New York Knicks head coach David Fizdale is stealing plays from France’s national team. Fizdale openly said that he was doing so too.
He was watching Knicks point guard Frank Ntilikina play, very well, for his home country France in the FIBA World Cup. Fizdale said that he, “Watched 90% of France’s games.” He continued speaking on Frank’s performance, “I think that’s what he needed. He needed to feel that success.”
Fizdale told New York Post Marc Berman, “I studied the heck out of him.” “He can be on the ball. He can be off the ball. He can guard multiple guys on the court” Fizdale said.
On the topic of stealing plays, Fizdale said, “I stole a couple of their sets, too. I’m a thief, stealing from the coaches.” However, when Fizdale said he was ‘stealing plays’ he was saying that he was looking at how France utilized Ntilikina and will try inject that into the Knicks system. Fizdale is trying to whatever is takes to make the New York Knicks competitive again.
Ntilikina spoke on behalf of his experience in the World Cup and said he “Learned a lot.” He sure did, as fans saw his confidence and aggressiveness get bigger and bigger each game.
It won’t be easy to implement everything that France did to help Ntilkina succeed, but there is hope. A lot of players on the Knicks will be competing for minutes. Fizdale can’t just role out the red carpet for Ntilkina since he had a good summer.
Yes, the NBA is different from the FIBA World Cup. But, it was the confidence Ntilikina’s coaches had in him that made the difference. If Fizdale is able to harness what France did for Ntilikina, the Knicks could have another gem on their hands.