The New York Knicks utilized the No. 9 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft to bring Kevin Knox aboard after just one year spent at Kentucky. His rookie season has been a seesaw ride, but head coach David Fizdale is nothing but optimistic about the future of his 19-year-old wunderkind, via Peter Botte of the New York Post.

“I’ve been picking at him from a couple of different angles,” Fizdale said. “I think he’s a lot like me from the standpoint of you don’t want to disappoint, which also could be a deterrent because you start to overthink things because you don’t want to let people down.

“Only one way to go, for sure, is up. I think, again, for him it’s keeping him aggressive. I don’t care about the numbers right now. He was the youngest kid in the draft and he’s a slim-build. We knew right away that this was not gonna be something where you just hit the ground running.”

Know has scuffled from the field to the tune of just 36.9 shooting overall, but has averaged 12.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game across 66 contests (48 starts). Knox has been amongst New York's starting five for every contest since Dec. 12, averaging at least 13 PPG in each of the last four months.

As debate and rumors swirl over whom the Knicks might add in free agency this upcoming off-season, the one guarantee they have is that Knox will be back. With Kristaps Porzingis now out of the picture, should New York whiff on bringing in a big-name scorer, Knox will almost certainly see his role grow in year two.