The loss to Washington was a tough one. Knicks looked like they had game in hand then Wizards came out of halftime intent to take it — layed down Defense; John Wall & Bradley Beale played like stars; and Otto Porter & Kelly Oubre combined for 8-10 from 3-pt range.
Knicks were down by 16 with 4 minutes to play then the comeback to fall by 3.
A game that showed the Knicks youth and inability to stay with a veteran team when it put afterburners on. But they came back.
Will be tough to knock off Boston second time in a month.
News Story this Week: Ntilikina
This week Marc Berman of the NY Post came out with a story that named unnamed scouts who did not have kind words to say about Knick rookies Kevin Knox or Frank Ntilikina. The scouts said Knox was a shoot-first lazy player who didn’t look to pass, and Ntilikina was even overated defensively — didn’t fight through picks. The story came out on Thursday (Thanksgiving).
On Saturday in a terrific overtime win over the Milwaukee Bucks (#2 record in NBA), Knox had a breakout game with 26 points. He followed it up with a nice 8-point/9-rebound performance on Monday vs Washington. Ntilikina however was benched for both games. And so Knick fan scuttlebut on twitter has been whether Knicks should trade Ntilikina now while he still has value.
Ntilikina will probably never be a penetrating point guard — you don’t learn how to do that at age 20; the great ones were doing it at age 8 or 12.
One can only hope he becomes a Tony Parker kind of point. More likely a good shooting guard if he can get his shot to fall!! He has good form and a soft shot (unlike Shumpert who had good form but a hard shot) — Hornacek said they liked Ntilikina’s shot — but he always misses!!! Needs to take thousands more in practice or develop some confidence! To that end he can get much better and he is only 20. Most guards of the past came into the league at 23.
Remember when Knicks drafted Trent Tucker #6 overall? He was 23. Never did learn to penetrate, even as a shooting guard. Did shoot 46% from 3 as a rookie.
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