thelesterlee
NBA free agency isn’t quite over yet as there are still a few guys left unsigned that can make a huge impact on a team. Guys like Kawhi Leonard, Lauri Markkanen and JJ Redick are still out here unemployed surveying the terrain.
While there are other players like Dennis Schroder and Elfrid Payton, who will be watching the NBA this season at the bar next to you checking their phone every 2 minutes in case their agent calls with a 10-day contract offer.
But there’s still just ONE beast on the loose that could alter a franchise and send them into instant dynasties.
The French Prince, Frank Ntilikina, is available and I’m sure there is a bidding war to acquire the New York Knicks’s mistake.
Sure, his career stats don’t jump off the page. 5.5 points per game, 2 rebounds and 2.1 assists on 37% shooting isn’t beautiful in a box score.
Those shooting numbers are a bit startling. Ignoring perimeter shooting entirely, Frank has only shot 38% from 2-point range. So whether it’s midrange or at the rim, uh, Frank is going to have a tough time getting basketballs in the hope.
Last season, Frank Ntilkina shot 6-for-31 from within the 3-point line. Just one of the worst scorers in the NBA.
BUT his defense is his specialty which doesn’t show up in the stats. You also can’t quantify swag in which Ntilikina is bursting at the seams.
You also have to factor in that during his 4-year Knicks career, he was waterboarded by the strangest group of ‘mentors’ including sundowning, vacationing Phil Jackson, disinterested Jeff Hornacek, kindergarten teacher David Fizdale and basketball sociopath Tom Thibodeau.
Who can succeed in an environment where the only constant is Lance fucking Thomas?
Drop Frank Ntilikina on any of these playoff teams and he’s making major stops on defense, leading fastbreaks and hitting open 3’s. He was meant to be a San Antonio Spur. He is better than Tony Parker and that’s based on nothing outside of my own belief in Frank’s untapped potential and by blinding ignoring how terrible he has actually been on a basketball court thus far.
I mean, he’s 23. He has a 15-year MVP level career coming soon.
