The days in which the New York Knicks had horrible draft luck are behind them. In recent years, they have found some gems in the late first round or even the second round, and they may have found another with their 2024 second-round draft selection in Marquette guard Tyler Kolek.
Bleacher Report’s Mo Dakhil listed four players that could be potential draft steals, and Kolek was one of those players he listed after an array of stellar performances in the Summer League.
“Most people have not heard of Tyler Kolek. Which is understandable. Portland made him the 34th pick and traded him to the Knicks. But over a few summer-league games, he’s shown he has a real chance to be a second-round steal,” Dakhil wrote.
Tyler Kolek could be a big problem-solver for the Knicks
The 23-year-old guard had demonstrated tremendous playmaking during his college career at Marquette, and he put that further on display in Summer League with the Knicks, averaging seven assists across five games. He was efficient in his passing as well, averaging just 1.4 turnovers throughout the Summer League.
A small guard with a knack for being a floor general with the ability to hit catch-and-shoot threes, Kolek could solve a lot of problems for the Knicks’ second unit. Last season, New York ranked 23rd in assists from their bench unit with 5.5 per game and had the fourth-worst scoring output among all teams’ reserves with just 28.4 points per game. While fellow former second-round guard Miles McBride took big strides in his game, he struggled to generate a ton of offense when Jalen Brunson was off the floor.
Following the acquisition of Mikal Bridges, Donte DiVincenzo is likely to go back into a bench role, and Josh Hart will return to his bench spot now that they will have a healthy starting five. A trio of Kolek, DiVincenzo, and Hart could be a strong offensive combination that greatly improves the team’s bench scoring.
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Kolek could be the Knicks’ backup point guard next season
It is still unclear how big of a role Kolek will have on the Knicks next season. Despite signing veteran backup guard Cam Payne, SNY’s Ian Begley reported that Kolek is ahead of Payne on the depth chart, though he also mentioned that assuming McBride keeps his rotation spot, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau would need to expand his rotation to 10 players in order for Kolek to earn minutes, something Thibodeau hasn’t done in over two seasons.
However, the Knicks clearly value Kolek highly as evidenced by trading up with the Portland Trail Blazers to get him in the draft. If his Summer League stint is any indication of what’s to come, then the Knicks could walk away with the steal of the draft and have themselves another secret weapon off the bench.
