And here I thought Jonathan Isaac almost getting a five-by-five was crazy, if Frank “Baby Isaac” Ntilikina had gotten one I think the whole world would’ve imploded. Obviously that’s quite an extreme outcome for a comparatively mundane event, so it’s a good thing that he came up a little short. But he still got way more than enough stats to keep antsy Knicks fans placated for a little while, and just enough stats to make me start forgetting about whatever point guard comps he had coming into the league so that I can replace them with the idea that he’s the French Andrei Kirilenko.
By the way, I think it’s awesome that all these present-day players get compared to AK47. His legacy will remain forever as one of the OG (not Anunoby, it’s short for “original gangsta”, jeez, don’t you know anything about rap music) do-it-all-but-not-too-much-of-any-one-thing players.
Expectations were high for Ntilikina coming into the season based on his supposedly strong national team performance. I say “supposedly” because I was so butthurt about the U.S. not even being that good of a team that I tried not to pay attention to anything that was going on over there this summer. But people say he performed well, so I’ll believe them. Not even going to look up the stats on this one. Blind faith, that’s what I’m all about.
So, yeah, there were expectations, and he hasn’t met them so far this season. It’s early, though, and his coaching situation isn’t helping matters. He got a DNP early, followed by an 18 second appearance. His minutes have been higher lately, but his production is still anemic. There comes a point where he just has to be more productive on the court, or it’s hard to find justification to play him, besides etherial stuff like “intangibles” and “potential”. That’s not enough for a team like the Knicks who seemingly want to win games (LMAO). Performances like this, where he stuffs the stat sheet and also scores a bit (and also wins the game), make it a lot easier to give him a longer leash in the future.