New York Knicks: Steve Mills pinpoints Frank Ntilikina’s shaky confidence

As Frank Ntilikina goes through offensive inconsistencies, New York Knicks president Steve Mills recognizes the sophomore point guard’s wavering confidence.

Frank Ntilikina became a talking point in his second season with the New York Knicks, but most of it revolved around quiet offensive games and a three-night benching by head coach David Fizdale. Flashes of brilliance broke through along the way, despite this.

Ntilikina’s confidence moved into the forefront of the conversation, even after a return-from-the-bench breakthrough. Fizdale, per Marc Berman of the New York Post, recognized it, and so did the president of basketball operations, Steve Mills.

According to Chris Iseman of NorthJersey.com, Mills said they need to find a way for Ntilikina to maintain that offensive confidence endlessly, rather than its inconsistencies:

"“We’ve got to find a way to work with Frank and allow the confidence on the offensive end of the floor to sort of live within him all the time,” Mills said. “It’s there sometimes, it’s not there other times. …We’ve got to find a way to make Frank feel confidence on the offensive end. He believes in what he can do defensively. That’s on us. To take a 20 year old kid and give him the freedom and the skills to feel good about what he’s doing.”"

The Frenchman, in his first three games back from a rotation exile, averaged 13.7 points, 1.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists on 53.3 percent shooting and 58.3 percent on three-pointers. He was aggressive and looked for his shot, rather than the pass-first game seen across the past one-plus seasons.

Since then, Ntilikina has just 3.6 points on 6-for-28 shooting. That includes a scoreless night against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday; his last blank was the final, pre-benching game on Nov. 28.

Correlating with the offensive draught, Fizdale has decreased Ntilikina’s playing time from 29 to 16 to 14 over the past three games. Whether that’s a trend remains to be seen, as he also shifted from 20 to 24 to 15 minutes in a stretch from Dec. 9 to 14.

It is all part of the development process, if a long, slow one for the Knicks to endure. Ntilikina is just 20-years old and a good defensive player, but the offensive limitations have dampened his playing time and, therefore, impact on games.

This represents a far cry from the preseason expectations to become the team’s point guard of the future. Instead, Emmanuel Mudiay has risen from the bottom to grasp a stranglehold of this position — potentially for the future if the Knicks include him in their 2019-20 plans.

Ntilikina is under contract next season. Unless the New York Knicks move him, he will continue to have opportunities to shine. Whether he takes advantage, though, may make or break his time with the organization.