{"id":241246,"date":"2025-10-26T04:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T04:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/241246\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T04:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T04:09:11","slug":"tyler-kolek-making-most-of-first-true-knicks-rotation-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/241246\/","title":{"rendered":"Tyler Kolek making most of first true Knicks rotation opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tyler Kolek is making the most of his first true rotational opportunity with the Knicks that was not necessitated by an occasional injury to someone ahead of him.<\/p>\n

With Cam Payne in Indiana and veteran signing Malcolm Brogdon retiring during training camp, Kolek has served as All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson\u2019s primary backup during the Knicks\u2019 2-0 start entering Sunday\u2019s game in Miami.<\/p>\n

After notching seven points and two assists in 14 minutes in the season-opening win over the Cavaliers, the second-year guard played 13 minutes off the bench Friday night against the Celtics<\/a> with two points and four assists, albeit with three turnovers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to set up the offense and do what I\u2019m asked by Coach,\u201d Kolek said after Saturday\u2019s practice in Tarrytown, referring to new Knicks coach Mike Brown. \u201cCam Payne last year actually taught me something. He was the backup last year and just kind of learned from him.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing into this role, when you get into the game, you want to change it in some way. You want to change the speed of the game or get the ball moving a little bit more. You\u2019re there and you have the first \u2014 for me I have the whole first quarter or whatever it is seven or eight minutes \u2014 to really watch and dissect what the other team is doing and what we\u2019re doing as well on offense and defense. Just trying to come in and impact the game any way I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Head coach Mike Brown speaks with Tyler Kolek of the Knicks\u2019 win over the Celtics. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

Kolek was a second-round draft pick one year ago out of Marquette, but he played sparingly last season under then-coach Tom Thibodeau, 7.2 minutes per game over 41 appearances.<\/p>\n

Brodgon, a former Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man award winner, was signed to a nonguaranteed deal over the summer to compete for the backup point guard spot, but the nine-year NBA veteran abruptly called it a career in mid-October.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 24-year-old Kolek has received the first opportunity to run the second unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust taking it day by day. I wasn\u2019t really too focused on the outside noise of who is going to play,\u201d Kolek said. \u201cThose are Coach\u2019s decisions at the end of the day.<\/p>\n

Tyler Kolek battles with Jordan Walsh for the ball during the Knicks\u2019 win over the Celtics. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it was just every single day come into the gym and work hard and show what I could do. Hopefully, that would lead to some time on the floor\u2026 I had the whole training camp and a lot of the summer with the coaching staff and the preseason to really get a grasp of the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown believes the 6-foot-2 Kolek brings \u201cversatility and toughness\u201d and has showed an \u201cuncanny knack to pass\u201d the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can play-make for himself, for others. He gets us organized. He had a really good game defensively [Friday] night for the most part,\u201d Brown said. \u201cDuring the first stretch, he was really good offensively.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the second half, he wasn\u2019t as good, but he\u2019s a young guy, and, he\u2019s gonna learn and grow from any minutes that he gets, and that\u2019s what I like about him, because you know he\u2019s young, he\u2019s smart, but more importantly, he\u2019s tough-minded, so he can take any type of coaching or any adversity that he goes through at any time and he\u2019ll bounce back the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kolek added that he and Payne would talk \u201call the time\u201d last season, even breaking down what they saw from Brunson from the bench during games.<\/p>\n

Tyler Kolek celebrates after a Knicks bucket during a preseason game against the Wizards. Charles Wenzelberg \/ New York Post<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Cam were on the bench a lot last year. So you are watching the game and you are obviously watching Jalen. Learning from him is more kind of by watching,\u201d Kolek said. \u201cIt\u2019s not words back and forth. I can always bounce off questions and ask what he sees.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut when you are sitting there watching it live, me and Cam were sitting there, and he was like, \u2018You see this, this and this.\u2019 That\u2019s the best example of it \u2026 I have a great relationship with all the older guys whether on the floor or off the floor. It\u2019s really important for me as a point guard coming off the bench to have synergy with all those guys and knowing where they want the ball, how they want the ball, what plays they like.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyler Kolek is making the most of his first true rotational opportunity with the Knicks that was not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,1666,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-241246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york-knicks","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}