Comments on: Knicks Morning News (2018.01.01)

By: Ntilakilla

Ntilakilla — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 02:15:08 +0000

Can you believe that it’s Holiday’s 9th year in the league? It took him six years to break the .100 WS48 barrier, hopefully Frank doesn’t take that long to develop.

Holiday is a poor WS/48 because his defensive metrics are sucky. He’s be a far better player if he had Frank’s defense.

By: Ntilakilla

Ntilakilla — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 02:11:15 +0000

Dennis Johnson scored 9.2 points per game as a 22-year-old rookie shooting guard. I seriously doubt those are HOF numbers and if they are then Frank is well on his way to Springfield.

By: Z-man

Z-man — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 01:26:39 +0000

@26, that’s an interesting comparison. I think you would have a lousy, overpaid PG running your offense, but the defense would definitely help. Can you believe that it’s Holiday’s 9th year in the league? It took him six years to break the .100 WS48 barrier, hopefully Frank doesn’t take that long to develop.

By: Z-man

Z-man — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 01:22:03 +0000

@25 DJ was a HOF player right out of the box, pretty much the Kawhi Leonard of his day (finals MVP in his second year) who adapted to playing PG late in his career on a team with Larry Bird playing point forward. Bird called him the smartest player he ever played with. That’s a pretty tall order for Frank.

By: Knick fan not in NJ at this time

Knick fan not in NJ at this time — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 01:05:31 +0000

So if you have a Jrue Holiday who is a great defender, how good a player is that?

By: Ntilakilla

Ntilakilla — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 00:53:02 +0000

Actually, its interesting Z-Man raises Dennis Johnson. He also starting his career off the ball as a 2-guard with Seattle and evolved into a PG.

By: Z-man

Z-man — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 00:28:32 +0000

Guys I can think of that have things in common with Frank…big, defensive guards with just so-so PG skills:

Dennis Johnson (Celts version, not the finals MVP version from Seattle, that’s too much to ask)
Terry Porter (best case?)
Ron Harper (although he was super-athletic, was in the slam-dunk contest a couple of times)
Shaun Livingston (better ball-handler, not much range)
Nate McMillan (most similar, moved off the ball to accommodate The Glove)
Iman Shumpert (Frank’s floor? NYK tried him at PG his rookie year, didn’t work)
Marcus Smart (different body, but another hard-nosed 2 with lots of minutes at the 1)
Danny Ainge (no shit! excellent defensive player, played a bit of 1 on an all-time great passing team)

All of these guys were glue guys that played on great teams. That’s the key with a guy like Frank…to put a great team around him.

By: Ntilakilla

Ntilakilla — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 00:20:47 +0000

Jrue Holliday actually started his college career sharing backcourt duties with Nick Collison in UCLA. He was not a pure PG who had worse TO/AST ratio than Frank at an older age his rookie season with a similar build and became a bonified NBA point guard as his career progressed. He’s a good comp to me of someone who blossomed into the position to be an All-Star caliber starter at the position. Hell, check out George Hill’s stats in college. He was no pure point guard there either.

By: The Glass Half Rebuilt

The Glass Half Rebuilt — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 00:05:33 +0000

Frank Ntilikina is the Jason Kidd to Trae Young or Jalen Brunson’s Raymond Felton. The Felton-Kidd/Paul-Billups/Dragic-Bledsoe starting backcourts were excellent pairings and I think the Knicks need that with Frank. Frank has a ton of experience as an off guard and would bring a newfound important to the 2 guard spot as a supporting role. He should shoot to be a playmaking Klay Thompson type, and we should go grab his partner in crime in this draft. That Jalen Brunson kid out of Villanova would be perfect, and he’s old enough to fit in with our group of guys and be undervalued in the draft process. His stat profile is through the roof.

By: Z-man

Z-man — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 23:45:09 +0000

Frank is an excellent defender for his age. He still has lots to learn, but all the tools are there. There aren’t that many difference makers at the guard spot these days because of the way the game is played. What I like about Frank is that he’s like a reverse Draymond on p&r defense, long enough to switch on to bigs w/o creating a massive mismatch (Draymond is quick enough to switch onto guards.) And you can tell he LOVED playing D, which is nice to see. That quality in and of itself makes him a valuable rotation player. It’s still a bit early to start thinking of him as a DPOY candidate, though. Let’s see how offenses react to him as he starts playing more and the word (and more film) gets out. He’s definitely being noticed, though.

As to offense, he’s got some fundamental issues with ball handling and with finishing. I still don’t think the word is out on how to defend him (get in his grille and throw doubles and traps at him while playing the passing lanes). He can’t really turn the corner or blow by anyone, especially quicker guys.

Some guys adjust to that and become effective PGs, some don’t. Sometimes it’s about reps, sometimes it’s an innate thing. I’ve been skeptical because not too many guys come into the league as 2’s get successfully converted into 1’s. He may have some good assist numbers here and there, but that doesn’t make him a PG (Draymond averages 8.6 assists per 36 on only 3.3 TOs and he’s not a PG.)

So that’s why I see him developing into a playmaking defensive 2 with a decent pull-up J. Maybe he bucks the odds and makes huge jumps in his PG skills, but it isn’t as easy as some here make it sound. Seriously, who’s done it?