"Frank Ntilikina is a beast in defense"

The trainer Knicks David Fizdale had announced that he wanted to observe his leaders before deciding who would hold and who would have time to play at the beginning of the season. Well he must have been disappointed tonight since Dennis Smith Jr and Frank Ntilikina Both of them were bad in their defeat against the Hawks in pre-season (100 to 96). None managed to slow down Trae Young, and the two players have even had to deal with fault problems. Smith, used to shine in attack, was even bad in this area with 4 points to 1/5 shooting and three lost balls, for only three assists. In his defense, he had not played pre-season yet because of back pain.

"Dennis Smith Jr was rusty, especially in attack. He did not have a rhythm. He must play despite that and shake himself. David Fizdale.

"It was hard for me to put myself in rhythm, to find my flow. I have to take care of that. Dennis Smith Jr.

The former Dallas point guard took over 40 minutes to register his first shot in the game, a jumper to equalize at 91 everywhere while there was 5 minutes left to play.

" It was time. Dennis Smith Jr.

Unsurprisingly, Ntilikina was a bit better than his defensive teammate, but he also had a hard time on offense, failing to capture just one of his four shots.

"We did not play the way we wanted to attack, but it's only the third pre-season game. We know we can be good in defense, the attack will come. Frank Ntilikina.

Well, the thing is that the Knicks leader duo is not the only one to have taken the sauce by Young since the Atlanta leader came into the NBA, and Fizdale is aware of that.

" They fought. Trey is a great player, Dennis and Frank really gave the max and the change in front of him. David Fizdale.

Despite this performance, Frank Ntilikina, caught the eye of Bobby Portis.

"Frank is a beast in defense. I never really saw him play, nor did I focus on him when he was on the opposing team, but now that I'm playing with him, I can say he's a good teammate. He does lots of little things on the field that we do not see in the statistics sheet. He fights to go over the screens, dives on the balloons. Having guys involved for the team is good. Bobby Portis.

Maybe the staff also noticed that … For Stan Van Gundyold trainerit is Dennis Smith Jr who will get the place of holder.

"In my opinion that's what will happen. They made a trade for him while he is still in his contract rookie. He is explosive and can make progress in decision making and shooting. Stan Van Gundy.

Via New York Post and Mike Vorkunov.

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