New York Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek has welcomed the idea of having center Joakim Noah designated for assignment with G League affiliate Westchester Knicks.
Noah made his season debut against the Portland Trail Blazers earlier this week, converting his only field goal of the game in a brief three-minute stint.
“I think the whole league is trying to get away from the fact that … the G-League is for training purposes,” Hornacek said after Friday’s practice, according to Howie Kussoy of The New York Post. “It’s looking to develop guys, younger players, but it’s just like baseball in the minor leagues.
“You see major league pitchers pitching a Single-A game just to get tuned up. That’s how we want to approach our G-League team. We want to use it to develop young guys, but give older guys who maybe aren’t getting reps an opportunity to go play some games. It’s right here in town. They can just pop over and play in the games, and we think that’s a good thing.
Joakim Noah was available to return after the Knicks' 12th game of the season, having served his full 20 games of suspension for taking a banned substance, dating back to last season. Yet, it's the logjam at center that has precluded his season debut until Monday.
“We’ve got four guys playing one position. It’s tough. It’s tough on all of them,” said Hornacek. “Periodically, we want to try to make sure we get them in at some point and get some minutes. It’s hard if you go two months and don’t play. That’s why you saw Jo get some tune-up work with the G-League team.”
The Knicks are starting Enes Kanter at center, while giving Kyle O'Quinn the majority of the backup minutes at the position, with the occasional Willy Hernangomez sighting from time to time — making Noah's opportunity rather nonexistent.
Jeff Hornacek was asked if he'd consider slotting any of his centers at power forward to create more opportunity, but the man at the helm turned down the idea rather quickly.
“They’re not really stretch-four type guys,” Hornacek said. “We don’t want them to try and do something they’re not capable of doing.”
Follow Us
Subscribe