Frank Ntilikina\u2019s wasted season is officially over.<\/p>\n
The Frenchman was ruled out for the remaining six games Friday because of his troublesome groin injury, as coach David Fizdale continued to endorse Ntilikina as a part of New York\u2019s future \u2014 if only logistically.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s on the roster, isn\u2019t he?\u201d Fizdale said.<\/p>\n
When pressed further, Fizdale cited Ntilikina\u2019s versatility as his long-term fit in New York. We\u2019ll see how long this tenuous partnership lasts. Ntilikina spent most of his sophomore season either injured, ineffective or buried on the bench. During what will probably devolve into the worst season in franchise history, Ntilikina racked up four DNP-CD\u2019s in December \u2014 including on Christmas after his mother flew in for the game. The Knicks are expected to shop Ntilikina this summer and it\u2019s hardly a ringing endorsement when the owner of the team \u2014 James Dolan \u2014 let\u2019s out an audible sigh when asked by ESPN Radio why he didn\u2019t fire Phil Jackson before making the draft pick.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A groin injury ends Frank Ntilikina’s season and his time with the Knicks could also be coming to an end. (Mary Altaffer\/AP)<\/p>\n
But Steve Mills can\u2019t disown the pick, either. After usurping Jackson to elevate from GM to team president, Mills said he was 100 percent on board with taking Ntilikina eighth overall in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked to our scouts a lot about Frank before the draft. I went overseas and watched Frank play,\u201d Mills said. \u201cSo I\u2019m very comfortable with the draft pick. I would\u2019ve selected Frank at that point in the draft myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since then, Mills hired Scott Perry as GM \u2014 who has no allegiance to the Ntilikina pick \u2014 and acquired two other young point guards in Emmanuel Mudiay and Dennis Smith Jr.<\/p>\n
New York is expected to make a summer run at point guard Kyrie Irving, but the Brooklyn Nets are also in the running for the enigmatic champion. In fact, some sources around the league believe Irving prefers the Nets. In an interview done recently with NBATV, David Griffin \u2014 who was the Cavs GM at the same time Irving played for Cleveland \u2014 suggested that was the case. Coincidentally, Irving is scheduled to play in Brooklyn with the Celtics on Saturday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Frank Ntilikina’s wasted season is officially over. The Frenchman was ruled out for the remaining six games Friday because of his troublesome groin injury, as coach David Fizdale continued to endorse Ntilikina as a part of New York’s future — if only logistically. “He’s on the roster, isn’t he?” Fizdale said. When pressed further, Fizdale cited Ntilikina’s versatility as his long-term fit in New York. We’ll see how long this tenuous partnership lasts. Ntilikina spent most of his sophomore season either injured, ineffective or buried on the bench. During what<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":18133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18134,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18132\/revisions\/18134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}