![\"Kelly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2270607399-e1785674115119.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Kelly Olynyk, New York Knicks<\/p>\n
The New York Knicks<\/a> are yet to sign a replacement for Ariel Hukporti. The franchise fell short in its pursuit of Jonas Valanciunas earlier this summer and saw the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> match their offer sheet to Moussa Cisse.<\/p>\n Fortunately for the Knicks, there\u2019s a wealth of big man talent remaining on the free agency market. According to Kento Kato of Knicks on SI<\/a>, 13-year NBA veteran Kelly Olynyk<\/a> could be the ideal target to round out Mike Brown\u2019s center rotation.<\/p>\n \u201cBy getting Olynyk, they\u2019d be able to diversify their center room much more,\u201d Kato wrote. \u201cHe may not have played much last season in San Antonio, but as recently as 2024, he was a regular rotation player providing some nice minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n Kato continued.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026Unlike some of the other big men available, Olynyk offers a different offensive profile. Previously mentioned options like Nick Richards<\/a> and Yves Missi are centers who do little to no damage outside the paint. Olynyk doesn\u2019t have that problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Olynyk is a proven talent at the NBA level. He\u2019s played in 842 regular-season games, averaging 9.8 points, 5 rebounds and 2.4 assists, shooting 36.9% from deep and 56.9% from two-point range. Olynyk also boasts 57 playoff games\u2019 worth of experience.<\/p>\n Knicks Also Lost Mitchell Robinson This Summer<\/p>\n Earlier this summer, the New York Knicks made the difficult decision to allow Mitchell Robinson<\/a> to leave in free agency.<\/p>\n When speaking with Spotrac\u2019s Keith Smith<\/a> at Las Vegas Summer League, a member of the Knicks front office shared their thoughts on Robinson\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, it\u2019s tough,\u201d\u00a0the executive said.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cYou want to keep everyone, especially after you accomplish what we did together. But you just can\u2019t. We\u2019re excited to have Andre (Drummond) in the mix now. He\u2019s as good of a backup center as there is in the league. We\u2019ll miss Mitch for sure, but all you can do is keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Robinson has since signed with the Boston Celtics, inking a three-year $47.3 million contract.<\/a><\/p>\n Nick Richards Could Be Knicks\u2019 Best Choice<\/p>\n While Olynyk makes a lot of sense for the Knicks, Nick Richards is arguably the team\u2019s best choice to plug the third-string big man spot. The 28-year-old is entering his prime years and would provide both size and athleticism off the bench.<\/p>\n Of course, New York would need to sell Richards on accepting such a minimal role within Mike Brown\u2019s rotation. After all, at his age, he\u2019ll likely be eager to land somewhere that can offer him significant playing time. Of course, at this late juncture of the offseason, Richards\u2019 options may be limited.<\/p>\n So, unless Richards plans on exploring his options away from the NBA, which most likely means around Europe, the Knicks could be a strong fit for him. At least that way, he could spend the season rebuilding his value while also contending for a championship.<\/p>\n If Richards can\u2019t be enticed by the Knicks\u2019 offer, then yes, Olynyk would likely become the ideal addition. After all, landing a veteran big who can space the floor, on a veteran minimum deal, is never a bad thing.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAdam Taylor<\/a> is a basketball reporter covering the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and Miami Heat for Heavy. He holds bylines for CelticsBlog, USA Today and Yardbarker. Adam also covers the WWE and AEW. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in creative writing from Open University. More about Adam Taylor<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kelly Olynyk, New York Knicks The New York Knicks are yet to sign a replacement for Ariel Hukporti.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-840678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840678","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=840678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}