The Knicks will play their season’s 20th game on Black Friday vs. New Orleans, and their point-guard situation still stands as a darkened quandary.
The Knicks’ point guard merry-go-round whirls on, and Trey Burke’s spectacular four-game tour de force has only confounded the issue.
In successive games off the bench, Burke, the opening night starter, has amassed games of 24, 31, 19 and a heroic 29 points Wednesday, when he ruined the Celtics’ Thanksgiving in the holiday’s birthplace.
Burke’s two final-minute daggers destroyed the Celtics comeback and the Knicks’ six-game losing streak. He’s shot 40 of 68 during the four-game surge.
“We have a deep unit,’’ Burke said of the lineup changes. “We just have to figure it out. It’s not going to be one game, one week. It’s over a course of the season.”
The vexing issue facing the three-headed brain trust of Steve Mills, Scott Perry and Craig Robinson is not just who is the starting point guard of the present — Burke, Emmanuel Mudiay or Frank Ntilikina.
It’s who — if any of the lottery trio — should be the PG of the future.
“Trey’s about to make the staff and management have some decisions to make,” an NBA personnel director said.
If the Knicks don’t believe in Burke for the long term, they could trade him to a contender at February’s deadline for a draft pick.
As for free agency, Kemba Walker, native of The Bronx, is tearing up the NBA and has become a sound investment as a max-type point guard this summer. Even Charlotte owner Michael Jordan reportedly is “hellbent’’ on re-signing Walker, who has always dreamed of being a Knick but can make more money staying in Charlotte.
And as goes the Celtics’ slide, so goes the Knicks’ improved chances at Kyrie Irving.
The Celtics’ chemistry is not the same with Gordon Hayward and Irving added to a club that without them got one game from the NBA Finals. If the 9-9 Celtics flounder this season, Irving can easily flip-flop on premature remarks he plans to re-sign. Irving is on record saying the Knicks would be a frontrunner if he weren’t staying in Boston.
“We just can’t wait anymore, honestly,’’ Irving said after the Knicks’ embarrassed the home team amid heavy booing. “From myself, everybody else, we don’t have time to really be waiting to see if guys are going to give that extra effort, including myself.’’
Burke outplayed Irving on Wednesday, notching 11 assists. While coach David Fizdale likes the flow and pace he has seen from Mudiay as his starter for the past five games and Burke is thriving in a bench role, that can change.
Burke, just 26, will be a free agent and has a modest cap hold. By benching him after five games, Fizdale acted as if the 2013 lottery pick is not part of his future nucleus.
Before his explosion, Burke had not played in three of the previous four games. To be fair, Burke’s play wasn’t nearly as dynamic as last season.
Burke talked all week about a new mindset. The coaching staff felt Burke was being too deferential to rookie guard Allonzo Trier, who had the ball in his hands often at the top and wasn’t finding the Knicks point guard in the corners.
“I’ve talked about coming into the game and being conservative and letting the game come to me,’’ Burke said in Boston. “That’s not who I am as a player. I don’t think I’d do this team that much service if I come in and be passive. I got to be aggressive. That’s what I’ve been. That’s who I am naturally. I’m an aggressive, attacking-type point guard. Things open up, not just for my shot — 11 assists.
“I feel like I got the ability to break a defense down and get in the paint, make a defense shift and somebody being open.”
Knicks brass craves an attacking point guard, but the old worries about Burke’s size and inconsistent defense never seem to dissipate. Ntilikina brings the defense but not the creative playmaking or outside shooting (25 percent on 3s).
“Frank is open from 3 for a reason,” one NBA scout said. “They don’t have to guard him there.”
The Mudiay-Tim Hardaway Jr. starting backcourt pairing is gaining “chemistry,” according to Fizdale. But Hardaway played at Michigan with Burke — one of his best friends. The ex-Wolverines pair look like finishers — at least.
“Knowing that kid for the past eight years, every time he stepped on the Michigan campus I already knew what type of mindset he had and what he brought to the table,” Hardaway said. “He didn’t play a couple of games this year, but he didn’t let that affect him. He competed, took it to those guys on the other end, and he willed this team to a win.”
Now the question for Fizdale is what to do with Burke now and for the future.