Since returning from his 3½-game sojourn to the bench, Frank Ntilikina has played good basketball in his last six quarters.
A more aggressive mindset combined with improved shooting has made him look competent offensively. In those six quarters, he has shot 10-of-17 from the field and 5-of-8 from behind the arc for 25 points. When he has been on the floor, the Knicks have outscored opponents by nine points, good for a 13.4 net rating.
Why? The easy answer is to credit coach David Fizdale for benching Ntilikina and providing some kind of mental spark or motivational tool to get him to play better. There's no way to know if that's the case or not, but it is a hard sell. Ntilikina never seemed like a player who was coasting and didn't care or play hard. He has always been described as conscientious and a hard worker.
Would getting sent to the bench motivate him to be more aggressive on offense, a message that Fizdale has been stressing to him since June? Maybe, but there's a far more logical explanation for his resurgence, and it starts with something simple: better shooting.
MORE: Did Menendez Brothers Make Cameo In A Mark Jackson Basketball Card?
In the end, basketball is a simple game that has everything to do with whether or not a player's shots go in or not. In his last two games, Ntilikina's shots have started falling again. It is impossible to explain a player's improved shooting after spending time on the bench. Have his shoulders finally healed after both were covered in tape for much of November? Or maybe he is just still a very streaky or poor shooter? There's no way to know for sure until there's a bigger sample size to examine.
When a player's shots are falling, it is a lot easier to be more aggressive. After a decent shooting month of October when Ntilikina shot 38 percent from the field, 39 percent from behind the arc and 86 percent from the free-throw line, everything fell apart. On Oct. 29, as the starting point guard, Ntilikina scored 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting, his most field-goal attempts of the season.
As his shooting percentage began to dip shortly thereafter, he only took more than eight shots once until the game Sunday against the Hornets. It should be no surprise that Ntilikina shot 5-of-10 in that game against the Hawks on Nov. 7, and then 7-of-11 Sunday. The more shots he makes, the more he takes. He does not have the John Starks mentality, in which he believes he would make every shot he decides not to take.
Aside from his shooting, the other clear reason Ntilikina was able to assert himself the way he did over the weekend was the role Fizdale put him in. Ntilikina is going to be more aggressive if he is given point-guard duties and has the ball in his hands. Before his benching, he had been playing alongside two ball-dominant players in Trey Burke and Allonzo Trier.
MORE: Schmeelk: It's A Make-Or-Miss League -- And The Knicks Miss A Ton
In games this season when he was primarily the lone point guard on the floor, Ntilikina has shot a modest 38 percent from the field and 33 percent from 3-point range. The more telling number is his field-goal attempts. He averaged 8.5 shots per game and four 3s per game when he was the primary ballhandler.
In games when Ntilikina has played with Burke or Emmanuel Mudiay as the primary point guard, his shooting has been down to 33 percent on field goals and 29 percent on 3-pointers. His field-goal attempts are also way down to just 5.6 per game and 2.2 3-point attempts per game. When he is playing with a dominant ballhandler, he tends to float offensively, and his passive tendencies are exacerbated.
He is far more likely to play like the aggressive player Fizdale wants if he has the ball more. It doesn't mean there still aren't going to be games when he defers too much and shoots poorly, but that is going to be part of the development process for a 20-year-old player who is still learning how to play in the NBA. Playing the wing also negates the advantage his length gives him over opposing point guards.
It's also important to note that there is more than just one type of point guard. Not every point guard in the league has to play like Kyrie Irving, Stephen Curry, Kemba Walker or Russell Westbrook as ball-dominant scorers. There are plenty of other point guards who are not as ball dominant but are still very good players. George Hill comes to mind. So does Ricky Rubio. Jrue Holiday and Eric Bledsoe are other players Ntilikina should strive to develop into. Shaun Livingston and Jason Kidd are bigger point guards who fit that description as well.
Depending on the makeup of the roster, sometimes teams are better off not having a ball-dominant point guard. If there's a better scorer or playmaker on the wing (James Harden, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade in his prime, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jimmy Butler, Ben Simmons, etc), they are going to have their hands on the ball more than the point guard anyway. In those cases, it is better to have a player who can help in other ways -- as a distributor, shooter and a defensive player.
At 6-foot-6, Ntilikina is not going to be a point guard who breaks opposing point guard down off the dribble in isolation situations, but he doesn't have to in order to be a good NBA player. If he plays good defense, sets up his teammates, runs an efficient pick-and-roll and hits his open jump shots, he can be a good starting player in this league for a long time.
He has a long way to go to get there, but if he continues to get the opportunity to handle the ball for the Knicks this year, he has a chance to get there. Of course, it all starts with shooting, something Ntilikina must improve on if he is going to be a player in this league. It will be interesting to see where the final 54 games of the season take him.
You can follow me on Twitter for everything on Knicks, Giants and the world of sports @Schmeelk.
