Knicks starting point guard Elfird Payton has been ruled out for Wednesday night's road game against the Magic with a strained right hamstring.
Payton, who exited Monday night's game against the Bulls after suffering the injury, traveled with the Knicks to Orlando in hopes of playing, but now has officially been ruled out.
Payton has averaged 8.0 points and 3.8 assists per game through four games in a Knicks uniform.
With Payton out and Dennis Smith Jr. still possibly away from the team due to a loss in his family, the Knicks will likely look at Frank Ntilikina to start Wednesday's game.
Ntilikina fell behind Payton and Smith Jr. in the PG rotation and barely saw action in the first three games of the season, but played 22 minutes in Monday night's win over the Bulls. Despite going scoreless in the outing, Ntilikina was valuable on defense and just organizing the offense as the Knicks went on a 15-0 run at the end of the fourth quarter to pick up their first win of the season.
If David Fizdale wanted to get experimental with his lineup, he could throw Alonzo Trier out at the PG spot or even put RJ Barrett at the 1, and use a bigger lineup against the long Magic rotation.