With Emmanuel Mudiay hurt, Frank Ntilikina back in starting lineup
Frank Ntilikina and Tim Hardaway Jr. of the Knicks look on in the second half against the Nets at Barclays Center on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019. Credit: Jim McIsaac
With losses piling upon losses, the one thing the Knicks can cling to is the future, the nebulous wishful thinking when seasons like this one will be a memory and, they hope, a stepping-stone to those better days.
But the key to that is development of the young players on the roster, and one of the most confounding mysteries has been figuring out just what they have in Frank Ntilikina. And now they may find out, starting with Friday night’s 109-99 loss to the Nets at Barclays Center.
The Knicks (10-37), who have lost eight in a row, 16 of 17 and 21 of 23, have found themselves embroiled in a faceoff of playing time versus player development.
Enes Kanter has been unhappily stuck on the bench. He did not play at all for the second straight game Friday night, his averages of 22.3 points and 13.0 rebounds in his previous games against the Nets a memory as the Knicks were pummeled 60-33 on the boards.
Nets fans shouted for him as the game got out of reach, and the Kanter situation will only grow more difficult.
But the Knicks have no choice with Ntilikina.An MRI revealed a left shoulder strain for Emmanuel Mudiay that will sideline him for at least two weeks, putting Ntilikina, the last lottery pick of the Phil Jackson era, back in the spotlight. He was re-installed in the starting lineup Friday.
Ntilikina had not started a game since Nov. 11, with Mudiay emerging as the choice at point guard this season. But Mudiay is a free agent at season’s end with a cap hold of $12.8 million, a figure that the Knicks almost surely will renounce to clear cap space. Ntilikina is one of the young players under team control.
When Ntilikina struggled with foul trouble Friday, playing only 19 minutes, coach David Fizdale turned to little-used Trey Burke, who had 25 points and five assists in 33 minutes.
Fizdale recently has said he likes pairing Ntilikina in the second unit with Allonzo Trier, a shoot-first guard. Fizdale started Ntilkina at small forward early in the season, then shifted him to his natural point guard spot briefly before yanking him from the starting lineup in favor of Mudiay.
Ntilikina got the Knicks off to a good start, mostly behind the scoring of Noah Vonleh (22 points, 13 rebounds), who had 14 points in the first 8 minutes and 15 seconds. But Ntilikina contributed four points, four assists and a steal and held D’Angelo Russell scoreless before drawing his second foul and exiting.
He drew a third foul nearly as soon as he went back into the game in the second quarter, and he headed back to the bench. After starting the second half, he was hit with a fourth foul less than a minute into the third quarter. By the time he returned to the game in the fourth quarter, it was turning into a rout for the Nets.
Fizdale expressed confidence in Ntilikina’s ability to run the team and eventually turn into a more potent scorer.
“That part I don’t think he has any problem with. He’s an organizer,” he said. “He’s very good at getting people where they’re supposed to be, getting guys organized, getting us into the places that everyone knows where everyone is supposed to be
Ntilikina is a solid defender on a team almost completely devoid of them. His weakness remains his shooting. He entered Friday shooting only 33.7 percent overall and 29.6 percent from beyond the arc. But Fizdale said his shot isn’t broken and that he has to get past a mental barrier.
“Maybejust reps, maybe more reps,” Fizdale said. “You compare him rep-wise to a guy that’s 22, 23 years old, you’re talking about probably 30,000 shots, something crazy like that, maybe even more when you’re talking about these great shooters. I think it’s just a matter of the constant work which also builds confidence in what you’re doing. And once he sees it go in enough, it’ll become part of him.”
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.
