MOOT POINT
Jack out as starter with young options looming
Youth will be served. At point guard for the Knicks. With 23 games remaining in a Knick season going nowhere, a big part of what remains will be the development of their young point guards, rookie first-round pick Frank Ntilikina, 19, and trade-deadline acquisition Emmanuel Mudiay, 21. Throw in 25-year-old Trey Burke and there’s not a whole heckuva lot of time for veteran Jarrett Jack, who started all but the first three games of the season.
Jack has heard about losing minutes. The starter’s job is just a matter of time.
“Not yet but you don’t have to walk me there between the lines,” Jack said.
Jeff Hornacek didn’t anoint anyone his starter, but he seems intrigued by his two 6-foot-5 guards, Mudiay and Ntilikina. It could be one guy one night, another the next.
“I can’t say for sure,” Hornacek said of his starter. “We have three of those guys. Depending on how it falls out and how they play, can we fall into a rotation that works? Maybe. But it might also be a case of, ‘Hey let’s try one guy one night, another guy another night and see how they run the team.’ If we’re playing those three [young] guys, two of them will be playing off the ball quite a bit. They will handle it in our offense. They’ll still get plenty of reps.”
But whoever starts, beginning with Thursday in Orlando where the Knicks hope to end their eightgame losing streak, the benefits are obvious. Start with time.
“Whoever we start just the added minutes. They can learn from playing those bigger minutes,” Hornacek said.
When the media entered near the end of Tuesday’s practice, Mudiay, who has played in three Knicks games without the benefit of a full practice, was aligned with the first team.
“We’re trying to find the matchups that work best with the guys,” said Hornacek.
And that includes Mudiay and Ntilikina together.
“It was our first practice and it felt good. We saw flashes of what we can do together for the future and that’s really exciting,” Ntilikina said of playing alongside Mudiay.
“First practice was good. We got up and down a little bit,” Mudiay, who was the No. 7 pick by Denver in the 2015 draft. “The first practice back from any kind of break is always toughest to get your wind back, get your mind back on the team.”
Now he has 23 games to get his mind on playing in New York for what he hopes is a while.
“Definitely looking forward to it. Just have to go out there and com- pete at a high level, play as hard as we can. Me and my teammates. Not so much worried about what’s going on on the outside,” Mudiay said.
And so the Knicks are entering the youth and development and pray-for-a-good-lottery portion of their season. You know, just like virtually any year recently. Hornacek, who said he spoke to Jack before the All-Star break about a reduction in minutes, wants to see what he has. So, more minutes for Ntilikina who has received a touch over 20 minutes a night.
“He’ll probably get some more time. We want to try to get Trey and Emmanuel and Frank out there,” Hornacek said. “Obviously with trying to get them minutes it’s probably [means seeing] two of those guys together. Today we had Frank and Trey on the same team. They were playing well off each other. For three of those guys, they all kind of know each other. I think they’ll push each other.”
While Jack continues doing one of the jobs he came to the Knicks to do, serving as a mentor.
“Guys know what their roles are. We still want Jarrett ready to go out there and play. But we also want him to do what he’s done all year and help those young guys,” said Hornacek.
“He doesn’t have to [say anything]. He calls your name be ready. He doesn’t [call you], sit there and support everybody else. That’s what it’s about at the end of the day,” Jack said.