The Knicks are as unpredictable as they have been bad. On the other hand, the team’s fans can always expect to at least be befuddled or surprised on Draft Day. Over the years, the franchise has had some interesting picks, to say the least. In a draft filled with talented college ballers and American studs, the Knicks once again, chose to go for the top international player.
NEW YORK KNICKS on Twitter
Welcome to New York @FrankLikina! #KnicksDraft17
At least they didnt trade Kristaps Porzingis, swatting potential trades and offers for the Latvian superstar who has grown increasingly frustrated with team President Phil Jackson, who has absolutely no problem throwing his players under the bus.
They did, however, take a guy who Knicks fans cant boo or cheer because they have no idea who dude is. They used the eighth pick on point guard Frank Ntilikina from France. Ntilikina is considered to be a project and not the kind of high profile name that would excite a New York fanbase.
Frank Ntilikina Drafted 8th Overall by New York Knicks in 2017 NBA Draft
With the 10th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft the New York Knicks select guard Frank Ntilikina. The 2017 NBA Draft is the first step in the journey of the next wave of NBA stars. The 2017 NBA Draft is live from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The scouting report on the Frenchman is that he plays hard on both sides of the ball, is selfless and played in a system overseas similar to the infamous Triangle.
Yes…We are still talking about the Triangle. Why? Because Phil Jackson wants to run it still. Hes like the old guy working at the beach club who still wears Hawaiian shirts to the mixers.
Jacksons one moment of glory as the Knicks front office general came in 2015 when he drafted Kristaps Porzingis to a round of boos and made everybody eat their words. Porzingis turned out to be pretty damn decent, but by some accounts he was in numerous trade discussions before this draft. God forbid the Knicks have some talent on the roster beyond an aging Carmelo.
New York Knicks fans boo selection of Kristaps Porzingis at No. 4 in 2015 NBA Draft
New York Knicks fans boo selection of Kristaps Porzingis at No. 4
Jackson passed over some more well known talent such as North Carolina States Dennis Smith Jr. and Kentuckys Malik Monk in favor of the French prospect. Supposedly, the Knicks had their eyes on Ntilikina for a long time, scouting him extensively overseas and meeting with him soon after he landed in the U.S. on Tuesday.
Some publications have used the word explosive to describe the 6-foot-5 guard, who has spent his entire professional career with SIG Strasbourg in France. He won the French Pro A League’s Best Young Player award in 2016 and 2017.
How good he will be in the NBA is yet to be seen. The last thing Knicks fans need is another maybe. They need a sure thing for the first time since they drafted Patrick Ewing in 1985. How much ink and computer space can we waste blasting the Knicks ? Its almost become fashionable for any schlep with no basketball knowledge to take a shot at the mighty New York squad that operates like a small market mishap with cheap leadership.
“Frank doesn’t have a ceiling,” teammate Romeo Travis, who played high school basketball with LeBron James, told Andrew Keh of the New York Times about Ntilikina. “He has everything: he has height, athleticism, ball-handling; he can shoot. So I’m just trying to give him that push, that confidence that he can be anything he wants to be.”
Some would have us believe that hes the third best guard in the draft aside from Markelle Fultz and Lonzo Ball.
“And what I love about himand by the way, I think he’s going to be able to show you I hate to say this because I’m not a fan of the triangle, I think in the modern NBA the spacing doesn’t work as well as it did in the old days, but he’s a triangle kind of player, simply because he’s not really a 1, and he’s not really a 2. He’s a guard,” ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla told reporters on a conference call. Fraschilla also introduced a chart last night that gave the Knicks’ first round pick a 59 % chance of being a bust.
Great.
So its all about Phil. He wants the Triangle and were supposed to love this pick because Ntilikina could possibly be a Triangle player? Problem is, the game has changed but Phil is still trying to bang a square nail into a hole.
In 1999, the Knicks used the No.15 pick on another unknown commodity from France, a 7-foot-2 big man named Frederic Weis. The team’s fans got their first glimpse of him in the 2000 Olympics, when this happened:
Vince Carter legendary dunk over Weiss! *All angle*
Follow Me On Twitter @EricFoo_11 https://twitter.com/EricFoo_11 Vince Carter dunks over 7 ft 2Wiess from all angles !!
Weis never played a single NBA minute.
All Knicks fans can do is hope that Ntilikina can ball and develop as quickly as possible. New York doesn’t have time to wait on a project.
