Knicks' Frank Ntilikina, Kevin Knox not playing much, but praised as teammates

When the Knicks saw their nine-game winning streak come to an end Monday they were unable to slow down the potent Phoenix Suns backcourt of Chris Paul and Devin Booker. And defensive-minded Reggie Bullock was saddled with foul trouble. But Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau never went deep into his bench — leaving Frank Ntilikina, who is renowned for his defensive versatility, and Kevin Knox out of action.

"There's always thoughts," Thibodeau said after the game. "The thing is if you're trying to look at your matchups and what's going on in the game and go that way. You take a look at everything."

The two former lottery picks (of previous front office regimes) have found themselves out of the rotation except for rare spot duty, opportunities that might grow more rare with Alec Burks expected back soon.

But they have earned praise from Thibodeau and their teammates for their attitude, being part of the enthusiastic bench group during games and working hard in practice.

"They’re great teammates," RJ Barrett said after Wednesday’s morning shootaround. "Frank is one of my closest friends. I’ve known Kevin as well. They’ve been great teammates as well. They work extremely hard. I just saw Kevin out there on the court dripping in sweat getting the work in. When they’ve gotten their opportunity they’ve done extremely well."

"You know he comes in multiple times every day," Thibodeau said of Knox. "He’s in early, stays late, comes back at night, positive attitude. His practices are his games. He contributes to the team, a very important part of the team. So he just has to stay ready."

Burks cleared — but not in action yet

Alec Burks was cleared from the NBA’s Health and Safety Protocols and joined the Knicks for the morning shootaround Wednesday. But Burks, who was in the protocol since the Knicks game in Dallas on April 16, was not activated for the game against the Bulls.

The Knicks had lost Derrick Rose for 23 days when he tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this season and there is not a timeline yet for Burks return to action.

"It’ll be day to day," Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. "He just started in shootaround today. So he’s just been cleared and we’ll see where it goes from there."

Asked if he could be ready for the start of the Knicks six-game road trip that begins in Houston Saturday, Thibodeau again was unsure.

"Well, we'll see," he said. "We'll see how it goes. We have a few days here. Just worry about tonight and then tomorrow we'll deal with tomorrow, but similar to what we went through with Derrick it'll be day by day. We'll see where he is until we can evaluate further, but he's got to ramp up his conditioning."

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.