{"id":91372,"date":"2025-08-18T07:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T07:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/91372\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T07:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T07:59:08","slug":"this-knicks-player-might-be-packing-his-bags-sooner-than-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/91372\/","title":{"rendered":"This Knicks player might be packing his bags sooner than expected"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the New York Knicks are serious about signing two<\/a> veteran free agents to their roster rather than one, they\u2019ll have to execute a trade to do it. And in this scenario, Tyler Kolek becomes the most likely collateral-damage candidate.<\/p>\n

This is a departure from how most assumed\u2014and continue to assume\u2014New York\u2019s remaining offseason business will play out. The team seems positioned to add one more veteran free agent at the minimum, and then fill the 14th roster spot by signing<\/a> Mohamed Diawara to a rookie-minimum deal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking on an episode of The Putback podcast,<\/a> however, SNY\u2019s Ian Begley hinted at an alternative scenario. \u201dI would not rule out the idea that the Knicks want to bring in another veteran in addition to a [Landry] Shamet,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd the only way to do that is to make a trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knicks can\u2019t afford a second veteran without moving someone<\/p>\n

Begley is spot-on. Signing two veterans with more than two years of experience apiece would run the Knicks a little under $4.6 million. They currently have just $3.7 million in room beneath the second apron, which they cannot spend into after using most of the mini mid-level exception to sign Guerschon Yabusele.<\/p>\n

Shedding around $900,000 isn\u2019t that big of a deal in theory. But it\u2019s more complicated in this instance because New York can\u2019t do a straight dump without filling the outgoing roster spot. The league requires each team to have 14 players under contract, though they do allow squads to dip below this minimum for two weeks at a time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also slightly complex because the Knicks aren\u2019t overrun with expendable salaries. They can easily build larger trade constructions featuring Josh Hart, Mitchell Robinson, or even Deuce McBride. The problem is, they currently need those guys in the rotation. No one they sign with the minimum is going to replace any one of them.<\/p>\n

This may come down to the Knicks choosing between two sophomores<\/p>\n

New York would be choosing between keeping Kolek and Pacome Dadiet almost by default. Both are on effortlessly movable salaries, but converting either into a rookie-minimum slot carves out enough room beneath the second apron. (In the case of Kolek, the team would have to drop below the minimum of 14 players for about a week, but it\u2019s still doable.)<\/p>\n

By the Knicks\u2019 own admission, neither Kolek nor Dadiet is expected to be part of<\/a> this coming season\u2019s rotation. That makes them somewhat expendable in the interim. Dumping either one of them is tougher to stomach when looking at the bigger picture, and how barren New York remains of prospects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Forced to choose between the two, the Knicks would probably lean toward Dadiet. Their wing depth is scarcer than their backcourt rotation, and the fact that they\u2019re in the market for another guard at all says a great deal about<\/a> their lack of conviction in Kolek. At 24, he was considered more NBA-ready. Failing to crack the rotation as a third or fourth guard in Year 2 would be at least a minor letdown.<\/p>\n

This conversation becomes (somewhat) moot if the Knicks aren\u2019t invested in signing two experienced veterans to flesh out the roster. If that is the plan, then a trade is coming\u2014and the player most likely to head out verges on crystal clear, if not painfully obvious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the New York Knicks are serious about signing two veteran free agents to their roster rather than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-91372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}