Having never seen Knox play and after listening to him being pilloried here during the draft run up, I was pleasantly surprised. For a guy who couldn’t do anything but shoot, he got 8 boards, 2 dishes, blocked a very nice shot and at least looked adequate on defense. He shot a lot but wasn’t chucking at all. Almost all of his shots were perfectly good shots, he attacked the rim relentlessly and got to the line alot. His 3 ball didn’t drop, but 3 of his first 4 rattled in and out and his form is A-1.

Robinson was a bloody revelation with a pretty unique skill set and played amazingly well for not playing a single game above AAu/HS. Lock him up , please…. he is at least going to be an NBA defensive player who can catch and finish and could be special if nurtured properly. Someone inthe scouting department deserves a raise.

As to Frank, everyone knows Phil drafted him to play defense, bring the ball up the floor and dump it into the post and run behind the arc….. and that’s not what he is being asked to do. He isn’t a prototypical point guard and never will be. He is a wing who can handle the ball ok for a wing, play Joe Dumars minutes as a point and play world class shut down defense. That will be his roll and that will make him a valuable NBA player but he likely will never be a 36 MPG classic point.

You’re seriously twisting the narrative here. JK47 specifically said the team should not give up on Ntilikina as he has shown real basketball skills, his argument is just that those skills have not given the indication that he’ll be a viable PG in the near future (or ever), which is a good point.

I like the guy and have defended the pick mostly because of those skills and his super young age, but there is real cause for concern.

In the off-season you can improve strength, conditioning, skills like shooting, etc…but you can’t really improve on being a point guard without, you know, actually playing point guard. The last season was 3 months ago and frank is still younger than slot of the people drafted THIS YEAR.

Knickerblogger: where everyone talks about rebuilding the right way but then turns around and gives up on second year players in their first summer league game.

I could see if he showed some of the basic skills you need to play PG but was inconsistent. Then I would say yeah, he just needs time to develop. But I’m not even seeing flashes. He dribbles the ball up to the three point line and dumps it off, that’s his idea of how you play the point guard position. When he does get over his own tentativeness and tries to put the ball on the deck and make a play, the results are usually ghastly.

I’m just not seeing it.

I don’t know why it’s not more commonplace for draftees to do a “minor league stint” before coming up to the big team like in baseball. I’m sure it would do 18/19-year-olds (who are still growing) a world of good. It might even make it easier to judge their next contracts properly since they’ll have more reps for the FO to look at.