Second-year point guard Frank Ntilikina of the New York Knicks has not had his best season. After a rookie year in which he flashed outstanding defensive upside at the guard position, not to mention an engulfing wingspan and good size at 6-foot-6, this year, Frankie Smokes has not improved upon his rookie year.

After playing in 78 of 82 possible games last season, Ntilikina has only played in 47 games so far this year with the Knicks, and his numbers are down across the board. Perhaps he would be better suited on a different team, to give him a fresh start, or with better talent around him so that he could focus on what he does best.

No matter what, Ntilikina has expressed interest (via Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News) in wanting to play for his country this summer in the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Championships, which is the basketball equivalent of FIFA’s World Cup for soccer.

Though Ntilikina has been injured for much of this season, it seems he wants to attempt to push his country’s squad over the edge after a promising bronze medal finish the last time the FIBA World Cup took place in 2014.

That squad was anchored by Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw and Joffrey Lauvergne, but a few of those players will likely not return to try and make a run at the gold medal.

With Ntilikina and Gobert leading the charge, that France side would definitely have a tremendous defensive identity that would make it hard for most teams to score.