He is SHOCKING EVERYONE…

He is SHOCKING EVERYONE…

He is shocking everybody as when the New York Knicks summer league season began, nobody expected this player to show up and ball out in front of new Knicks head coach Mike Brown like this. While also we are seeing the emergence of another young talent on this Knicks team while fans start to get seriously concerned about Tyler Kick for a lot of reasons and we’re going to break them all down. What’s up guys? Welcome back to Nicks Digest. It’s Chris here. We have a lot to go over so we’re going to jump right into things as usual. If you guys are part of that 66% that’s not subscribed to Nick’s Die, just make sure to subscribe for daily videos like this. We’re having a bunch of fun on this channel. We’re going to be back to releasing videos every twice a day, every day for a while while this off seasonason goes over. The summer league is in full swing. It’s very fun. Even if you’re not watching a ton of it, you do get to see some of our Nick players get some burnin while also just getting to watch basketball for a little bit before we do go on that second break of the off seasonason as well. But let’s jump into it and break it all down because there’s a lot to go over with the Knicks. When Mike Brown took over, we knew one thing. Rookies were going to be getting more playing time than they did in prior seasons under Tom Tibido. Now, as I said in the past, and at the end of the day, I know this isn’t something that’s always going to matter as much, but the Knicks didn’t have a a ton of highly drafted rookies when Tibs was there because they were mainly successful. In the one year they missed the playoffs under Tibs as coaching, they did happen to, you know, trade that 11th overall pick for the cap space to sign Jaylen Brunson. So, there wasn’t a ton of time where the Knicks had really high draft picks outside of Obie Toppen, who no, Tibs did not play at all. But now with the Knicks, we know that Mike Brown is going to be digging into his rookies, not caring where they were drafted because he is known for playing his young guys and he’s known for playing a deeper bench. He usually does run a 10-man rotation and because of that we are going to see a lot of the young guys and just a lot of players getting some burn and seeing our starters not get overworked which is great but also it comes down to the Knicks have a contending team and there’s a good amount of veterans on this squad. So, it’s not like every rookie or every young player on the Knicks is going to get a chance to play. And the Knicks do have that fourman squad who they drafted in the 2024 NBA draft on top of another rookie in Muhammad Diawara or James Naji depending on which one does get signed to the Knicks in a video that we are going to come out with either later today or sometime tomorrow. So, stay tuned for that. Make sure the post notifications are on. But, let’s talk about it because Kevin McCuller Jr. has been nothing short of phenomenal thus far. He’s truly shocking everybody as when McCuller was drafted by the Knicks, he was looked at widely as a steel for the team. Picked 56 56th overall. McCuller was in college for a long time. When back back in the high school rankings, I mean, the man was in the same class as RJ Barrett and what happened was he stayed in college for 5 years and dealt with a knee injury that really threw things off. Now, is there fully diagnosed what the knee injury was, but there was a lot of talk about it being a bone bruise, which is likely what happened is bone bruises can keep you out for a very extended period of time. See, Lonzo Ball and Kevin McCuller Jr. dealt with the same thing except to a lesser degree and not didn’t have unsuccessful surgeries, stuff like that. So, McCuller, he’s now back on the floor after missing basically an entire year of action and he has shown no sh no signs of rust at all thus far. I mean, you look at the way that he’s played thus far, and last game was really what we saw. McCuller looked awesome. He got to the line super well and connected on his free throws as he drove with aggression and was not afraid of contact already being 24 years old. And this was in route to a 30point game. Now, yes, he did have six turnovers and eight personal fouls. You could have 10 in the summer league because they’re really encouraging the young guys to not foul out while also getting two steals. He had an assist to his name and four rebounds. He was very very phenomenal. The scoring was excellent. And McCuller is viewed as someone who’s more of a Josh Hart mold. So to see him go out and score like this is an excellent sign cuz he also is a very good defender and he’s a stronger big guy. He’s 6’6, 6’7 range. So he does fit into that wing forward role that the Knicks do need another player for as their 10th man. Now yes, they are looking at other veterans as well to bring on to the team which could impact McCuller, but also if he keeps playing like this, he is going to get burned. Now, we also saw some other players show up pretty well and we are going to talk about Hucky in a moment because there is a lot to go over with him because there’s something I am upset about that doesn’t really have to do with Hucky necessarily, but also absolutely does. Now, Marjan Bochamp didn’t have a great game and Pakome. Did get hurt but was not playing too well. We are going to talk about the absolute disaster class that Kick put on and just a lot about Kohic in a bit later on in this video, but just rounding out the bench because there’s not going to be too much on them. Ude Baba is doing well in his short amount of minutes, but they’re barely playing him right now. He’s probably going to end up in the G-League with the Knicks. Dick Pate looks very good. I totally see the vision with him and with Mo Dawara, who’s also looking very good, very raw, and he’s going to take a while to develop, but the defense is already showing a lot of positive signs. It’s just a matter of if he could get that offense going at any point. Now, Anton Watson got some minutes. He might be on a two-way again, and outside of that, there’s not really much else to go over. So, we look at that and the big star is Kevin McCuller Jr. Obviously, it wasn’t even close. The man was just straight up awesome. And I mean, it was great to see. We saw that McCuller in the G-League in very limited games because he only played in like 12 games cuz he was dealing with an injury basically all season long was putting up 11.6 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 4.2 assists tonight. He was putting up those well-rounded numbers and looked very comfortable off the rip. Remember, this was a guy who was a first round pick before going down with these injuries that kept him out for an extended period of time. And the Knicks fans are absolutely loving it. I mean, we’re just seeing that everyone’s agreeing. Chris Persian mentioning that he’s been really impressive. Has a high motor connective tissue out there on offense, making good reads, decisive, active, and fundamentally sound. He did really, really, really well. I really love the way that Kevin McCuller Jr. was playing. And I mean, look, he looked phenomenal there. There was nothing short of it. He looked really good when we saw him go out there. He was active. He was he was driving to the hole the majority of the times. He was finding openings and taking the ball to the rack and really doing what he could to get things going for a Knicks team that’s been very stagnant throughout these two games thus far in the G-League or in the summer league, excuse me. Because so far, what we’ve seen with this Knicks unit has not been good basketball. They don’t look very good. and McCuller has been the one going out there and he’s been playing like the best player on the team thus far. He’s he put up a good first game and then the second game he really really got things going. And when it came down to it, McCuller looked great. Again, it’s a lot of drives to the hoop. He’s an athletic guy who’s showing that he didn’t lose that step after going down with that knee injury. And on top of it, it it’s very reminiscent of how he played in those NBA minutes and in those G-League minutes, too. When we look at McCuller’s stats, it’s a lot of attacking the hole and looking very ready to go. And I mean, look, we’re seeing just absolutely excellent basketball out of Kevin McCuller Jr. And I think it is a very good sign of things to come for the future of McCuller as well, who did speak about this a little bit. Just talking about the whole situation and what’s gone down with the injury and how he feels. And he said, “This is really my real rookie season. Last year, I just got to be able to get my feet wet a little bit. I love playing and I missed it for so long. Now it’s pretty much my rookie season. And Knicks coach, Jordan Brink, their summer league coach, said Kevin was solid. He’s got to take care of the ball a little bit better. And that’s part of the learning curve for him as a primary ball handler. You can see he had a mask on. He got hit in the head and then he got hit in the head again. That’s kind of how he plays. He’s a gritty player. He’s always in the mix with the physical contact. He fought through and I thought he had a pretty good game. I mean, I’d say a little bit better than pretty good, but clearly Jordan Branch is trying to motivate him to keep going. It’s obviously summer league, you got to keep chipping away, show that you do belong in that rotation come that actual season beginning. And he’ll definitely get his chances because then there will be training camp where he’ll get to show up and show out again. And on top of that, there will also be the preseason. And when it comes down to McCuller, he’s gonna end up on a two-way contract just because it’s the way the Knicks are designed right now. So, that is going to be an uphill battle for him, at least for now, though. But, if he keeps playing like this, the Knicks are going to know they have to do something to get him off of that two-way deal and get him on a full-time contract with this team. And they will do that. They’re not going to watch him be great and then just let him rot away on a two-way deal. And again, when you’re on a two-way contract, you can play 45 games in the NBA. And based on the fact that the Knicks are a contending team with a lot of veterans, McCuller’s main role at first, well, probably, unless he just keeps playing like this, it’ll probably be something along the lines of him replacing guys who are going down with injuries. Like, let’s say Ojan Nobi misses a game or two. McCuller doesn’t start in that situation, but he probably ends up in the rotation from that. Something like that. Or if one day if it actually happens and male Bridges misses a game, same deal. McCuller could find his way or if Josh Hart goes down. McCuller can find his way into the rotation that way. McCuller might have the easiest pathway to a rotational minute because he’s older than Pakome Doier and he looks a Pakome looks like he’s still fully getting it together. McCuller looks a lot more ready because he is 5 years older. So, I think that’s going to play a part in things at least for right now. And he likely has the easiest pathway outside of or similarly, but maybe a little bit easier because the lack of wings than look at a guy like Ariel Huckporty. And Hucky was also good. I mean, he had nine points and 13 rebounds. And I had an issue with Hucky. That’s not his fault. I actually love what what Hucky’s doing, but he’s kind of getting screwed over by his teammates a little bit because Huckorty is calling for the ball on that low block. He’s been adamant about trying to get the ball. He wants the ball in his hands cuz he knows he can create success and he’s not really getting a chance to show off his post game, which with the aggression that he’s had, it’s clearly something that he’s been working on a lot is getting that low block scoring improved. and he’s already shown good like good bits and pieces of it, but he clearly wants to show something and he’s not really gotten a ton of opportunities on that low block, which is annoying because he’s not Mitchell Robinson. He’s not a pure rim runner. He’s a guy who’s a skilled big who’s more similar to Isaiah Hartenstein than Mitchell Robinson. And I know people don’t always love the Hartstein comparison because it’s the German number 55 thing, but still it’s clearly there and they’re both lefty and they could dribble the ball. Hucky’s got good pass vision and he’s got some real talent. So, I would want to see him get more postups and I do think that’ll come with time for Hucky. Now, he put up 7.3 points and seven rebounds in the G-League, but again, that was more Moses Brown’s team when it comes to centers. So, that wasn’t exactly all on Hucky. Now, at the same time that all this is going down and we’re all happy, Tyler Kolic has been concerning. He went 1 for13 from the field and fans are wondering what is happening. Can he just not score the ball at the NBA level? Is that the unfortunate reality of the situation or is he just struggling right now? Because there’s been a lot of ups and downs, but Kix’s numbers when it comes to shooting efficiency have never been good with the Knicks since they drafted him. And it does have fans very concerned with this. Now, the Knicks do have two more summer league games after this. So, Kick does have time to really change this story, but it’s going to have to happen next game. the passing looks great, but when you can’t score and when your defense isn’t good, it’s it’s you’re not getting minutes in the NBA and you’re holding on by a threat at that point. So, he’s going to have to figure that out. And I believe in Col. I really do. I think he’s very smart and I think he’ll be able to find a way to score the ball. But guys, what do you think? Let me know in the comments down below. Like this video, subscribe, turn on post notifications. Have a great day and go Nick Knicks.

Chris Gallagher breaks down the emergence of a young Knick.

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