New York Knicks: Maurice Ndour’s Recap From Westchester
Maurice Ndour began 2017 by playing three games with the Westchester Knicks. How did the New York Knicks forward look during his short stint in Westchester?
Compared to the previous two seasons, the Westchester Knicks are utilizing their D-League affiliate much more in 2016-17. For the players who receive little playing time with the New York Knicks, they can spend a few games in Westchester and get minutes they normally wouldn’t get with the big club.
Through the first 20 games of the D-League season, Maurice Ndour has been assigned to the Westchester Knicks on multiple occasions. When Ndour comes to Westchester, he has a significant impact on the team.
Westchester benefits from its standpoint. When he’s assigned to the team, it gives the Knicks a boost. In addition, it adds more depth to the bench, as Doron Lamb and Von Wafer become a scoring tandem off the bench. And you can’t forget about the strong rebounding presence Keith Wright brings, as well.
Since the new year’s ball dropped in Time Square, Ndour has spent most of 2017 with Westchester. While he has shown he can be most effective on defense, the 6’9″ forward has been efficient on both sides of the floor during his short time in the NBA D-League.
While he doesn’t get much action with the Knicks, he’s able to get playing time when he’s assigned to Westchester. With the minutes Ndour sees, he’s put forth many productive performances. Those performances have boosted the confidence of the Knicks forward.
“Every time I come here I get more and more confident, especially after a bad game last night. Couldn’t get anything going. I can’t get mad over that,” Maurice Ndour said after Westchester’s game against the Delaware 87ers. “You just got to play the next one. You lose one game. The next one you bounce back and it’s very important to bounce back. We just need to execute down the stretch.”
While he’s shown that he possesses the ability to score, the Ohio product benefits from the assignments by working on his offensive game. He’s given more of an opportunity in Westchester and he has taken advantage of it. Ndour has totaled 20 plus points on multiple occasions. When he struggled against the Windy City Bulls, Ndour bounced back the following night with 16 points, seven rebounds, and three blocks in 32 minutes of action.
Ndour started off the new year on a positive note. Although the Ohio product has only played in six games with Westchester, he had his best outing on Jan. 4. He made a huge impact against the Grand Rapids Drive.
Ndour had an efficient shooting performance and was able to help stretch the floor for the No.1 3-point shooting team in the NBA D-League.
While the Drive were able to score 46 points in the paint that night, he showed an inside presence. Ndour totaled four blocks against Grand Rapids and recorded three blocks against the Delaware 87ers two games later.
Ndour has drawn some double teams and can also finish at the rim with nice spin moves.
The Knicks had a stretch of three games in four nights. In those games, Ndour had two productive games and a combined seven blocks. His main takeaway from his recent stint in Westchester was defense.
“I think the one thing I takeaway is down the stretch when the game is on the line. That’s when we need to be more focused, more alert,” Ndour said. “That’s when we need to communicate more on the defensive end and execute better on defense, so it’s game-to-game. We just got to learn and try to get better at things.”
Maurice Ndour can build off his recent success from his stint in Westchester. The productivity he has shown in the past week has helped boost his confidence.
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The New York Knicks are in their toughest month of the season and have seven games in the next 10 days.
New York will need their whole team to step up as a whole and Ndour could have an opportunity for more playing time in their next stretch of games.