NY Knicks: Dear Thibs, Please start Frank Ntilikina today

I’ve ranted on behalf of most NY Knicks fans recently and begged for Derrick Rose to start over Elfrid Payton during the final stretch of the regular season.

Clearly, that didn’t happen so I am now asking for you, Coach Tom Thibodeau to PLEASE start Frank Ntilikina and allow him the same minutes you’ve been giving to Elfird Payton.

My favorite basketball team hasn’t been to the playoffs in 8 long years and as much as I appreciate the magic that was the 2020-21 regular season and how the Knicks proved everyone wrong…

All that is behind us now because they’re actually in the playoffs and nothing else matters aside from winning as much as possible.

All the talk of the Knicks overachieving or “blowing expectations out of the water” is over and done with.

Game 1 of the series against a surging Atlanta Hawks team starts tonight and I need my favorite team to be put in the best possible position to win and succeed.

The NY Knicks should be starting Frank Ntilikina at point guard for the playoffs

I’ve become physically ill watching Elfrid Payton die over and over again on so-so screens.

Trae Young and Clint Capela are arguably the best pick-and-roll combo in the league and have hurt the Knicks plenty with that same play countless times throughout the 3 games they’ve played so far.

In a tweet by Tommy Beer, he broke down some interesting stats:

"In 2019-20, Trae Young scored more points when matched up against Elfrid Payton than any other individual player in the NBA.Young scored 44 points (on 13 of 28 shooting) in 14:38 minutes (64 offensive possessions) when guarded by Payton.ATL scored 94 points in those 64 possessions.In contrast, over the same 2019-20 and 2018-19 seasons combined, Trae Young scored just 21 points on 7 of 19 shooting in 14:55 minutes (59 offensive possessions) when guarded by Frank Ntilikina.ATL scored 73 points in those 59 possessions."

This is more than enough proof as to who should start. It’s blatantly obvious and would be incredibly negligent to go against these numbers for any reason.

I really don’t care how much of a liability on offense Frank can be sometimes.

We have the scoring ability around him to make having him take over the 10-15 minutes per game that Elf had been getting.

The fanbase wants this to happen. Do the right thing, Tom.