I don’t remember much about Balkman’s defense other than his energy

To the eye, Balkman played like Anthony Mason if Mason had pogo sticks for legs. He was an absurd physical specimen that, to the eye, could effectively guard 4 positions. BUT he averaged 5 fouls a game and couldn’t stay on the court…

(…don’t you kind of feel that 12 years from now Stratomatic jr is going to post something like “I don’t remember much about Ntilikina except his ability to guard the high pn’r?)

Balkman couldn’t throw a basketball into the ocean. He was a horrible shooter. The only thing he could do was shoot right at the rim. So he had more opportunities to do that (and rebound) because he was bigger, but he was one of the worst shooters you are ever going to see stick in the NBA for awhile.

I don’t remember much about Balkman’s defense other then his energy, but even there Frank can switch 3 positions now and will probably switch 4 when he gets a little stronger.

Frank will never win it but I could see a lot of defensive first/second teams in his future.

This is the more likely scenario because he’s a guard, but he has a chance to be in the conversation.

Of course the offense will need to progress to where he’s actually playable on a good team.

a chance to become a DPOY caliber player

FYI, a guard hasn’t won DPOY in the NBA since before Frank Ntilikina was born.

And talk of DPOY for a burgeoning Knick was last posited here:

http://kbdev.knickerblogger.net/renaldo-balkman-for-dpoy-oh-yeah-and-knicks-119-denver-112/

Yes, fans tend to overvalue their own team’s young players. And, yes, there is a lot of similarity between Balkman and Ntilikina when it comes to them shooting the ball (…but Balkman was a great rebounder and a very good distributor, so Frank has a lot of work to even reach Balkman levels of excitement).

It’s so damn obvious he’s a very good defender with a chance to become a DPOY caliber player eventually (switching 3-4 positions) and that he’s also improving on offense (albeit from a very low level) we are at the point where it’s the equivalent of discussing politics with most people. People are so locked into their positions they aren’t seeing or thinking clearly.

Can we still call him only a 3&D(potentially) guy if he can add some secondary/tertiary playmaking o a team?

I’m not that worried about his AST%. I know these stats TRY to capture what’s going on, but imo they don’t always do a very good job of it. If he was playing PG all the time he’d have more opportunities to get assists and get more per time he handles the ball. It’s his rebounding that he should be able to do a better job with.

His assist rate as the starting point guard this year was 21.8. That’s bad- factor in a turnover rate of 19.8 (not as bad as it looks because he never shoots but still bad) and you have an awful playmaker.

c’mon strat, he’s been terrible on o. whatever the %, he’s shot only 12 ft’s. that in and of itself is a huge problem.

He has improved his 2p% from .385 to .444.

If before the season I asked people if they would sign on for that for this year almost everyone would have said yes. Of course he has to get to the FT line more, but at 75% over 2 years, shooting FT% is not an issue there either. It’s primary a 3p% issue this year, but that’s a volatile number. If he just gets back to last year, he would have made a LOT of progress. He’s improving, but it’s mostly probably hidden in volatility.