Did Tyler Kolek just earn his spot on Knicks’ NBA roster?

Did Tyler Kolek just earn his spot on Knicks’ NBA roster?

Let’s get y’all all caught up with the action with our very own and host of New York Got Game, Dexter Henry. Uh Dexter, what’s going on, man? Appreciate you hopping on with us, bro. I’m good, man. I’m good. You know, just trying to stay cool in this heat, enjoying some summer league basketball. I’m doing good, man. I’m doing good. All right. Another guy that’s doing good, doing well, Tyler Kolic. There’s a lot riding on the line for a lot of these guys, but my man showed out last night. 25 points, four assists, four steals. 23 of those uh points were by halftime. It was kind of like a bounceback game for Tyler the Creator. It’s only been a small sample size deck so far, but is Kick, I guess, making a good first impression on Mike Brown so far. Well, the first two games, Brandon, were not a good impression for Kick, right? He was only shooting 19% from downtown in those first two games. So, you’re a little bit worried with the shot. You want to see a player like him who’s a secondyear player be more aggressive. And I think he was trying in the first couple of games, but then some things went wrong, right? He had some turnovers and that sort of didn’t help his confidence. I think he was really in his head in those first two games, especially this Knicks summer league team’s not a good shooting team. They were missing a lot of shots. He’s a guy who’s a playmaker. He called him Tyler the creator. That is who he is. And he likes playmaking, getting the ball to other guys and seeing them make shots. That wasn’t happening. He was sloppy with the ball. he was turning the ball over. But then when you look about what he did on Tuesday evening against the Nets, he was still aggressive. He got his first three to go down. It was a shot that bounced off the front of the rim and then fell in. And he felt really good after that. You could see his confidence sort of lift up. And then you saw him getting in the paint, attacking, finding other guys. He was draining threes. As you said, most of those points came before halftime. He had a fantastic first half. I think what you you don’t want to take too much from summer league Brandon, but I think when you do see the struggles he had in the first game and how he b first two games, excuse me, and then how he bounced back in the third game, that’s the kind of fight you want to see from a secondyear player because what you want to see from those guys at summer league is to dominate and he did that in the first half. So, I think that’s going to make a good impression on Mike Brown. I think the coaching staff is going to look at that and say, “Hey, he struggled, but he showed us resiliency in bouncing back. Now, you want to see him finish strong in the fourth game, but it’s a good start to that towards making an impression on Mike Brown and the coaching staff. I love it. A true professional can handle adversity, and that’s what Tyler kind of did. All eyes are going to be on him. Also, again, I I mentioned earlier, a lot riding on the line for a lot of these guys that are on this roster. Marjan uh Bo Champamp had himself a solid night, 25 and five. Dexter, he wasn’t really on a lot of people’s radar to start summer league. Kevin McCuller Jr. had a big game the other night. So, how many of these guys on this roster do you think have a a real shot to make the the varsity team? And and who are those guys? Yeah, you know, Marshon Bochamp, glad you mentioned him because he had a really interesting game against the Nets, too. He started off struggling from the three-point land. He wasn’t hitting a shot and then he figured some things out. He started attacking the rim and he was finishing at a good rate. And for him, a guy like him, summer league’s really important. He’s been traded multiple times. This is kind of him fighting for survival in the league right now. Is he going to stay in the NBA and he’s really trying to get a roster spot. So, he’s one of those guys you’re talking about, Brandon, that really needs this to go out for him and he needed a good game and he had it there. So, you have to like what you saw from him there. You also talked about Kevin McCull Jr. who had himself a 30piece on Sunday evening. That was huge for him. He’s a guy who the Knicks like with a lot of upside was second round pick last year. Didn’t get to play much due to injury. We know about his offensive potential that we saw at Kansas. He’s a guy who can shoot. You like to see him be a sort of a 3 and D guy. He showed you a lot of what he could do with the ball in his hands. So, he’s another guy. I think both those guys I mentioned, Marjon Bochamp and Kevin McCuller Jr., they’re guys who have fringe shots in making this roster. Could they be a two-way player? Could they get one of those contracts? Yes, that’s possible. But we know the Knicks are probably looking to sign another player with the last veteran minimum spot. They talked about targeting another ball handler. Our own Stefan Bondi has reported that. So, it’s going to be very interesting. But for those two guys, they’re really fighting for things and they want to try to make a roster. We know the guys who are going to make this roster of young players. Kak is going to have a roster spot. Ariel is going to have a roster spot and Pakome Dier is going to have a roster spot. So, we know those guys, but guys like Marjon Bochamp, Kevin McCuller Jr., Mohamd who they picked this year but I think he will be a stash player. Those are guys fighting to see if they can get one of those two-way spots. Well, go even deeper for us because we got one game left and that’s on Thursday. Uh you mentioned Bo Champamp and McCull Jr. Uh who are some other guys that need to have a big night on Thursday night or detail what those guys need to do in order to kind of put some good things on tape to close out summer league? Well, you’re always going to want the guys I mentioned, right? The guys who are fighting to try to stay in the league that want to get those guaranteed contracts or those two-way contracts like the Marjon Bo Champs, like the Kevin McCuller Juniors. But I also will add the ones who are guaranteed roster spots still need to show out on Thursday night. So that means Tyler K. You have to build upon that 25 point performance that you had. And one of the things I liked from Kohak was also he was able to get in the passing lanes and he had four steals in that game. If Pakcom Dier plays, I know he has a sprained toe issue and it probably will sit him out. You want to see if he can dominate and have a game like you saw from Kolk on Tuesday night. And then Ario Hawky, who I think was more of a force in the second game. Can he still block shots, get rebounds, set good picks? He’s been an intimidator the last two games in rejecting some shots. You want to see more of that from him. He should be a dominant big man, dominating a lot of guys that aren’t going to play in the league here at summer league. So those guys I want to see stuff from too. And then like I said it’s the outside guys. Can you see something from a Kevin McCuller Jr.? Can you see continued improvement from Amarjan Bochamp? Muhammad Diawara who had some nice moments in the second game with the ball in his hands. Also Dink Pate is another young player who’s been trying to show what he could do. Shots not really falling from the outside. Can he show you some other things that he might be able to do? So listen, it’s the last game. Look, it’s a long summer league. guys want to get home. They’ve been in Vegas for over a week. But for the guys, whether you’re guaranteed a spot, Brandon, or you’re still fighting for your NBA career, you still want to finish strong. You always want to finish like a professional. So, I think everybody, it’s imperative that they play well on Thursday against the Pacers. I feel those dudes, man. After being in Vegas for a week, I want to go get home, too, but for other reasons. Dex, appreciate you hopping on with this, man. No, no problem, man. Yeah, you don’t want to stay in Vegas too long. I hear you on that. Thank you, man.

Dexter Henry, host of The Post’s ‘New York Got Game’ show, joins Brandon London to assess the Knicks’ showing at NBA Summer League 2025 and provides an outlook on which players who participated in Las Vegas have a shot at making it onto New York’s opening night roster.

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