Knicks · Knicks Phil taking a pg at 7 (page 4)
BRIGGS wrote:HofstraBBall wrote:BRIGGS wrote:HofstraBBall wrote:BRIGGS wrote:Were already been hot on a "tall" lead pg who played good D yet couldn't shoot wellin Jerian Grant and I believe they had him ranked in the lottery.They better not orgasm at the same thing and keep an open mind
PG has always been the toughest positon to draft. Now teams are asked to judge a 18-19 year old one. There will be some big flops in this draft. Dont like Fox. Hope somehow Tatum falls to us. Would not mind a John Collins pick. Even the kid from Arizona, although similar to KP skill set. Monk is less of a risk as I see him as a 2.
I agree pg is difficult Skinny tall PGs-- how many are actually in the NBA? 7 is quite the scary pick. I like 1-4 I feel good there. I do think Fox after initially being critical on him think he's better than people calling him Jennings part 2. I think I could walk out with Fox at 7 and feel ok about it-- and that's being realistic that this is 7 not 2. I'm personally very hot on Diallo now. I'd like to see the Knicks really look at him over the next two weeks and if he stays in-- than much more so. I want to see how his workouts measurements and play is at the combine. His physical profile is more nba standard and I like what Calipari and some of his teammates said about his high level defense ball skills and improved shooting. A 6-5 sg with explosive athleticism long arms who is hard working with the alpha gene has a lot of appeal
I don't need a pg here-- what I want is rhe Bpa for the long term. I'm scared that Frank N is a younger skinnier Jerian Grant. We can't fail like that right now
Problem with Fox is that he can be Jennings Part 2 but only if he gets a three point shot. Yikes. Didn't he shoot in low 20's?
Agree about Frank. He is a reserve on his current team? Saw that he only played 14 minutes in their last loss. I am with you and think we should pick the most NBA ready regardless of position.
Fox is an in game above the rim finisher close to 6-4 good defensively. I would categorize him as a jumpshot away from a potential star
True.. But we have seen how hard it is to come into the NBA and develop an outside shot. Guys are better athletes in the NBA and can defend the drive. You also have athletic bigs that come over and rim protect. Alwyas worried about guards, who only showed promise in college due to their ability to drive. I prefer Monk as he can play the 2. Like J Collins, Lauri, and Smith. Hoping we somehow get Tatum.
Chandler wrote:I think one of the best things we have going for us is that the teams in front of us are not only bad (Celts excepted) but they have shown no aptitude for drafting. Really a lot of them are deplorable (in saying this I don't for example give Minny a lot of credit for drafting KAT). Yes they'll have more choices than we do but my fingers and toes are crossed that one or more of them will bungle things and chase fool's gold
Yep. Hope the teams in front somehow pick Fultz, Ball, Jackson, Fox,, Frank, Monk in front of us. Even better if Lauri, Isaac somehow move up before us. Would be great to see Tatum or Monk there when we pick.
https://audioboom.com/posts/5883367-lock...
CrushAlot wrote:Sam Vecenie talks about Frank. He really likes his defense. Said his ceiling is Jrue Holiday and his floor is Pat Beverly (he goes into this in a lot of depth) and points out that Frank maybe more of a secondary ball handler. I thought it was a really good podcast. Vecenie is going to be on the show for ten episodes going over each prospect in the top 10. I didn't get to hear the second half with Gibberman yet.
https://audioboom.com/posts/5883367-lock...
Think this is the scariest pick for me. Just too much that is unknown. Would be disappointing if Monk or Smith are available and we pick Frank. But again, mostly due to so much about him being unknown. Specially at the PG position. Was watching some of his last game and he seems to have trouble fighting through picks.(We know we are all sensitive to that with our guards) And he did not seem to get separation on offense. He did have good one on one defense.
CrushAlot wrote:Sam Vecenie talks about Frank. He really likes his defense. Said his ceiling is Jrue Holiday and his floor is Pat Beverly (he goes into this in a lot of depth) and points out that Frank maybe more of a secondary ball handler. I thought it was a really good podcast. Vecenie is going to be on the show for ten episodes going over each prospect in the top 10. I didn't get to hear the second half with Gibberman yet.
https://audioboom.com/posts/5883367-lock...
That's a horrible ceiling for a lottery pick
yellowboy90 wrote:CrushAlot wrote:Sam Vecenie talks about Frank. He really likes his defense. Said his ceiling is Jrue Holiday and his floor is Pat Beverly (he goes into this in a lot of depth) and points out that Frank maybe more of a secondary ball handler. I thought it was a really good podcast. Vecenie is going to be on the show for ten episodes going over each prospect in the top 10. I didn't get to hear the second half with Gibberman yet.
https://audioboom.com/posts/5883367-lock...That's a horrible ceiling for a lottery pick
The scary part is how high they were on a similar player with a more mature build--and how wrong they were. I don't think it's possible to go wrong top 3 so the less they have to think the better
Paris907 wrote:You can improve your shooting but you can't teach speed and floor leadership. Frank N is a 18 year old unknown commodity playing against slower guys. Fox can outright run the show, and can make a difference with his speed on both ends. He's a winner. That matters. I think he can be a player between Wall and Rondo and that's worth a 7 pick
I think most people agree. The problem is that it probably worth more than the 7 pick. 🦊 is probably going top 5 as of now.
yellowboy90 wrote:CrushAlot wrote:Sam Vecenie talks about Frank. He really likes his defense. Said his ceiling is Jrue Holiday and his floor is Pat Beverly (he goes into this in a lot of depth) and points out that Frank maybe more of a secondary ball handler. I thought it was a really good podcast. Vecenie is going to be on the show for ten episodes going over each prospect in the top 10. I didn't get to hear the second half with Gibberman yet.
https://audioboom.com/posts/5883367-lock...That's a horrible ceiling for a lottery pick
Looking at the history of the #7 pick, I'll take it.
Paris907 wrote:You can improve your shooting but you can't teach speed and floor leadership. Frank N is a 18 year old unknown commodity playing against slower guys. Fox can outright run the show, and can make a difference with his speed on both ends. He's a winner. That matters. I think he can be a player between Wall and Rondo and that's worth a 7 pick
Slower guys than NBA players, yes, but are you saying these grown men Franks is playing against are slower than the college athletes Fox competed against?
yellowboy90 wrote:BRIGGS wrote:fishmike wrote:BRIGGS wrote:watch more. Your not scouting very well if thats what you come up with.fishmike wrote:BRIGGS wrote:What footage are you watching of Frank N to come to that conclusion? Their games are nothing alike. They are black and skinny though... so there's that.Pavvy wrote:nixluva wrote:I'm high on Fox. I don't think his shooting is going to be a problem. Just watching him his shot just needs work with a Pro Shooting coach to his mechanics refined. I like everything else about Fox.Frank has the physical profile. Those freakishly long arms make him a real interesting defensive prospect. I worry about his handles and quickness. Really hard to judge him in relation to NBA speed. We'll have to wait for reports from workouts.
Smith I have less concerns about him being able to play at the next level. With him it's his mental game that concerns me. Is he capable of being a legit floor general and running a team?
yeah I see both Fox and Smith developing a bit quicker than Frank and they're more of the scoring 2 guards that are out there in the NBA..
European/foreign PGs take longer to develop......Frank reminds me of Schroeder a bit
If anything Fox reminds me more of Shroeder with more height. Hes super quick just like Schroeder but also has some traits of John Wall. Frank N kind of looks like Jamal Crawford with less polish
Every video he has. He has a high loose dribble and has trouble separating from his defender. He does make plays with length but that wont cut it in the NBA.
Its not even close--Fox is WAY better--not comparable. If Fox showed he could shoot--wed be talking about him as a possible #1 pick. At MINIMUM Fox will be able to rely on his physical ability. Not so with Frank.
But Fox can't shoot and it's easier to tighten up ones handle than it is to learn to shoot. Its. Not just about his ability to hit 3s it's about his ability to shoot anywhere beyond the paint.
I think Fox is gonna end up being a decent shooter once he gets in the NBA and gets with a shooting coach. His shot isn't bad at all and i just don't think he put enough into his shooting with Kentucky cause it wasn't needed as much as it will be in the NBA.
fishmike wrote:Moonangie wrote:you have to remember that longer players move differently, and will also look slower as they have to move less to cover more ground. I see him getting a ton of steals and deflections in his game footage. I also see him creating seperation just fine. However he's long, so he hasnt had to work to get around guys. He can pass over them, or around them. That is the advantage of a long player.BRIGGS wrote:Beyond a high loose dribble--look at how much trouble Frank N has with separation. Hes always contested and think about the level of an NBA athlete vs what hes playing now. Fox separates on demand.Frank is no speed demon, that's for certain. I don't really think that will ever change. You can't "learn" speed or quickness. He would have to compensate with vision, passing ability, timing and smarts.
All this debate is silly though, because as usual we work with limited info. Lets see him in a workout (we wont). I would love to hear how he played or ran drills against Fox, Monk, Smith, Ball, etc..
Exactly, we don't have even close to all the ways to scout a player that these teams and their scouts do. All we have to go off of is the players game tape and whatever highlight videos we watch on the internet but so much of who these teams draft high goes into the interviews and putting these kids on a white board to get a better idea of their basketball IQ's.
WaltLongmire wrote:fishmike wrote:WaltLongmire wrote:This.. and this is the part that folks forget. High dribbles and too skinny. Cmon... thats not what the draft is about. Its about adding a young prospect every year. FrankN is just a young player with great upside. You develop them. You build them. Hopefully at some point you have something. With a guy like Frank it could be a PG or SG who knows... I have read and seen he's unselfish to a fault, but that mindset of passing and defense first is certainly what this FO is looking for.BRIGGS wrote:Were already been hot on a "tall" lead pg who played good D yet couldn't shoot wellin Jerian Grant and I believe they had him ranked in the lottery.They better not orgasm at the same thing and keep an open mind
Watch Frenchy shoot, Briggs...He has a good stroke... good enough, in my opinion, that he can fill in very well at SG, another position we have talked about.I expect that his shot will improve even more, just as it has improved over the past few years according to things I've read.
From a NYT article in January...posted the link before, not the text. Good background article.
Who knows if we take him...just have to depend on our braintrust...but you know the guy is in the mix, and if he was to drop down under 7, we would then get one of the top ranked kids falling to us, so I expect we would still be happy.
Frank Ntilikina, a Top N.B.A. Prospect, Is Learning to Play With Fire
STRASBOURG, France — Frank Ntilikina bent forward, angled his face to the ground and unleashed an extended scream. Then he fell to the floor and did five push-ups.It was a self-imposed punishment of sorts for missing an open layup during SIG Strasbourg’s practice Monday morning, and after he completed the push-ups, the team’s five-on-five drill resumed quietly. Later, though, his teammates and coaches marveled at the outburst.
“It was our first time seeing that,” Lauriane Dolt, an assistant coach, said, laughing.
Ntilikina, an 18-year-old point guard, is widely considered the best prospect in European basketball and one of the most intriguing players expected to be available in the N.B.A. draft this summer. In one recent mock-up, ESPN projected the 6-foot-5 Ntilikina as the sixth overall pick.
According to his teammates, his coaches, his agent, talent evaluators and pundits, Ntilikina (pronounced nee-lee-KEE-nah) is mentally mature, with an enviable collection of physical tools. But with six months to go before the draft, everyone sees there is work to do.
Ntilikina was born in Belgium to Rwandan parents and has lived in Strasbourg since age 3. Pascal Bastien for The New York TimesFor Ntilikina, the goal is to wield those tools with more aggressiveness and consistency. He is quiet by nature. The people around him would love to see him take more risks, to make more mistakes, to show more fire.
“He’ll tell me, ‘I have that inside,’” said Vincent Collet, the coach of Strasbourg and the French national team. “I tell him: ‘Don’t keep that inside. Show it.’”
Positive signs keep emerging. Early last month, Collet said, Ntilikina dominated a practice for the first time. A week later, he joined the junior national team for the European Under-18 Championship, where he led France to the gold medal and was named the tournament’s most valuable player. After notching 23 points, 9 assists and 5 steals against Italy in the semifinals, he scored 31 points in the final against Lithuania.
Highlights Frank Ntilikina - Finale championnat d'Europe U18 Video by SIG Strasbourg TVFacing players his own age, and forced to lead, he looked unstoppable, swaggering smoothly around the court, draining difficult shots, making the ball his personal plaything.
“It was not just luck,” Ntilikina said, crediting his performance to his assertiveness. “My teammates gave me confidence, and my coach, too. I had to take care of my responsibility to get the win.”
Ntilikina, shooting, is projected as a top pick for the N.B.A. draft this summer. He is hoping for an increase in playing time, but his coach said he would have to earn it. Pascal Bastien for The New York TimesNtilikina was born in Belgium to Rwandan parents and has lived in Strasbourg since age 3. He speaks English well, a skill he attributed partly to his longstanding love of American rap music. In a conversation after practice, though, one particular English word kept escaping him. He twirled his hands around, trying to conjure it from the air. Twice already it had tripped him up. He called out to a fellow Frenchman nearby, and the two volleyed words back and forth until it hit him: “disturb.”
Now he could finish the two thoughts he had left dangling. Yes, he said, he was learning to use his prodigious wingspan, measured at around seven feet, to disturb opposing players, eliminating passing angles and making them think twice about shooting. And no, he said, he would not allow his circumstances — preparing for the draft, facing limited minutes on his team — to disturb him.
N.B.A. scouts, sometimes six a day, have traveled to Strasbourg to glimpse that wingspan up close. Like many teenage basketball prodigies from Europe, though, Ntilikina has found playing time hard to secure alongside more seasoned professional teammates. On top of that, Strasbourg, which sits in fifth in the French league, having overcome a slow start, has a group of talented point guards. That has meant Ntilikina has spent a considerable amount of time off the ball — or, worse, off the court.
Ntilikina has averaged 17.5 minutes through nine Champions League games and 13.2 minutes through 13 games in the LNB Pro A, the French league. Collet said he expected Ntilikina’s playing time to rise in the coming weeks, but only if Ntilikina deserved it.
“It’s important that he works for it, that he struggles a little bit to get it,” Collet said. “It’s better if he is at the summit in May than in January. What I tell him every day is, he has to use all these moments to get better so that he arrives at his maximum when the draft is there.”
Ntilikina, who led France to the gold medal in the European Under-18 Championship, is averaging 17.5 minutes in Champions League games. Pascal Bastien for The New York TimesIn the meantime, Ntilikina’s spindly, springy body has been a blank canvas onto which people continue to project their visions of what he might become.
Some in the French sports media have invoked Tony Parker, the French point guard for the San Antonio Spurs, as a model — a facile comparison, in the same way that every good, young soccer midfielder in France is prematurely anointed the next Zinedine Zidane. Still, with Parker, 34, in the autumn of his career, there has been an impulse to find the nation’s next basketball superstar.
Collet, known as a sage tactician and teacher, said the conversation about Ntilikina and Parker frustrated him, given the vast differences between the players, whom he knows well. Nevertheless, he volunteered some points for the sake of comparison: Ntilikina, he said, is a smarter player and better shooter than Parker was at 18. He said Parker back then was faster and more aggressive and was a better one-on-one player.
Ntilikina, who consumes copious amounts of N.B.A. coverage and video, said he had been focusing his viewing of late on Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“He shows me what I can improve: my aggressiveness to the rim, my energy,” Ntilikina said.
On Tuesday at Rhénus Sport, the team’s arena, Strasbourg hosted Tenerife C.B. of Spain in a Champions League game and lost despite controlling play until the final minutes.
Ntilikina in a Champions League game Tuesday. “What I tell him every day is, he has to use all these moments to get better so that he arrives at his maximum when the draft is there,” his coach said. Pascal Bastien for The New York TimesNtilikina played only 13 minutes of the 40-minute game. He took two shots, swishing a jumper from 18 feet and missing badly on a contested 3-point attempt. The play that seemed to best highlight his strengths occurred with less than a minute to go in the first half, when he was switched onto Tim Abromaitis, an American power forward four inches taller and 45 pounds heavier. As Abromaitis dribbled near the baseline, Ntilikina waved his arms above his head like two big palm fronds, smothering Abromaitis and obstructing his sight. Abromaitis was still holding the ball when the shot clock expired, causing the arena to erupt in cheers.
With steady management and strong play, Strasbourg has had its fortunes rise over the past few years. Martial Bellon, the club’s president, said in an interview that its ambition was to join the top tier of European basketball in the next few years, and he suggested that ushering a player to the N.B.A. and having him succeed would reflect positively on the team’s youth development program.
“Frank did not fall from the sky,” said Bellon, who added that the team prided itself on its familial closeness.
Ntilikina joined the club at 15 and has seen the same faces as he has progressed to the first team. Dolt was his first youth coach, and Collet has been around since 2011. Ntilikina’s grooming, then, has felt at times like a clubwide project.
Romeo Travis, a 32-year-old power forward from Akron, Ohio, where he was a high school teammate of LeBron James, has been trying to summon the fire from Ntilikina, too. He raved about Ntilikina’s polish and praised his toughness. He said Ntilikina might be “overly coachable,” echoing the notion that Ntilikina could take more initiative and find moments to toss aside the game plan.
At the team’s practice Monday, after Ntilikina flubbed his layup, Travis walked over, put his hand on his young teammate’s shoulder and suggested — gently, but profanely — that he should be dunking on those plays.
“Frank doesn’t have a ceiling,” Travis said later. “He has everything: He has height, athleticism, ball-handing; he can shoot. So I’m just trying to give him that push, that confidence that he can be anything he wants to be.”
That was a good read on him and makes me like him with our pick even more than i already did.
newyorker4ever wrote:WaltLongmire wrote:fishmike wrote:WaltLongmire wrote:This.. and this is the part that folks forget. High dribbles and too skinny. Cmon... thats not what the draft is about. Its about adding a young prospect every year. FrankN is just a young player with great upside. You develop them. You build them. Hopefully at some point you have something. With a guy like Frank it could be a PG or SG who knows... I have read and seen he's unselfish to a fault, but that mindset of passing and defense first is certainly what this FO is looking for.BRIGGS wrote:Were already been hot on a "tall" lead pg who played good D yet couldn't shoot wellin Jerian Grant and I believe they had him ranked in the lottery.They better not orgasm at the same thing and keep an open mind
Watch Frenchy shoot, Briggs...He has a good stroke... good enough, in my opinion, that he can fill in very well at SG, another position we have talked about.I expect that his shot will improve even more, just as it has improved over the past few years according to things I've read.
From a NYT article in January...posted the link before, not the text. Good background article.
Who knows if we take him...just have to depend on our braintrust...but you know the guy is in the mix, and if he was to drop down under 7, we would then get one of the top ranked kids falling to us, so I expect we would still be happy.
Frank Ntilikina, a Top N.B.A. Prospect, Is Learning to Play With Fire
STRASBOURG, France — Frank Ntilikina bent forward, angled his face to the ground and unleashed an extended scream. Then he fell to the floor and did five push-ups.It was a self-imposed punishment of sorts for missing an open layup during SIG Strasbourg’s practice Monday morning, and after he completed the push-ups, the team’s five-on-five drill resumed quietly. Later, though, his teammates and coaches marveled at the outburst.
“It was our first time seeing that,” Lauriane Dolt, an assistant coach, said, laughing.
Ntilikina, an 18-year-old point guard, is widely considered the best prospect in European basketball and one of the most intriguing players expected to be available in the N.B.A. draft this summer. In one recent mock-up, ESPN projected the 6-foot-5 Ntilikina as the sixth overall pick.
According to his teammates, his coaches, his agent, talent evaluators and pundits, Ntilikina (pronounced nee-lee-KEE-nah) is mentally mature, with an enviable collection of physical tools. But with six months to go before the draft, everyone sees there is work to do.
Ntilikina was born in Belgium to Rwandan parents and has lived in Strasbourg since age 3. Pascal Bastien for The New York TimesFor Ntilikina, the goal is to wield those tools with more aggressiveness and consistency. He is quiet by nature. The people around him would love to see him take more risks, to make more mistakes, to show more fire.
“He’ll tell me, ‘I have that inside,’” said Vincent Collet, the coach of Strasbourg and the French national team. “I tell him: ‘Don’t keep that inside. Show it.’”
Positive signs keep emerging. Early last month, Collet said, Ntilikina dominated a practice for the first time. A week later, he joined the junior national team for the European Under-18 Championship, where he led France to the gold medal and was named the tournament’s most valuable player. After notching 23 points, 9 assists and 5 steals against Italy in the semifinals, he scored 31 points in the final against Lithuania.
Highlights Frank Ntilikina - Finale championnat d'Europe U18 Video by SIG Strasbourg TVFacing players his own age, and forced to lead, he looked unstoppable, swaggering smoothly around the court, draining difficult shots, making the ball his personal plaything.
“It was not just luck,” Ntilikina said, crediting his performance to his assertiveness. “My teammates gave me confidence, and my coach, too. I had to take care of my responsibility to get the win.”
Ntilikina, shooting, is projected as a top pick for the N.B.A. draft this summer. He is hoping for an increase in playing time, but his coach said he would have to earn it. Pascal Bastien for The New York TimesNtilikina was born in Belgium to Rwandan parents and has lived in Strasbourg since age 3. He speaks English well, a skill he attributed partly to his longstanding love of American rap music. In a conversation after practice, though, one particular English word kept escaping him. He twirled his hands around, trying to conjure it from the air. Twice already it had tripped him up. He called out to a fellow Frenchman nearby, and the two volleyed words back and forth until it hit him: “disturb.”
Now he could finish the two thoughts he had left dangling. Yes, he said, he was learning to use his prodigious wingspan, measured at around seven feet, to disturb opposing players, eliminating passing angles and making them think twice about shooting. And no, he said, he would not allow his circumstances — preparing for the draft, facing limited minutes on his team — to disturb him.
N.B.A. scouts, sometimes six a day, have traveled to Strasbourg to glimpse that wingspan up close. Like many teenage basketball prodigies from Europe, though, Ntilikina has found playing time hard to secure alongside more seasoned professional teammates. On top of that, Strasbourg, which sits in fifth in the French league, having overcome a slow start, has a group of talented point guards. That has meant Ntilikina has spent a considerable amount of time off the ball — or, worse, off the court.
Ntilikina has averaged 17.5 minutes through nine Champions League games and 13.2 minutes through 13 games in the LNB Pro A, the French league. Collet said he expected Ntilikina’s playing time to rise in the coming weeks, but only if Ntilikina deserved it.
“It’s important that he works for it, that he struggles a little bit to get it,” Collet said. “It’s better if he is at the summit in May than in January. What I tell him every day is, he has to use all these moments to get better so that he arrives at his maximum when the draft is there.”
Ntilikina, who led France to the gold medal in the European Under-18 Championship, is averaging 17.5 minutes in Champions League games. Pascal Bastien for The New York TimesIn the meantime, Ntilikina’s spindly, springy body has been a blank canvas onto which people continue to project their visions of what he might become.
Some in the French sports media have invoked Tony Parker, the French point guard for the San Antonio Spurs, as a model — a facile comparison, in the same way that every good, young soccer midfielder in France is prematurely anointed the next Zinedine Zidane. Still, with Parker, 34, in the autumn of his career, there has been an impulse to find the nation’s next basketball superstar.
Collet, known as a sage tactician and teacher, said the conversation about Ntilikina and Parker frustrated him, given the vast differences between the players, whom he knows well. Nevertheless, he volunteered some points for the sake of comparison: Ntilikina, he said, is a smarter player and better shooter than Parker was at 18. He said Parker back then was faster and more aggressive and was a better one-on-one player.
Ntilikina, who consumes copious amounts of N.B.A. coverage and video, said he had been focusing his viewing of late on Russell Westbrook of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“He shows me what I can improve: my aggressiveness to the rim, my energy,” Ntilikina said.
On Tuesday at Rhénus Sport, the team’s arena, Strasbourg hosted Tenerife C.B. of Spain in a Champions League game and lost despite controlling play until the final minutes.
Ntilikina in a Champions League game Tuesday. “What I tell him every day is, he has to use all these moments to get better so that he arrives at his maximum when the draft is there,” his coach said. Pascal Bastien for The New York TimesNtilikina played only 13 minutes of the 40-minute game. He took two shots, swishing a jumper from 18 feet and missing badly on a contested 3-point attempt. The play that seemed to best highlight his strengths occurred with less than a minute to go in the first half, when he was switched onto Tim Abromaitis, an American power forward four inches taller and 45 pounds heavier. As Abromaitis dribbled near the baseline, Ntilikina waved his arms above his head like two big palm fronds, smothering Abromaitis and obstructing his sight. Abromaitis was still holding the ball when the shot clock expired, causing the arena to erupt in cheers.
With steady management and strong play, Strasbourg has had its fortunes rise over the past few years. Martial Bellon, the club’s president, said in an interview that its ambition was to join the top tier of European basketball in the next few years, and he suggested that ushering a player to the N.B.A. and having him succeed would reflect positively on the team’s youth development program.
“Frank did not fall from the sky,” said Bellon, who added that the team prided itself on its familial closeness.
Ntilikina joined the club at 15 and has seen the same faces as he has progressed to the first team. Dolt was his first youth coach, and Collet has been around since 2011. Ntilikina’s grooming, then, has felt at times like a clubwide project.
Romeo Travis, a 32-year-old power forward from Akron, Ohio, where he was a high school teammate of LeBron James, has been trying to summon the fire from Ntilikina, too. He raved about Ntilikina’s polish and praised his toughness. He said Ntilikina might be “overly coachable,” echoing the notion that Ntilikina could take more initiative and find moments to toss aside the game plan.
At the team’s practice Monday, after Ntilikina flubbed his layup, Travis walked over, put his hand on his young teammate’s shoulder and suggested — gently, but profanely — that he should be dunking on those plays.
“Frank doesn’t have a ceiling,” Travis said later. “He has everything: He has height, athleticism, ball-handing; he can shoot. So I’m just trying to give him that push, that confidence that he can be anything he wants to be.”
That was a good read on him and makes me like him with our pick even more than i already did.
I think he'll be available at 7. He might be the steal of the draft.