Knicks' First Round Pick Cut From French National Squad

Though born in Belgium, Ntilikina has been a staple of sorts on the French national team, partaking in each of their last two silver medal runs at the Olympics. His work with the amateur edition of the team drew enough attention for the Knicks to make him the eighth overall pick of the 2017 draft.

Ntilikina was viewed as a solution to the team's long-standing point guard problems that have since been rectified by the arrival and breakout of Jalen Brunson.

Alas, Ntilikina never lived up to his hyped arrival, averaging just 5.5 points and 2.7 assists over four metropolitan seasons marred by injuries and inconsistency. Making his Knicks tenure all the more uncomfortable was the fact he was chosen sh ortly before future All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Bam Adebayo.

After that, Ntilikina signed by the Dallas Mavericks, where he was, ironically enough, teammates with Brunson for a year. His most recent NBA action was five games with the Charlotte Hornets during the 2023-24 season and he now plays with Serbian squad Partizan Belgrade alongside fellow former Knick Shake Milton and another relatively recent first-round choice in Jabari Parker.

Even with Ntilikina's departure, Knicks fans still have a large reason to have a rooting interest in France during the upcoming competition: Les Bleus are captained by incoming New Yorker Guerschon Yabusele, who signed a two-year, $11 million deal over the offseason. Others to survive the cut include fellow NBAers Bilal Coulibaly (Washington) and Zaccharie Risacher (Atlanta), the top pick of the 2024 NBA Draft.

France was the runner-up of the most recent EuroBasket tournament in 2022 and will start its next quest for gold on Aug. 28 when it opens its Group D slate against Belgium. Les Bleus took down Montenegro in an exhibition by an 81-75 final earlier this week and faces Great Britain in another prep game on Friday.