Maurice Ndour Has Chance to Carve Role with New York Knicks

Maurice Ndour's feel-good tenure with the New York Knicks doesn't have to end with the NBA's Las Vegas Summer League.

The same cannot be said of others like Ndour. Dark-horse success stories are part and parcel of every summer-league installment. Unknown prospects commonly thrive in this brand of exhibition play, standing out in comparison to many of the league's top rookie and sophomore projects.

Most of these Association long shots will remain just that: afterthoughts who, no matter how successful they are in Vegas, won't ever carve out a role or even a roster spot on an NBA team. But on the heels of a summer-league showing strong enough to turn heads, Ndour has the chance to be an exception.

That much became clear after the Summer Knicks' July 14 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. Ndour has been stellar through and through, but the Ohio University product, who was born and raised in Senegal, truly and unequivocally arrived on that Tuesday afternoon.

He pumped in a team-high 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting to go along with six rebounds and a block, posting a game-high plus-13 while showcasing a variety of offensive moves. 

Jumpers, off-ball slashes, dribble drives, putbacks—you name it, he did it, and he did it well.

Although that remains the only outing in which Ndour eclipsed double figures, it was a performance punctuated by the energy levels he's displayed all summer. Picture a pre-2014-15 Kenneth Faried with a jumper and a defensive conscience. 

"I don’t know any more he can do," Knicks coach Derrick Fisher said afterward, per the New York Post's Marc Berman. "He’s doing everything that’s in his control to be a guy whether our team—hopefully—or 29 other teams for sure will give him a look where he probably could play at this level and be pretty good at it."

Ndour's positional versatility bodes well for his chances with the Knicks specifically. Team president Phil Jackson has put together a frontcourt core assembled around players—Carmelo Anthony, Kristaps Porzingis, Kyle O'Quinn, Derrick Williams—who can spend time at two different positions.

Pushing 6'9", Ndour is a tweener. He has the build of a power forward, but he defends like a center. A ton of his playing time has come beside Porzingis, and when opposing offenses try drawing the Knicks outside the paint with high screens, it's Ndour who stays behind to protect the rim.

Source: NBA.com.

Trotting out Ndour at center, of course, isn't ideal on paper. Not everyone is Draymond Green and able to make up for a lack of size with girth and a superior understanding of how opponents, big and small, move with and without the ball.

But the Knicks don't need Ndour to be a center per se. He just comes in handy when the they're looking to run quicker, smaller, more athletic lineups that, in size, feature O'Quinn or Porzingis at the 5. In those situations, he basically becomes a hybrid forward-center, switching assignments with the Knicks' other big as the defense sees fit. 

Besides, if Fisher is really looking to run, Ndour can, in fact, get by at center on his own, anchoring the defense as a complement to Anthony playing the 4.

It's not something you're going to see without New York's roster being overrun by big-man-eating injury bugs. Nor is it something you want to try for 35 minutes every night in the event those injury bugs invade the depth chart. But it is an option thanks to Ndour's above-average shot-blocking.

Through his last season at Ohio, he averaged 3.9 swats per 100 possessions. Among all NBA players to log at least 1,000 total minutes in 2014-15, as Ndour did, that would have ranked sixth.

Even after accounting for the unavoidable drop-off that comes with the college-to-pro jump, Ndour is a good stopper to have coming off the bench. Especially with the Knicks so obviously trying to construct a competent defense.

As Jackson told reporters, per Newsday's Al Iannazzone: "We really said we wanted to play defense and this is what we're attempting to do with our free agency and this is what makes a difference in how teams win—by defensively taking a stance."

Jackson's defensive emphasis has indeed culminated in a different roster makeup. So much so that one could easily argue the Knicks have enough defensive talent up front.

Robin Lopez ranked as a better rim protector than Marc Gasol and DeAndre Jordan last season. O'Quinn was better than Gasol and just as good as Jordan.

Porzingis, meanwhile, has been a pleasant surprise on defense, blocking shots, remaining on his feet when guarding pump fakes and making mid-game adjustments to account for the weight he's typically giving up.

Offense will actually be the area in which the Knicks struggle most next season. They've watered down triangle sets to include more pick-and-rolls, simplifying their system considerably. But they're still dealing with a bunch of new faces, an offensively limited Lopez, two high-profile rookies in Jerian Grant and Porzingis, a perimeter-challenged Williams and a 31-year-old Anthony coming off knee surgery.

More than they need additional defensive depth, they need another scoring punch up front to help offset Porzingis' learning curve and the below-board games of O'Quinn and Lopez. And luckily, even if it's in emergency capacity, that's something Ndour can do.

As Chris Herring observed for the Wall Street Journal: 

"

He likes to set slip screens, so he can either roll or pop quickly to get his own shot.

He has a good jumper and was probably the most decisive player the Knicks had on the roster this summer from an offensive perspective. His footwork is very good, and he made use of a beautiful reverse pivot move against the Lakers.

"

There's always room for bigs who can thrive within pick-and-pops, even on a Knicks team that didn't rely much on those situations last season.

About 17.8 percent of the Knicks' total offensive sets came as pick-and-rolls in 2014-15, a noticeably low number compared to the rest of the league. But they incorporated more of those plays into their offense toward the end of the season, and the summer-league eye test proves they're striving to integrate even more into their system this time around.

With the exception of a healthy Anthony, Ndour would rank as the Knicks' most valuable roll man. He's more explosive than O'Quinn and Lopez, and his ability to space the floor when sliding off screens is rivaled only by Anthony and Porzingis.

His value on these plays is further boosted by the reflexive way he reads defenses. There are instances where he doesn't even set a pick. Rather, he feigns one, darting toward the ball-handler only to duck toward the right for a quick pass and jumper while the defense is still defending the play like it's a screen-and-roll:

Those jumpers can inevitably become three-pointers. The Knicks haven't allowed Ndour to flash his three-point range—he's attempted just one shot from beyond the arc in Vegas—but he does have some. He shot a scintillating 27-of-62 from deep (43.5 percent) during his final season at Ohio.

Over time, Ndour should also become less reliant on putbacks, alley-oops and off-ball movements in general. He's shown he can put the ball on the floor against summer-league competition. Though that's unlikely to translate to regular-season action from the jump, he has the footwork and handle coordination to make it stick long term:

Right about now, it's imperative to remember Ndour hasn't boarded the fast track to superstardom. The summer league is a place where undrafted 23-year-olds like Ndour fight for their NBA livelihoods, putting themselves in line to make a roster at all, not guarantee a spot in rotations teeming with veterans and more high-profile prospects.

The good news: Ndour has done all he can do, and more.

“His activity and length, blocking shots and using his long arms to create havoc, all the things we thought he could do, you don’t know until he’s out there," Fisher said, per Berman. "He’s proven people right he can play. He’s doing everything he can do to make [a camp invite] happen.’’

Make no mistake, a camp invite is a formality.

This isn't even an "If the Knicks don't extend one, another team will" situation. That's entirely true but wholly pointless.

John Locher/Associated Press

Unless he accepts a more lucrative opportunity to play overseas—a possibility, his agent told Berman—Ndour will be a part of the Knicks' training camp.

And if he plays there the way he has in Vegas, he may even be a part of their future.

Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.