doesn't take too long."

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