New York Knicks guard Frank Ntilikina has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2018-19 season, the team announced Friday. Ntilikina ends the year having appeared in just two games since Jan. 27 due to a groin muscle injury.
Frank Ntilikina re-aggravated his strained groin muscle during the March 24 game vs the Clippers. Subsequently, he was re-evaluated by Knicks medical staff. Following the re-evaluation, the team’s medical staff has recommended that he miss the final two weeks of the season.
— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) March 29, 2019
Ntilikina’s second professional season was marred by injury, finishing with just 43 games played, 16 of which he started. He ends the year averaging 5.7 points, 2.8 assists and 2.0 rebounds across 21 minutes per contest while shooting 33.7 percent from the field overall, including 28.7 percent from deep. All of those aforementioned averages are a decrease from where he was during his rookie season in 2017-18.
The Knicks selected Ntilikina with the eighth overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft with hopes of having selected their point guard of the future. In a short span, the team has acquired Dennis Smith Jr. (who was picked directly after him by the Dallas Mavericks) as their new point guard moving forward, with hopes that they could Ntilikina move off the ball. Those dreams never materialized this season due to injury, with New York likely to begin the experiment again by the time 2019-20 comes around.
It will be a crucial offseason not only for Ntilikina, but for the New York franchise as well. The team has been reportedly linked to multiple players who are set to hit the open market, many of whom could push Ntilikina to the fringes of the Knicks’ depth chart. At just 20 years old still, New York has a seemingly unknown commodity in Ntilikina, one that they’ll have to wait until next year to evaluate further.
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