Favale wrote a piece about upcoming/unheralded players in the league quickly gaining stock around the association. Among most surprising rookies we have players like SGA, Miles Bridges and our very own Mitchell Robinson:
Mitchell Robinson, New York Knicks
Milwaukee Bucks Twitter got BIG mad when I (deliberately) overstated Mitchell Robinson's ceiling. He had jacked an entry pass to Jarrett Allen, dribbled the length of floor, outraced Caris LeVert and finished with a dunk. I essentially called him the next Giannis Antetokounmpo. Harmless stuff.
To be clear for those who cannot detect sarcasm or tasteless humor: Robinson is not Antetokounmpo 2.0. But he's a 7-footer who gets licks on the offensive glass, swats shots, jumps passing lanes, breaks rims and has the control and gait to be a fair-weather ball-handler.
Once he polishes his defensive bearings—i.e. boxes out consistently and doesn't sacrifice placement in the post and around the rim for block attempts—the Knicks will have a draft-day mega-steal on their hands. In fact, given his pole position (No. 36), they already do.
More notably, however is that among most surprising sophomores we have Frank Ntilikina in a list that includes the likes of De'Aaron Fox, Josh Hart and Jonathan Isaac:
Frank Ntilikina may never pass the cursory box-score test. Whatever. He's laying the groundwork for a promising career.
He continues to be an all-over-the-place defender. He never gives up on closeouts and has the length and speed to keep pace with some of the more cagey guards and wings. The Knicks have tried his hand against bigger covers (Khris Middleton, Taurean Prince, Jayson Tatum, etc.) without real success, but to even have the option of entertaining that switchability is an asset.
That Ntilikina is starting to blend his defensive energy with offensive nerve is huge. He's not drilling step-back jumpers after cooking fools off the dribble, but he's no longer unassertive. He has shown more poise attacking set defenses and is no stranger to flinging sharp passes on the move.
New York may not be sold on shimmying Ntilikina between guard spots, but he's growing as a table-setter. He's shooting better than 40 percent on a not-insignificant number of pull-up threes and hitting almost 67 percent of his shots around the rim. With more confidence in his handle, upping his volume and facilitating a larger offensive breakout doesn't seem out of the question.
Judging by the piece on Frank it's likely that this was maybe written before his shooting slump, but I still find it interesting that actual NBA experts as well as media are starting to take notice on Frank and his upside, yet we have posters here who think he "sucks" and are already prepared to give up on him 11 games into his second NBA season (first imo because of the adjustment period when he first came over). It just goes to show that people around the league are watching and it is in our best interests to give him the long leash that so many other players have gotten who turned out to be great in year 3 or 4 .
Discuss!
