“It creates a bigger jam,’’ Hornacek said. “With Frank able to move to the 2, it creates some problems there but it allows us to play two [point guards] together sometimes.’’
Jeff Hornacek believes the Knicks need more size on the wings.
The Knicks traded away Carmelo Anthony in September and have relied on traditional shooting guards like Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee to play bigger.
“If you look around at the top teams in the league, they have multiple guys in the 6-7, 6-8 range with length,” Hornacek said. “We have a lot of guys in the 6-5ish range. [We] just got to get bigger at some of those spots. … You talk about that 6-7, 6-8 guy, everybody in the league wants that guy. You don’t see those guys all over the place.’’
Hardaway said he's monitoring how the Knicks address the issue in the offseason.
“I haven’t played the 3 ever — the first time playing it for the whole year,” Hardaway said. “You go against strong guys — LeBron [James], KD [Kevin Durant], those are very hard matchups for a guy who is 6-6. It was a learning experience. You have to learn to choose your battles and use your size to your advantage. I got to watch the offseason to see how everything plays out for us.’’
“You can do it that way, but sometimes it’s tough on a young guy like Tim, who’s probably a natural 2 to have to play the 3 all year,’’ Hornacek said. “He took that challenge and did pretty well. Those two guys were able to do it, but it’s not like [GM] Scott [Perry] said [after the Anthony trade], this is our roster, let’s win a championship. It was the understanding, ‘Let’s play who we have with the talent and as years go on, you fill in different spots and go that route.”
The Knicks have experimented with using Frank Ntilikina at shooting guard.
