The Knicks would do better with a PG upgrade. Absolutely true.
The thing is that the team is managing the delicate balance of playing winning basketball while Ntilikina develops.
We won’t see Ntilikina’s best for maybe 5-7 years. But that doesn’t mean he won’t grow and contribute in his somewhat flawed current state.
The things that are missing wit our current Pg tandem are:
1) explosive drives to the basket - as others mentioned, we had Rose last year - it didn’t add up to winning basketball - rose didn’t do a great job of keeping his teammates involved - and seemed to have blind spots on the floor
2) shooting over 40%. This is a notable gap - these guys need to make their shots. 40-45% fg would be a reasonable target. But a fair number of rookie pgs shoot terribly. Last year’s crop was terrible, this year a whole bunch are struggling - led by Ball.
I like the combo we have today though, Jack plays well enough to be a good role model while being bad enough for Frank to take over by the end of the year.
I don’t think Frank will ever be a killer slasher, but I do see him developing the effectiveness of a Billups or even a Gary Payton on offense. He’ll have to become more deceptive with his dribble and develop a little bit of a back to the basket game to take advantage of his size and length.
Eventually, I see the Knicks picking up a backup little speedster as a change of pace guard for exactly what the OP is looking for. Think 6’ DJ Augustin or Speedy Claxton types.
11/23/2017 7:31 PM