Knicks Links: The French Prince is going home

Welcome to another installment of your favorite links aggregate post about your favorite team during the least interesting time of the year!

News is sparse, but I still got a lil’ Knicks fix for you all today. Here’s some music to listen to:

What’s going on during the dog days of summer?

— Frank Ntilikina will be playing for the French national basketball team during qualifiers for the FIBA World Cup in September, before training camp starts:

I’m cool with an international warmup! Just don’t hurt yourself, Frank!

— Luke Kornet... was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon?

Well, sort of.

I don't know if Luke was trying to be the most awkward guy in the entire audience, but he succeeded. Intentional or not, that was gold, Jerry! GOLD!

— Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (he’s one of, like, two remaining writers there) writes that former Knick Rod Strickland has known Kevin Knox for a long time, and saw the potential in him long before the Knicks called his name on draft night:

“At Kentucky, when they brought the ball to him, when they ran plays for him, he scored. I think Kentucky has so many players they didn’t run it through him all the time. But there were games at Kentucky when he pulled it out for those guys. When they went to him, he delivered. The Knicks are going to try to grow him so he’s going to get a lot of touches. I think he’s going to be really good.”

In case you missed it, Strickland and Knox worked out together in Vegas the other day:

— Here’s a couple stories about David Fizdale visiting Kristaps Porzingis in his native Latvia last week, if somehow you still needed more reasons to like him. (I know he still hasn’t coached a minute for the Knicks, but damn it, I love this dude.)

— Danny Small of Elite Sports NY tried his best to predict all of the Knicks’ NBA 2K19 ratings. Hey buddy, that’s my schtick!

— Steve Popper of the Bergen Record sat down with Scott Perry to recall the whirlwind journey that took Perry from Sacramento to New York in a matter of months last offseason.

— Kevin Knox attended the “John Calipari Draft Academy,” which appears to be a camp for youngsters to play with former Kentucky Wildcats. Knox ran into perhaps his biggest and littlest fan:

— The very-connected Marc Stein of the New York Times implies in his latest newsletter that Kevin Durant may be a bit of a long shot for the Knicks next summer, and that both the Knicks and Nets will pursue Kyrie Irving. This will 100 percent not be the last time you hear either of those names connected to the Knicks between now and July 1, 2019.

— James Woodruff at The Knicks Wall writes that Scott Perry, Steve Mills and David Fizdale are setting a good example for what an all-African American front office can look like in the NBA.

That’s all for today! Enjoy your day, everyone!