New York Knicks head coach David Fizdale has a huge test ahead of him for his second season at the helm of the franchise. One of his NBA counterparts believes juggling playing time and developing his young players is among his biggest problems entering this season:

“I think it's a huge challenge. In order to develop those younger players, they have to play. That's the No. 1 part of development,” an NBA coach told SNY's Ian Begley. “Drills in practice are only so good. If you're going to really grow and improve, you have to play in this league. And when you have these veterans that are on these short-term deals, they want to play too.

“They'll help the younger guys in some ways, but they want to be on the floor, they want to perform so they can get the next contract. Then you run into, if (Julius) Randle and (Kevin) Knox play the same position, and Randle's better, where is Knox going to play? He has to see the floor. So it's going to make it difficult. And he can't play all of the guards and wings they have. There's only so many minutes to go around.”

Fizdale faced a similar issue last season with Enes Kanter established as the starting center. Fizdale suddenly had to start sitting Kanter, which led to disappointment and a conversation between Kanter and the front office regarding his playing time — one that eventually led to working to trade him. He was eventually waived, giving Mitchell Robinson ample playing time afterward.

The same happened to players like Courtney Lee and Lance Thomas, who were forced to cede playing time to cooperate with the franchise's mission to develop youngsters like Kevin Knox, Allonzo Trier and Damyean Dotson. Doing the same after signing a wave of starting-caliber players won't prove easy for Fizdale, who also has the edict to win more games as well as develop this team moving forward — a tough combination to muster.