Knicks: Austin Rivers is ready for his debut

Austin Rivers plans to make his Knicks debut on Thursday after missing training camp / preseason with a groin injury.

Rivers has not yet played 5 on 5 against a full group of teammates. “To this day, I haven’t practiced yet,” he said Thursday morning.

Here, Rivers gives some details about his groin injury:

“It happened a week and a half before I signed with the Knicks, but I didn’t know it was that bad. I just thought I might pull something lightly, nothing serious. It’s still nothing serious. But it turned out to be a good shot and I failed to explode from the groin. We stepped up, we tried to do it as carefully as possible. It’s just that I’ve been around to be honest with you. But they did a great job here, the staff here, the trainers here did a great job of bringing me back. (Thursday), this will be my first time going to pay with my teammates, whether it’s training, whatever. So I didn’t do anything. So I just did the conditioning on the side. I’m going this cold in terms of reps, but I’ll be fine”.

It is unclear whether Immanuel Quickley (hip) or Alec Burks (ankle) will play against Toronto. Frank Ntilikina (knee) and Dennis Smith Jr. (quad) will not play. So it looks like there will be a clear turning point for Rivers on Thursday.