NEW YORK — Forget, for a moment, the image from Monday night, that of a 19-year-old Frank Ntilikina, chest puffed out at LeBron James, like a kid standing up to the bully on the playground for the first time, and the chants of "Frank-ie" filling Madison Square Garden. It's a fun picture, and a telling one, but also secondary to the real story.
Instead, go back to the clips of him using his quick feet to stifle James Harden, or his seven-foot wingspan to overwhelm Dwyane Wade. Go back to the snappy bounce passes he's dropped into the waiting hands of cutters. Go back even further, to the way New York Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek spoke about Ntilikina during the preseason.
"I think the surprising thing for me as a coach is how knowledgeable he is of the game and how he reads things," Hornacek told reporters in during training camp. "You saw some of his raw talent, you saw his length on tape. But when you're here watching him play every day, seeing the plays that he makes, finding the mismatches and getting the ball to that guy quickly—it's probably something he's not even thinking about it, it's just natural. That's something not many guys have, so that's what's been impressive."
Now take this package and sprinkle in the temerity to stand up to the coolest kid in school and you have a prospect that every team in the league would love to have. It's way too early in the respective careers of both he and Dennis Smith Jr. to fall into the binary trap, expertly laid by James over the weekend, of comparing the two. But 11 games into his NBA career, Ntilikina has proven himself worthy of his lottery selection.
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He's already one of the top perimeter defenders in the league. GMs and coaches will tell you the ability to stop penetration is one of the most valuable and rare skills. And his physical profile means he's capable of guarding both point guards and wings.
He's first in steals per 100 possessions and second in deflections per 36 minutes (both stats minimum five games games), according to NBA.com. He's able to jump passing lanes and pick pockets without bailing on assignments. A film junkie—he mentions watching film nearly every time he speaks with the media—he's rapidly picking up the flows of opposing NBA attacks.
"He's starting to become a lot more vocal, calling out screens and coverages. He's really grown a lot," Knicks forward Lance Thomas told Bleacher Report.
His offensive game is still raw. He's passive with the ball, and is often reluctant to drive or shoot. Ninety-eight percent of players take a larger chunk of their shots at the rim, according to Cleaning the Glass. Ntilikina is also only shooting 50 percent at the hoop (per Basketball Reference), a below-average rate, part of which can be chalked up to him frequently hesitating while attacking. And the 23.8 percent he's shooting from deep is not a strong enough clip.
And yet none of these struggles should be alarming. Ntilikina drilled 38 percent of his treys in France last year. He has the ability to stroke it from deep, it's just a matter of just a matter of finding his comfort zone. He's also not the first international rookie to struggle with the NBA's farther three-point line. As Chris Herring's 2015 Wall Street Journal study pointed out, various marksmen, from Dirk Nowitzki to Peja Stojakovic, have seen dramatic improvements in their long-range shooting following their rookie seasons.
He'll eventually grow comfortable from there. That will open more lanes for him, which will likely make him more aggressive. He's also still just a teenager in a foreign country playing among grown men. It's not surprising that he might feel a bit subservient to his teammates, that he might be working extra hard to hit them for open looks as opposed to hunting his own.
"The NBA is not a huge adjustment, but there are things I need to get used to," Ntilikina told Bleacher Report earlier this year. "The physicality a little bit, the pace of the game, the speed of players. But I'm ready for this."
Perhaps most telling is how his head coach seems to feel the same way. Hornacek, after all, is the same coach who's relegated Willy Hernangomez, a member of the NBA's All-Rookie team last year, to the end of the bench. He prefers veterans, yet is already giving Ntilikina the majority of the team's crunch-time minutes, and for good reason: The Knicks have been 12.1 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor, according to Basketball Reference.
It might take years for us to learn whether the Knicks erred by choosing Ntilikina over Smith, whose 48-inch vertical and Russell Westbrook-like burst make him the flashier player. But that doesn't mean Ntilikina is a stiff. With his defense, passing (8.3 assists per 36 minutes, per Basketball Reference) and overall feel for the game, he's shown that he's a prospect the Knicks can feel comfortable building around.
Couple him with Kristaps Porzingis and suddenly the future of the team looks bright. It's been a while since anyone could say that of the Knicks. Porzingis is clearly the reason why, but Ntilikina's quiet emergence means the unicorn has a parter to help him carry the load.
Yaron Weitzman covers the Knicks and NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow Yaron on Twitter, @YaronWeitzman, and listen to his Knicks-themed podcast here.
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