Fiz shocker: Frank starts, not Knox
For his first real game as Knicks coach, David Fizdale sent out a shocker. He announced Tuesday — a day before the Knicks host the Hawks in the season opener — that Kevin Knox will be removed from the starting lineup and replaced, at small forward, by Frank Ntilikina. The change comes four days after Fizdale declared he was sticking with Knox, despite his ugly preseason, because the rookie needed to take his lumps. But a few things changed Fizdale’s mind, most paramount being that Knox didn’t deserve it. From a coach who told his players about fighting for a spot in the lineup — “You Keep What You Kill” — the lineup change was about culture-building. “I went back through every preseason game. I went back through the numbers. I watched every guy that I was actually looking at for that position, I watched them closely,” Fizdale said. “Then I just felt like this is our first year and this isn’t a veteran team. A veteran team could handle me going, ‘Hey, let’s go with the young guy and let him play through it.’ This is a young bunch of guys that’s all dogfighting to get in that lineup. “And I think for my first year, the culture was more important than the development part of that.” Ntilikina, who has never started a preseason, Summer League or regular-season game at small forward, will be alongside Trey Burke (PG), Tim Hardaway Jr. (SG), Lance Thomas (PF) and Enes Kanter (C). Knox said Fizdale told him about the change privately and he understood. Knox started all five preseason games. “I’m just going to go in there and keep playing hard,” Knox said. “I wasn’t surprised, I wasn’t going to complain and ask why. I’m just going to accept that challenge and accept what coach wants me to do.” Benching a 19-year-old draft pick could have adverse effects on Knox’s confidence, but, as Fizdale noted, Knox was already dipping in that department.
“He was playing pretty crappy so his confidence was already shook up,” the coach said. “So think, like I said, sometimes a little tweak, just taking him out of the lineup for a minute might give him a chance to digest it, take a breath. And maybe this will loosen him up and he can start finding himself. But like I said before, our starting unit, all of these guys will tell you, you are not set in stone.”
Ntilikina surged toward the end of preseason and represents the team’s most versatile defender. The seventh overall pick in 2017 didn’t start last season until the final month.
“I think the most important thing I was trying to get out of it was, culturally, you’ve got to earn it. I don’t think Kevin got to the point where he earned it more than Frank,” Fizdale said. “But there were some good things for Kevin and I was really happy with him having to go through highs and lows early on. He had the two double-doubles early and then he hit a wall. That’s just a learning opportunity for him. I don’t want to reward that yet. I do think Frank consistently throughout the preseason, no matter where I put him, he got the job done. So for our culture that’s more important.”