NY Post: This is the Frank Ntilikina the Knicks want to see

Marc Berman writes about Frank Ntilikina’s FIBA adventures so far

Frank Ntilikina is finally fulfilling his potential.

Of course, it’s just in China at the FIBA World Cup with the French national team against the likes of Germany, Jordan and the Dominican Republic. But it’s a start, at least, as the Knicks’ 2017 lottery pick attempts to create a long-term future in New York.

Three games into the tournament, the 21-year-old Ntilikina has grabbed France’s starting point-guard job from Andrew Albicy.

The 6-foot-6 guard has impressed his more accomplished teammates with his defense and ball sharing, getting credit for slowing down the Thunder’s Dennis Schröder, who is playing for Germany.

“He’s a very, very talented player and an excellent defender, and I see a bright future ahead for him,” said Jazz center/French teammate Rudy Gobert, according to the FIBA website.

The Knicks staff is scouting the World Cup and talking with Ntilikina, whom they shopped on draft night.

“He’s been very aggressive and confident,” one NBA scout in China told The Post.

It’d be swell if Frank really has improved. I doubt outdoing Andrew Albicy really means anything, but really, better than NOT outdoing Andrew Albicy, right?

80 replies on “NY Post: This is the Frank Ntilikina the Knicks want to see”

I look forward to all of us finally finding common ground about Frank in this thread. No contentiousness at all!

But, like Brian says, it’s far better that he’s playing well against awful competition than if he were struggling.

My guess is that Frank’s option will be picked up, he will play sparingly this year and he will be given a real shot of being a piece going forward in 2020-21. He has the ability on defense to stick around in the NBA at the end of someone’s rotation as he is. It all depends on his 3-pt prowess and rebounding. If he can hit 3’s in the high 30’s on reasonably high volume and be at least an average rebounder for his size, he’d be quite useful.

I get that based on what he’s done right now the mean projection has t0 be that he winds up back in Europe. And he will always have been a terrible choice at that draft spot. But we’re past that now and there’s no reason to hope for anything other that success for him. So yeah, FIBA is a minuscule step in the right direction.

This really is wrong, for several different reasons, but it’s all worked out so it looks better. Covering your mistakes with luck, though, doesn’t make them not mistakes. The logic is simple: Willy is what you hope for from a second round pick – a decent cheap player who can contribute 15 mpg, at very low cost. Most second round picks don’t stick in the league. And while high second round picks are WAAAAY better than low first round picks, the Knicks didn’t know where those picks would land when they made the trade – given Charlotte’s history of finishing just outside the playoffs, it is reasonable to have thought they’d be mid-second round. Just because Mitch, Dray, Jokic and others have succeeded doesn’t mean we should expect anything better than Andy Rautins from those picks.

rama, your logic is deeply flawed here, almost to the point of being absurd.

First of all, Willy is NOT what you hope for in a second round pick, it’s what you would be content with. You HOPE for Ginobili or Jokic or Mitch. Your logic is that you would rather have a $1 winner on a lotto ticket than 1,000 or more unscratched tickets (you have to account for the odds being a jackpot winner, which is far greater in 2nd round drafting…and you selectively ignored that the 0% odds you posted are specific to the #33 pick…the #37, 40 and 48 picks have a 10% chance of yielding a star.) There’s also the trade value…from Day 1 those picks had more value than Willy and now it’s ridiculously lopsided.

Second, it was clear that Willy was a terrible player at that point…he wasn’t being blackballed, he was benched because he was completely unplayable on defense and strictly an old-school post player on offense, with little hope of developing given his age (23 at the time of the trade) and measurables (slow and short for a C, not suited for any other position.

Third, he REQUESTED a trade. That doesn’t mean you make a dumb trade to get rid of him. But to get TWO second round picks with a REASONABLE chance that they become #31-40 (we’re talking Charlotte!) was brilliant at the time and even more so now.

If you can’t credit mgmt for this trade, you are really in delusional mode. There’s lots to hammer them for, but this move is not one of them.

As to the luck part, there’s always an element of luck involved in determining whether a trade was better or worse in retrospect. This is especially true when young players and draft picks are involved. It wasn’t like what happened defied the laws of probability. Willy was on his way to being a stiff and became one. The picks were owned by an historically shitty franchise who more often than not was in the lottery (and who was dumb enough to grossly overpay for Willy!)

Was LA dumb for overpaying for AD? If they win a chip or 2 and he is a main reason why, then no they were brilliant. If he blows out his knee or they underperform and he bolts, then it was moronic. All trades are made based on a GM’s best guess on probable outcomes. Even at the time, it was WAY more probable that the 2 #2 picks (whether used to draft 2 players or in a trade package) would yield a good top 6-7 rotation piece on a playoff team than keeping Willy for the duration of his contract. And now, it’s shifted more favorably to the Knicks, but it’s not some outlier outcome as you are suggesting.

@2,3,&4
I would enjoy being a fly on the wall for your Danielson’s observation debriefs.

Even at the time, it was WAY more probable that the 2 #2 picks (whether used to draft 2 players or in a trade package) would yield a good top 6-7 rotation piece on a playoff team than keeping Willy for the duration of his contract.

A good top 6-7 rotation piece on a playoff team is a nonsensical standard. It doesn’t mean anything.

Frank stunk it up against Lithuania this morning

DRed, why is it nonsensical? I picked it because for any given team, you consider the starting 5 and the first couple of players off the bench as their “core” team and then there are 2-3 other “end-of-rotation” players. When you draft, doesn’t it make at least SOME sense that you hope that the player you draft will turn out to be at lease a starter of one of the first 2 players off the bench? And by “playoff” team, I mean that guys like Knox and Mudiay were top 6-7 rotation guys on an NBA team…the playoff designation was meant to eliminate guys who suck but play anyway because their team sucks, either accidentally or on purpose.

Or did you misinterpret what I meant? Because otherwise, I don’t get where the caustic term “nonsensical” comes in…

michigan plus 22 over army…that ain’t happening…remember last year oklahoma being plus 27 before the game…

never thought I’d be so into watching blocking in football…that army run game is pretty crazy though…

cool to see USA handle Greece easily…

Not upsetting to me!

I love that shit. I am openly hatewatching the Raiders and hoping Chucky fails.

I was disappointed when it looked like AB might play!

Nine years still left on Chucky’s contract!

Imagine if we still had like six years left of Phil Jackson, that’s how bad Chucky’s contract is.

Wow! And now they released him. Dude is obviously going to end up winning a super bowl for the patriots now.

Raider fans are the ultimate when it comes to delusional thinking.

“This was a blessing in disguise”
“We’re still a playoff team without AB”
“The front office handled this really well”

All literal things I have read on Raider blogs today. The Raiders have probably the second worst roster in the NFL after Miami and the head coach is running the NFL equivalent of the “how’s it goink” offense.

This is gonna be an epic season.

US over Greece is a good win, but Greece hasn’t been that good. It’s Giannis and a bunch of garbage. Giannis hasn’t been able to take over games in FIBA as often as you’d expect.

“Now Derek Carr is free to spread the ball around instead of looking for AB 15 times per game”

Another gem

CTE is likely but it’s probably just exacerbating his latent new-money assholishness. I am usually all for players beating up on the owners but Brown is going nuclear here. I wonder if Chucky saying that the leaked audio of their conversa!tion was “awesome” was his way of implying that Brown had just thoroughly sabotaged his earning potential over the next, and likely last, few years of his career. I wonder what kind of haircut he’s going to take when he accepts a nonguaranteed contract with the Pats in a few weeks.

There have been reports of Antonio Brown being a headcase since his high school, of course CTE might play a factor but I doubt it’s the major driving force. I don’t even follow the NFL but this news is far too crazy, the guy really Latrell Sprewell’d himself out of 30 million guaranteed before playing a single game. At least Spree simply did not accept the offer, Brown did and then shit the bed in an unprecedented way.

Chucky’s reign has been spectacular.

First he reached for Kolton Miller in the first round of the 2018 draft, then moved a decent LT in Donald Penn to RT, a position he had never played, so Miller could play LT. Miller got absolutely roasted all year long, and Derek Carr got pummeled so badly all year he probably thought his name was David by the time the year was over. One of the obvious quality players the Raiders passed on was safety Derwin James, who made the Pro Bowl as a rookie and is a top 50 NFL player.

He didn’t want to pay Khalil Mack, one of the elite players in the NFL, so he traded Mack for a pitiful haul: one low first round pick and one pick swap, Raiders 2020 2RP for the Bears’ 2020 1RP. He used the 2019 pick on a running back who probably could have been snagged in the third round. Without Mack and Bruce Irvin the Raiders had the worst pass rush in the league.

He traded Amari Cooper for a 1RP, which was a fair price, and then used the 1RP on a mediocre safety who has poor coverage skills, and is similar to a former 1RP they already had on the roster named Karl Joseph.

In the 2019 draft he reached for Clelin Ferrell when an obviously better prospect in Josh Allen was still on the board.

The Raiders then used the savings from not paying Khalil Mack to make Trent Brown, who had been named to zero Pro Bowls, the highest paid offensive lineman in the NFL. They are playing Brown not at left tackle, but at right tackle, because they’re playing the previously mentioned terrible player Kolton Miller at left tackle.

Their other big salary cap expenditure (plus 3rd and 5th round picks) was Antonio Brown, which, uh, didn’t work out. Their WR corps is now a bunch of no-names.

Gruden is like a Phil Jackson who will never go away.

Although I am kind of amazed that they didn’t do what I thought they would do, which was give Brown the guaranteed $30M and watch him walk in week three. That’s what I thought for sure was going to happen.

Perfect timing for this post considering Frank’s great game this morning vs Lithuania. 0 pts, 0 for 3 FG, 2 reb, 2 ast, 1 to and 4 fouls in 13 mins. 0 stl and 0 blk as well but that’s irrelevant cause the box score doesn’t capture his true defensive greatness.

And Frank’s backup scored 21 points.

I wonder if Frank has ever scored 21 points at any level.

Some truth behind Greece’s shitty performance.
4 hours before Greece-Usa on the other match of the Group Czechs beat Brazilians and gave the chance to Greece to afford losing by Team Usa and still make it to the next round.
If Brazil had won Czech Rep we would have seen a diferent Gre-Us match. A “This is Sparta/Win or Go to Mykonos”for Greece.
Now Greece needs to beat the Czechs (a Cinderella team first time in a WC) by 12 and also needs Usa to beat Brazil and goes to Final 8-Knockouts round.

Frank’s ‘hidden’ +/- on France-Lithuania
+ Started
– Hesitation is back
– Not creative playmaking/safe passes around the 3p line area
+/- Nice stroke on missed 3p
+ Nice transition assist to Gobert for an easy 2p
-/+ Bad 2p shot but lucky offreb of his own shot
-/+ charged 3 fouls that weren’t fouls and benched early
+ Played good low post D on Kuzminskas and earned Kuz’s offensive foul
+/- Aggressive drive with pretty effective spin move but missed easy lay up
– 4th foul debatable
– Out on entire 4thQ

*Frank’s backup is Albicy. De Colo is Fournier’s backup.

Judging by the box score where would you see Frank on the next game of France?>
Somewhere between the fields of Bordeaux and the port of Marseille asking for a job non related to bball is a safe answer.

Where will he possibly be on the next VERY CRITICAL(to avoid USA on the next round) game vs Australia ?
Let’s wait & see…

In 2 days we’ll find out What Vincent Collet trusts more.
The box score or…

Nice stroke on missed 3p

If this is your greatest highlight from a game against Lithuania, you got some serious probs.

JK, you might like my friend from Sacramento’s blog he started to document his final season as a Raiders fan to document his “slow descent into madness and nihilism” as he comes to terms that the team will no longer exist for him.

https://marquetteking.blogspot.com/

If France ends up playing the US at some point, somebody has to defend Kemba Walker. I can see the coach prioritizing that and starting Ntilikina.

Beyond what JK posted how did the Raiders go from the next “team to knock off NE ” a few years ago to this, beyond Carr getting injured late that season?

Geo, my bad I didn’t check the end of the last thread until just now and that was by mistake since we’ve moved on to this new Frank inspired thread.

If Stanton comes back and gets enough at-bats to be ready for the postseason he has to start. The key is if his knee is healthy enough to be able to start in LF. He has always graded defensively as average to above average, he is a very good athlete who can play defense he’s not just a DH. With the sobering news today that Hicks might not be back that means Gardner has to play CF and to me means it’s even more vital Stanton returns. Tauchman has been a nice story but his bat has cratered recently even though he grades out as one of the best defensive outfielders in the league. I love Frazier’s bat but I can’t see them playing him in LF during the postseason even vs a LHP.

With EE and Voit back makes it even more imperative for Stanton to be able to play LF cause 1B/DH is covered with those 2 or even with DJ at 1B and Gio at 3B. I don’t envy Boone cause he has a ton of tough choices to make with the lineup in the postseason and will surely be second guessed big time if they lose and the guys he chooses struggle. Reminds me alot of 2006 when Matsui, Giambi and Sheffield returned late in the season and Torre had a different lineup every game in the ALDS trying to juggle everyone, Sheffield even played 1B.

Reminds me alot of 2006 when Matsui, Giambi and Sheffield returned late in the season and Torre had a different lineup every game in the ALDS trying to juggle everyone, Sheffield even played 1B.

Me, too. We were the best team in baseball that year without Sheffield and Matsui, then we shoehorned them and their poor defense into the lineup, and we were bounced in 4 games in the ALDS.

Dance with the girl who brung you.

very cool big blue…I can see that…I thought tauchman’s defense was significantly better…seems to make contact more often at the plate, plus can hit from the left side…

I know though he has to play…and, in just about any healthy situation the obvious choice to start…

he’s a big dude, hopefully there’s enough games left for him to swing well…doesn’t he normally play right…

is there much of a difficulty difference defending in left versus right field at yankee stadium?

does miguel make it back on the field this year, can he play second base…do you think didi’s coming back next year?

Defensive metrics in baseball can fluctuate alot but last time I saw the defensive runs saved stats Tauchman was 2nd among all MLB outfielders in defensive runs saved doing so in about half the games played compared to the other top defensive outfielders. Judge was also among the top 5 and Gardner in the top 10 so the Yankees when those 3 start together as they have been doing lately arguably have the best defensive outfield in baseball. Hicks is also slightly above average defensively and to me if there is 1 guy I hope comes back in time for the playoffs it’s him but that’s not looking likely unfortunately. Stanton has played 40 games in LF since joining the Yankees but it’s generally considered to be the much tougher corner OF spot to play because of how much bigger left center is than right center at Yankee Stadium but in other places like Fenway it’s easier to play LF than RF.

Andujar is definitely out for the year. Didi is an interesting case because he’s had a pretty bad year, OBP is barely over .280. Still hitting with power and obviously coming off the TJ surgery is a legit excuse but gonna be interesting to see what they do with him. You can have Gleyber play SS next year with DJ at 2b and Gio/Andujar at 3B. Didi is 30 yo already too so he isn’t that young anymore and all the big spending teams have a SS so not sure where Didi can get a significant contract offer from this winter. I hope he stays though, maybe sign him to a 3yr deal if possible.

@37
Rose’s take on Steve Mills confirms many perceptions around here about Mills. Wonder about the breadth of that perception around the league.

“Steve Mills is talking all this black dude stuff with me, like we’re brothers and all this. He’s saying that s–t, making me think it’s going to make us closer. Come on, be yourself.”

I wonder how all that lands on players that are not black? Shall we ask KP?

The Yankees’ playoff roster crunch is pretty insane, I don’t remember there ever being this many tough choices. I had totally ruled out Happ, but he sure looks much better recently and we’re in no position to be passing on starters who could potentially get you through a playoff game.

Then once you get past the roster, the lineup choices seem downright impossible to navigate. You can’t play all of Voit-Gleyber-Didi-Urshela-DJ. Maybe you platoon Didi and Voit? That’s assuming Stanton can play LF, if he can’t this gets even harder.

The Hicks news sucks, injuries aside the guy is a really good jack-of-all-trades. Having said that, if Tauchman can heat back up we might not suffer much of a drop off.

With the incredible number of quality superfluous parts Cashman should be able to land a big frontline starter this winter.

The Marcus Stroman trade was bad.

Anthony Kay might be a better pitcher than Stroman right now.

Today I learned for sure what I probably should have been able to guess: Derrick Rose is a terrible writer.

derrick rose is incredibly efficient at revealing he lives on neptune without ever insulting the reader by coming out and saying it. except of course for a brief reentry into perfect lucidity whenever he talks about steve mills.

@43

The Marcus Stroman trade was bad.

Anthony Kay might be a better pitcher than Stroman right now.

Sigh. Kelenic and Kay. I guess Brody’s gonna try to dump Diaz and Stroman in the offseason for far less than the traded to get them.

I thought Rose was pretty lucid when he talked about how the triangle could work but was a tough system to learn and anyway there was no way Melo would actually play it.

Yeah Rose may not be the most coherent writer or organizer of his thoughts, but there’s a good deal to gleam from that article.

Perhaps… just go with this one for sec… the broken coherency of Rose’s writing really reflected the broken coherency of that season. Like, how he wrote that article is exactly how that season was for the team. #Genius

Same ol’ Jets…

I honestly cannot believe Darnold missed a WR streaking down the left sidelines open by 3 strides twice in the last 3 minutes. Absolutely thought he was going to be the hero with a walk off win…..

Giants aren’t any better although I can always take solace in the fact I’ve seen them win 4 Super Bowls at least.

I knew the Jets were in for a bad Sunday when they opened the broadcast talking about the new kicker from Norway and how he had never practiced kicking in Metlife stadium

The Jets kicking game problem is nothing short of fatal. An NFL team that cannot kick the ball through the uprights 80% of the time is going to suck. The Jets went in hoping for 50% and were disappointed.

The Giants showed why there are reasons to be upset with Gettelman outside whatever the greek chorus is repeating. That defense is embarrassing. I don’t think Dak Prescott is going to be the last QB to have a perfect rating against this team. Hell, even Sam Darnold might have a good game when he plays them.

The US is up big and France lost to Australia by a hair so it looks like the US will play France in the quarterfinal.

By the way, I saw part of the first half of the France Australia game. Frank had some flashes of real smoothness on offense, but otherwise was the same Frank.

France lost to Australia today. Frank with another ’40 degree day’ box score.

Patty Mills put up #’s. Did anybody catch the game? Was Frank covering him?

except of course for a brief reentry into perfect lucidity whenever he talks about steve mills.

The 3 great mysteries of life are women, horses, and why Steve Mills still has a job in basketball. 🙂

I thought Rose was pretty lucid when he talked about how the triangle could work but was a tough system to learn and anyway there was no way Melo would actually play it.

100% agree.

There’s nothing wrong with the triangle. The Spurs and Warriors both use triangle principles heavily now to generate spacing and player/ball mlovement. Seems to be working fine for them. They just adapt it to take advantage of their personell. In the Warriors case having 3 of the greatest shooters of all time means you should shoot a lot more 3s. lol

Peak Melo was a very good player, but the triangle requires high IQ passing and player movement. A player like Melo should be the isolation bailout at the end of the possession if nothing good comes of the passing and movement. Melo and Rose are players that believe they should be the primary shot creation option in what will typically be a stagnant selfish low IQ bad offense. A leopard can’t chage stripes. haha

Adding Rose was no big deal. It was 1 year contract that could open space back up the following year much like the cap rollovers we did this year. It could at least be argued Rose for 1 year was better than Lopez etc.. for several years even though I liked Lopez and his contract. What made no sense at all was saying you want to play triangle and compete now but adding Rose to play with Melo. That’s idiotic. What made even less sense was then using that 20m of cap space gifted to Mills to add Baker and Hardaway.

Always gotta throw in the “Hardwway was a bad signing” thing to make Phil seem less dumb.

Phil should’ve talked with Derrick Rose about trilateral Melo before handing out that mega max. DRose could’ve taught him a thing or two about roster construction.

What are our thoughts about Odell Beckham wearing a $300k+ watch during a game? The next Antoine Walker? Or the watch manufacturer giving a fancy, overpriced timepiece away for millions in free ESPN talking-head chatter media exposure?

What made even less sense was then using that 20m of cap space gifted to Mills to add Baker and Hardaway.

Wait, why was he only “gifted” $20M in space when the NBA salary cap is north of $100M? What happened to all of the other cap space? Seems weird!

There’s nothing wrong with the triangle. The Spurs and Warriors both use triangle principles heavily now to generate spacing and player/ball mlovement. Seems to be working fine for them. They just adapt it to take advantage of their personell. In the Warriors case having 3 of the greatest shooters of all time means you should shoot a lot more 3s. lol

This justification is like the magic bean salesman telling you “lots of farms incorporate soybeans in a well balanced crop rotation” when you complain that the beans you sold your house for aren’t so magic after all.

@62, I think Richard Mille gave him a gift (maybe even paid him) so that they could get free publicity. I’m pretty sure NFL fines players for wearing things that are not approved. I don’t think Beckham would pay 200+ K for a watch and wear it in a game knowing he’ll be fined on top of that expenditure. I mean it’s possible, but my understanding is that the watchmaker pairs with athletes. Rafael Nadal is their brand ambassador and wore a 750+ K watch during his US Open Finals match. I would not be surprised if they teamed up with Odell being he’s definitely a fashion forward guy.

Way before social media and players developing brands, punter Reggie Roby used to wear Timex watches during games. FWIW, he was a great punter.

Reggie Roby used a wristwatch to track the hangtimes of his punts, which totally ruled

I grew up on in south Florida bitterly hating the Miami Dolphins but I always liked Reggie Roby

What are our thoughts about Odell Beckham wearing a $300k+ watch during a game?

A man can wear whatever he likes. I’ll just say trading Beckham was one of Gettelman’s best moves (although I do think he could have gotten more).

That thing looks like a glorified G-Shock…..

But I support any man’s right to do anything that make the NFGoodell look bad….

well, so much for being excited about the world championships this summer…looks like may be only the semi-finals and final will be televised outside of espn +…

well, so much for being excited about the world championships this summer…looks like may be only the semi-finals and final will be televised outside of espn +…

If you have a VPN service, try Kayo. It’s an Australian sports streaming service that is playing every World Cup game live. You can also access replays as well. It’s usually $25.00 AUD per month, but they have a 14 day free trial on at the moment. I signed up specifically for the WC, so plan on cancelling before the trial is done, but the streaming quality is pretty good, even on the free trial basis.

Apparently, Knickerblogger can’t handle Chinese characters and replaces them with question marks. So you’ll have to look up the countries Chinese names on google translate.

Click on the event and then you get a list of streams. You then try each one to see what works.

awww, thanks guys, i really appreciate it…

yeah, lord knows i spend way too much time in front of the boob tube already…so, it’s probably one of those small blessings in disguise 🙂

of course i say this after having finished up a few chores around the house, made some dinner, and getting set to veg out and catch the rest of the yankee game…i can feel the drool dripping from the corner of my mouth already, as i prepare to zombie out…

To follow up on the question someone raised before about whether anyone watched teh France game, I watched the replay this morning (live game was a bit past my bed time for a school night).

The box score for Frank is very pedestrian, and he only got in 20 minutes of game time. Having not watched a lot of France this WC, what I would say about Frank from last night’s game was he is not picking up his dribble as often (i.e. he’s not dribbling to the top of the key, stopping and looking to immediately pass off). He is not moving at a blistering pace, but the handle looks a bit more comfortable, especially in the PnR. He had a few nice sequences with Gobert that resulted in some nice drives. Also had a good sequence in the 1st quarter we he got a steal and finished in the fast break. So all in all, a few nice signs, but nothing that screams breakout year.

As noted he looked decent in the PnR, but still doesn’t direct traffic a lot, so will be interesting to see what he might be able to do with Mitch and Randle. Maybe having him play the 2, but running PnR sets might be the go for him this year.

@79 Frank will not be running anything in the NBA. He’s basically a scrub PG in FIBA, which is a G-League-level player at that position at best. His only hope in the NBA for the next 2-3 years at least is as an off-ball 3-pt shooting wing. That and-1 drive is so telling, it was a straight-line drive with absolutely no athleticism or finesse and he was lucky to bank it in from straight away. Payton and Smith Jr. are light years ahead of him on offense, as are most NCAA PGs.

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