Frank Ntilikina arrived in New York as an 18-year-old in a new country and with a new job. He had lived and played professionally in Strasbourg, the same French city he grew up in. With one selection in the draft, he was sent off into a totally new environment. His coach in France believed he was not ready for the NBA but had to go.



He spent his first summer living in his then-agent’s New Jersey home, playing basketball with his agent’s teenaged son. Ntilikina had grown up watching clips of NBA stars on YouTube and with posters of them on his bedroom wall, but his first few years in the league were an indoctrination of culture and philosophy. He was unfamiliar with both and took his time adapting.



This season has served as evidence that Ntilikina, the eighth overall pick just two years ago, continues to be a work-in-progress. He is still young, only 21, and raw — a lithe and fluid athlete with the wingspan that makes draftniks salivate and a...