Hot Topic - Quite Frankly; All Things Frank

[malik959]

If Frank were to become that Doug Christy/ Michael Cooper/ Sidney Moncrief/tony Allen/Danny Green/ Aaron Mckie/ Ronnie Brewer type of player than I'm greatly satisfied, but he really needs to get that dog in him, hit his open shots.

[CDAZ]

This thread is hamsterdamn. Perfect. Keep all the BS here.

[Mecca]

He’s a solid second unit player off the bench. Potential to be the 5th starter in a lineup if he can gain some confidence. His main issue is confidence. And that’s in between the ears. He doesn’t trust himself on the court.

[Nazrmohamed]

If Frank were to become that Doug Christy/ Michael Cooper/ Sidney Moncrief/tony Allen/Danny Green/ Aaron Mckie/ Ronnie Brewer type of player than I'm greatly satisfied, but he really needs to get that dog in him, hit his open shots.

Even if he ended up being that, it would be a gross misuse of the 8th pick in a draft. You get that talent from picked 24-35, even if one were to say the defense were elite.

But I think to appreciate him you just gotta take the L on the whole 8th pick thing. We Fd up, its done and its fine at this point. It doesn't change my belief that he could become an integral part of a very good team as Christie was from your example, or Sefolosha was, or Robertson is. But in any case you ain't gonna even get to that point taking 2 shots. I'd argue hes gotta average 10 shots this season, just so he could settle in to the efficient 7 shots he'll get in the future with other good talents. No need to be shy on a team like this. Last I checked Larry Brown wasn't on our bench.

[Clyde_Style]

He’s a solid second unit player off the bench. Potential to be the 5th starter in a lineup if he can gain some confidence. His main issue is confidence. And that’s in between the ears. He doesn’t trust himself on the court.

People grow up and gain confidence. He wasn't a man when he arrived and he's growing up in public. I'm willing to wait to see what he becomes when that happens, because I think it will happen. He'll never be an alpha guy, but he can become a solid player confident in their ability to get theirs when it is needed. Combined with several defensive players, he can also contribute to lots of winning via defense as long as his offensive contributions are average or better.

[fatalogic]

If Frank were to become that Doug Christy/ Michael Cooper/ Sidney Moncrief/tony Allen/Danny Green/ Aaron Mckie/ Ronnie Brewer type of player than I'm greatly satisfied, but he really needs to get that dog in him, hit his open shots.

Even if he ended up being that, it would be a gross misuse of the 8th pick in a draft. You get that talent from picked 24-35, even if one were to say the defense were elite.

But I think to appreciate him you just gotta take the L on the whole 8th pick thing. We Fd up, its done and its fine at this point. It doesn't change my belief that he could become an integral part of a very good team as Christie was from your example, or Sefolosha was, or Robertson is. But in any case you ain't gonna even get to that point taking 2 shots. I'd argue hes gotta average 10 shots this season, just so he could settle in to the efficient 7 shots he'll get in the future with other good talents. No need to be shy on a team like this. Last I checked Larry Brown wasn't on our bench.

You might want to check the history of the 8th pick.
http://www.basketballinsiders.com/history-of-the-nba-draft-by-pick/history-of-the-nba-draft-pick-number-8/

[Knicksfan1992]

He’s a solid second unit player off the bench. Potential to be the 5th starter in a lineup if he can gain some confidence. His main issue is confidence. And that’s in between the ears. He doesn’t trust himself on the court.

This is my biggest issue with him right now. Even lately when hes been shooting more it's just been more of the same and why I'm less excited than most people are with his recent uptick of FGAs. Hes settling for mid range jumpers and hes just not a good enough or functional enough shooter to make a living off that. His passing is good but right now he just offers nothing else on offense because of his current mentality and aggression level. My man has no way of getting easy points.

I like Frank but at this point I'm just hoping he becomes like Marcus Smart with less of the attitude and BS. Pretty much unplayable offensively but makes enough plays defensively to stay on the court and sometimes has an ok jumper.

[Jalen Bluntson]

I'm not giving up on a 20 year old after 1 year. He's got a good foundation to build on. He's very good defensively. He has good form on his shot. He has a few moves as well. Zero confidence and comfort looking to score. Fix that...he's a good player. At the very least...he can become a good 3 and D player.

If he doesn't show anything after his rookie deal...OR...ypu get a good offer...deal with it then.

[nykinoz]

Absolutely keep him. There will be players drafted in the next 1-2 years older than him. Give the kid time, he has the tools, he just needs to put it together. I'm not giving up on him after 18 months, but they need to play him and let him make mistakes.

[alphad0gz]

Right now I have no confidence he will ever be a serviceable NBA player. He's weak physically and mentally and this isn't the place for guys like that. Don't use age or experience as an excuse. He played in a pro league and there are plenty of guys in college or the NBA who are better. Remember 56% chance of bust........

[Chanel Bomber]

Frank is simply not an NBA player to me, let alone an NBA point guard.

He has regressed since his rookie season, which was already a disaster. He's a good defender, not a great one, but he seems to be regressing on the defensive end of the floor already. He has the second worst scoring efficiency of any rotation player in the entire NBA. He brings no intangibles to the table. He lacks fundamental skills. He lacks creativity. He lacks courage. He lacks upside. He would be glued to the bench on most NBA teams, the reason he's still seeing minutes is because our guard rotation is so trash.

I believe the Knicks should keep him on principle, because this franchise has traded away too many young players already and it never led us anywhere. However, I wouldn't be mad if the Knicks traded him to unload Courtney Lee's contract, I really wouldn't. I see him giving up in a couple of years honestly.

[jvsimonetti0514]

Frank is simply not an NBA player to me, let alone an NBA point guard.

He has regressed since his rookie season, which was already a disaster. He's a good defender, not a great one, but he seems to be regressing on the defensive end of the floor already. He has the second worst scoring efficiency of any rotation player in the entire NBA. He brings no intangibles to the table. He lacks fundamental skills. He lacks creativity. He lacks courage. He lacks upside. He would be glued to the bench on most NBA teams, the reason he's still seeing minutes is because our guard rotation is so trash.

I believe the Knicks should keep him on principle, because this franchise has traded away too many young players already and it never led us anywhere. However, I wouldn't be mad if the Knicks traded him to unload Courtney Lee's contract, I really wouldn't. I see him giving up in a couple of years honestly.

Good post.. pretty much says everything I want to say about Frank. His wingspan is pretty much the only NBA attribute. What base level of skills does he even have? He has no foundation so we have nothing to build on. At least when you looked at someone like Mudiay you could hang a hat on him being able to get into the paint. Frank has 0 offensive skills. Most raw young players are usually athletic freaks and you hope to build a basketball player to go with that athleticism. Frank doesn't have that athleticism to work with. When Trae young and the corpse of Jeremy Lin stonewall you from the paint, it's a pretty big red flag.

[HarthorneWingo]

You can actually see during a the course of a game when Frank goes from confident-Frank to tentative-Frank. I think this is the only thing from holding him back.

p.s. Mitch will be out at least another week.

https://www.newsday.com/sports/columnists/steve-popper/frank-ntilikina-kevin-knox-lebron-james-1.24879537

Knicks yearn to boost confidence of Frank Ntilikina
Steve Mills sees it on defense, but only sometimes in the young guard's offense.

By Steve Popper
Updated December 23, 2018 8:58 AM

On Friday, the Knicks issued their update on Kristaps Porzingis’ progress in his rehabilitation, a process that can be measured in medical exams and benchmarks. The tougher progress to measure is in the rest of the team — and in particular the lottery pick who followed Porzingis to the Knicks, Frank Ntilikina.

Porzingis is working his way back from a physical ailment, but in Ntilikina’s case, the Knicks see a problem that is based not on a sore knee or a balky ankle but in the second-year guard’s mindset. Knicks president Steve Mills spoke of a lack of confidence on the offensive side of the ball, a point that coach David Fizdale also has commented on in recent days.

“Frank is a young, young player,” Mills said. “There are a lot of things that he continues to get better at from a defensive standpoint. We’ve got to find a way to work with Frank and allow the confidence on the offensive end of the floor to sort of live within him all the time. It’s there sometimes, it’s not there other times. But that’s what we feel like our job is as a management team. We sit around and say we have to pour confidence into these guys. That’s how we approach everything we do every single day.

“We’ve got to find a way to make Frank feel confidence on the offensive end. He believes in what he can do defensively. That’s on us, to take a 20-year-old kid and give him the freedom and the skills to feel good about what he’s doing.”

Ntilikina has denied that he has any doubts about his ability, but it is hard to ignore how much more confident he appears when he hits a shot or two early and how hesitant he seems when he misses his first few shots. In the last four games entering Friday night, he was 6-for-25 from the floor, which followed a three-game stretch in which he shot 16-for-30.

The odd thing is that Fizdale has inserted Emmanuel Mudiay as the starting point guard when the team has no vested interest in his future. Mudiay will be a free agent at season’s end; Ntilikina will be under the team’s control for at least two more years. Would he have benefited from remaining a starter at point guard and being allowed to know that he can play through his learning curve?

“Something we’re consistent with is we leave the minutes to Fiz,” Mills said. “We just try to get these players in a position where they are successful . . . We got to find a way to give him more confidence so he can hopefully perform better on a consistent basis.”

*****

While Emmanuel Mudiay has begun to put up big numbers offensively and Ntilikina is the only defensive answer for the Knicks at point guard, Trey Burke has been pushed aside after beginning the season as the starter at the position. After returning from a knee injury Burke struggled through a combined 3-for-16 shooting over two games - and then didn’t get off the bench at all in the last two games.

Fizdale said after Friday’s loss that he should have gone to Burke to try to jump start the offense but was trying to utilize Ntilikina to clamp down on Atlanta Hawks rookie Trae Young. For his part, Burke said he’s confident his shooting struggles were just from his time off and rushing back.

[Greenie]

Jesus

[DOT]

He's a project who's not even halfway through his 2nd year

He has some good games where you see flashes, but a lot of really bad games too. Like he's extremely raw or something

He's never gonna be a high scorer. What you hope for is that he gets to 15 or so ppg consistently, which he has shown flashes of like the Charlotte game, that's how he's gonna play going forward.

Whether or not he ends up at PG depends on how tall our primary ball handler ends up being, cause he ain't it.

But all this talk of "Frank isn't an NBA player" is funny to me, cause I don't see any of these posts after he has good games, and y'all act like if he gets his 3 pointer to be consistent he wouldn't be a prototypical 3+D guy at minimum

Just let the kid play. If he develops into something, great. If not, it happens. Philly drafted two huge busts, and they're getting along just fine. But talking about a guy who's supposed to take years to develop as if he's a final product at age 20 is absurd to me, and is why people say you can't rebuild in New York

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

[DOT]

Just let him miss shots, as long as they're good shots

He's not aggressive by nature, but it doesn't help if Fiz has him on a short leash. There's been only a handful of games where he was allowed to keep going after starting off 0-2, 0-3, and once or twice he turned it around, but the other few times he kept going at it, and looked like aggressive Frank for the whole game

We're gonna be bad regardless of what we do. As long as they're missing good shots, the FG% doesn't matter, and this applies to all the kids

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[Sark]

You should have bolded this part as well, since it's the most important part for us moving forward

The odd thing is that Fizdale has inserted Emmanuel Mudiay as the starting point guard when the team has no vested interest in his future. Mudiay will be a free agent at season’s end; Ntilikina will be under the team’s control for at least two more years. Would he have benefited from remaining a starter at point guard and being allowed to know that he can play through his learning curve?

[Adelheid]

Play him in the gleague and tell the coach down there to let him hoist up shots as much as he wants. fck that schit. Fizdale's short leash method wont work on him; it makes things even worse.

[Adelheid]

You should have bolded this part as well, since it's the most important part for us moving forward

The odd thing is that Fizdale has inserted Emmanuel Mudiay as the starting point guard when the team has no vested interest in his future. Mudiay will be a free agent at season’s end; Ntilikina will be under the team’s control for at least two more years. Would he have benefited from remaining a starter at point guard and being allowed to know that he can play through his learning curve?

Is the writer perhaps not thinking about the possibility of muds re-signing with the team? Or does he know something that we dont?

[MaseInYourFace]

If Frank were to become that Doug Christy/ Michael Cooper/ Sidney Moncrief/tony Allen/Danny Green/ Aaron Mckie/ Ronnie Brewer type of player than I'm greatly satisfied, but he really needs to get that dog in him, hit his open shots.

Even if he ended up being that, it would be a gross misuse of the 8th pick in a draft. You get that talent from picked 24-35, even if one were to say the defense were elite.

But I think to appreciate him you just gotta take the L on the whole 8th pick thing. We Fd up, its done and its fine at this point. It doesn't change my belief that he could become an integral part of a very good team as Christie was from your example, or Sefolosha was, or Robertson is. But in any case you ain't gonna even get to that point taking 2 shots. I'd argue hes gotta average 10 shots this season, just so he could settle in to the efficient 7 shots he'll get in the future with other good talents. No need to be shy on a team like this. Last I checked Larry Brown wasn't on our bench.

At this point we'd be happy to get something out of him. It's much worse when guys bust completely and that happens quite often. I remember in the Shumpert draft a lot of people wanted Chris Singleton and thought he was almost a lock as a 3D guy in the league but he was out of the league after a few years.