New York Knicks: What happened to the 2018-19 opening night lineup?

The New York Knicks do not have an opening night lineup set. Based on what happened to the 2018-19 season’s first starting five, it might not last for long.

The opening night starting lineup for the New York Knicks will probably not come to fruition until the Oct. 23 game against the San Antonio Spurs nears. Training camp and the preseason will eventually decide it, but as the 2018-19 season showed, whoever opens the first game together may not last for long.

The Knicks changed their starting lineup after just five games to highlight the team’s younger players as part of a “developmental” season. It was the first of multiple times that head coach David Fizdale shuffled the deck without injury as a cause.

That group of five did not last for long, but what happened to them afterward?

Point Guard: Trey Burke

Trey Burke arguably played his way into this role from an audition in 2017-18, when the Knicks gave him a chance at revitalization from a few disappointing seasons. That play did not carry over, though, with 11.2 points and 5.0 assists on just 38.7 percent shooting and 31.3 percent on three-pointers. Frank Ntilikina replaced him by the sixth game.

Burke played the next six games, but the Nov. 27 matchup against Atlanta began his frequent string of not playing via coach’s decision. This carried through the rest of his Knicks term, before the Jan. 31 trade to the Dallas Mavericks, headlined by Kristaps Porzingis.

Shooting Guard: Tim Hardaway Jr.

Tim Hardaway Jr. survived the lineup change, as he was New York’s most consistent and best scorer among the healthy players. His 24.4 points on 41.6 percent shooting in those first five games were terrific and made him the catalyst of this offense.

The positive scoring nights trended through Nov. 12, a total of 18 games, with 24.2 points on 42.3 percent shooting. Then came a drought from Nov. 23 and to the Jan. 31 trade to Dallas that became a never-ending downturn, averaging 15.9 points on 35.9 percent shooting. It was a regression below his previous years of streaky shooting.

Hardaway still started each game he played for the Knicks last season, but a once-promising season became a disappointment.

Small Forward: Frank Ntilikina

Frank Ntilikina also stayed in the starting lineup, moving to point guard for Burke. It started great, as the Frenchman as 17 and 16 points in his first two games, before cratering into a season-long slip down an offensive black hole. He fell out of the lineup by Nov. 11 and did not return until an injury to Emmanuel Mudiay arose in January. The period in between has been well documented.

Power Forward: Lance Thomas

Aside from Ntilikina, this starting lineup lacked a defensive presence, so Lance Thomas joined this group. He played well at that end, but was, as expected, nonexistent scoring the ball. When the Knicks needed points, Fizdale yanked him from the lineup for the all-around game of Noah Vonleh.

Thomas worked his way into 12 more starting appearances, but they happened periodically.

Center: Enes Kanter

Enes Kanter seemed like the sure thing to stay in the lineup, and even after 16.8 points and 10.8 rebounds in the New York Knicks’ first five games, Fizdale benched him for the younger Mitchell Robinson, who headlined the “developmental” year.

This sent Kanter into a public streak of unhappiness that lasted through his post-trade deadline departure. He still found occasional starts, but bounced between the lineup and the bench for Robinson, Luke Kornet and DeAndre Jordan.

As the February deadline neared, Kanter barely even played, leading to the messy, necessary divorce between the player and organization.