NY Knicks: Finding Frank Ntilikina his new home

While everyone is excited about all the new faces that will be joining the NY Knicks, I am a little saddened as this will likely be my last Frank Ntilikina article.

The run of the ‘French Prince’ appears to have come to an end.

Frank has been one of the most polarizing players in Knicks’ history. You can tell who is a member of the ‘Frank hive’ based on how they feel about defense.

The fans that value it, love Frank. The fans that prioritize offense want nothing to do with him.

But what has been the most frustrating thing about Frank’s 4 years with the club is that he never was truly given an opportunity to play his game.

Frank was drafted by Phil Jackson to be the point guard of his triangle offense.

When Jackson was fired right after the draft, Steve Mills, who was promoted to President of Basketball Operations decided to change course.

Even though Mills was part of the brain trust that drafted Frank. The internal politics set Frank up to fail, as he was no longer anyone’s “guy”.

Where do you think Frank Ntilikina will call home next season?

Instead of cutting their losses and trading Frank as a rookie, they kept him around and tried to change his game.

Kristaps Porzingis, the other Phil Jackson lottery pick wanted to run a motion offense with elements of the triangle with Frank as the point guard. But Mills and Perry preferred to go with a more ISO-centric offense which was more appealing to American NBA stars.

The last chance for Frank was when Coach Thibodeau was hired.

I thought for sure he would fall in love with Frank because of his defense and basketball I.Q. But Thibodeau preferred Elfrid Payton, a big guard with a better handle that could get to the paint.

While Frank was dealt a bad hand, he also bears responsibility for what happened. Since the moment Frank stepped on the court at Madison Square Garden he was an aggressive bulldog on defense.

He would challenge some of the best players in the game like when he famously locked down Kyrie Irving.

In the 2019-20 season Frank earned the rep as the ‘Luka Stopper’ because of the way he neutralized Luka Doncic in the 2 regular-season games against the Dallas Mavericks.

However, his personality on offense was the complete opposite. He was timid, refusing to just attack the rim when teams were cheating off him. It appeared that the European structured offensive approach was too ingrained in him.

Even though Frank’s career hasn’t gotten off the start he had hoped, his experience in New York and a change of scenery will make him a better player.

Let’s look at which teams would be ideal landing spots for the French Prince.