Second-year players Quentin Grimes, Miles McBride and Jericho Sims will be headlining the New York Knicks Summer League team in Las Vegas this July.
Their only draft pick this year — 42nd pick Trevor Keels out of Duke — will also play in Las Vegas along with undrafted players Jean Montero and Garrison Brooks, who signed Exhibit 10 deals with the Knicks.
Grimes and Sims are poised to crack the regular-season rotation following the departure of Alec Burks and Nerlens Noel.
Grimes showed flashes of a solid 3-and-D potential when he was thrust into the starting lineup midway in the Knicks’ COVID-19-ravaged season. Sims might have played his way out of a two-way contract towards the end of the season. The Knicks are expected to convert his two-way contract into a standard NBA contract, per SNY’s Ian Begley.
McBride’s role is unclear, pending the Knicks’ free agency moves. With the Knicks adding a top-level starter in Jalen Brunson, Derrick Rose returning at full health, and Immanuel Quickley looming to have a more prominent role, McBride could be on the outside looking in.
Keels is a candidate to slot into one of the two Knicks’ two-way players spots. A former five-star recruit, the stocky, 6-foot-3 Keels had an inconsistent one-and-done season at Duke, causing him to fall in the second round. Had he stayed for one more season, there is a great chance he could have worked his way into the first round of the next NBA Draft. Nonetheless, he projects to be
Montero is an intriguing 18-year-old undrafted prospect from the Dominican Republic who played in the Overtime Elite last season. The 6–foot-3 Montero is an offensive dynamo, emerging as the scoring champion of OTE’s inaugural season. He held the single-game scoring record (33 points) and scored in double figures in 21 games, including a league-leading five 20-point games. Per 40 minutes, he averaged 25.0 points, 6.8 assists, 11 rebounds and 5.1 steals.
Brooks left Mississippi State averaging a team-high 6.6 rebounds per game while scoring 10.4 points per game on a 45.8 shooting percentage.
A prominent former Knicks draft pick will miss the NBA Summer League. Lithuanian guard Rokas Jokubaitis, who was drafted 34th overall in 2021, two picks after McBride, will not join the team after having an ear surgery following the Euroleague season, per Basket News. Jokubaitis is expected to stay one more year in Europe. He recently won the Euroleague Rising Star trophy while playing for FC Barcelona, who finished third in the Euroleague.
Other players who will see action are Feron Hunt, who replaced Luka Samanic as the Knicks’ second two-way player last season, and Westchester Knicks mainstays Aamir Sims, MJ Walker and Quinton Rose. Rounding up the team are Jahvon Blair, Vince Edwards, DaQuan Jeffries, Micah Potter, and D’Shawn Schwartz.
They will open their Summer League campaign against the Golden State Warriors on July 8, followed by games against Chicago (July 10), Portland (July 11) and Orlando (July 14). All games will be aired over MSG Network.
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