We Were LIED TO…

We Were LIED TO…

We were lied to as Knicks fans as there has been a ton of discussion about that rookie minimum contract and it became clear who all Knicks fans expected to get the job after multiple reports. But now things have changed rapidly for the Knicks as an insider revealed the truth behind this whole situation and who that spot is actually going to be for. And we are going to discuss all of that guys. But before we jump into it, if you guys are part of that 58% that’s not subscribed to Nicks Digest. Make sure to subscribe for daily New York Knicks updates. We have a lot of news coming at you guys right now. Some more free agency stuff and a bunch more as well that you do not want to miss out on. So make sure you’re subscribed to Nick’s Digest so you do not miss a single video, but let’s jump into it. There’s a lot to go over on the Knicks right now. As guys, right now when it comes down to it, we were pretty sure we knew what Leon Rose’s plans were in regards to that rookie minimum spot. After the summer league happened, it became very clear who the best Knicks rookie or best Knicks young player would be going forwards next season. Who, and as far as Knicks young player goes, one of the guys who hasn’t really gotten a ton of spotlight or played a ton of minutes, and that was Kevin McCuller Jr. McCuller, who was expected to be a first-round pick before going down with the knee injury, was drafted by the Knicks, 56th overall in the 2024 NBA draft. After that, it felt like McCuller was going to become this really good steal for the Knicks if he could get healthy. And then he got healthy and things looked good in the G-League for McCuller throughout his first year. And then after he played in summer league, he backed all that up, showing that he absolutely is ready to get actual NBA minutes and he was widely expected to get that final rookie minimum spot. However, things have now taken a huge turn because the truth is things are not as complicated as they or things are way more complicated than they initially seemed. Now, we figured because the Knicks that they have money for one rookie minimum deal and also one regular standard veterans minimum contract that the Knicks would sign one of Ben Simmons or Landry Shamid or maybe someone else, but likely one of those two and then on top of that, Kevin McCuller Jr., however, Keith Smith revealed the truth on this situation, and here’s what he had to say. So, Kevin McCuller has a year of service now because he was on a two-way contract last year. That would put him as a one-year service player. So, it’s a slight bump. It’s a little over $2 million that he would get. And then the big question is asked, can he do that second round pick exception? I’m under the belief, and I confirmed this with a handful of people around the league, that he is not eligible to do that because he already signed one contract. The second round exemption needs to be an initial contract signed by the player. And since it was not an initial contract signed by the player, now what we are seeing is Kevin McCuller Jr. is not going to be able to be signed by the New York Knicks for that fullscale contract because the Knicks do not have the money to do so. Because of that, the Knicks have to look towards someone who hasn’t played a single NBA game. There’s been a few different young guys who fans have gravitated towards and it feels like the top answer for who it would be is one of Muhammad Diawara or James Naji. The Knicks have looked at both guard and big man spots. Diara can play the four, he could play the five, he could probably play the three right now, though that’ll go by the wayside a bit as time goes on. And then James Naji, who is a pure center. So now things have taken a turn. Instead of having Kevin McCuller Jr., a versatile player who could play the two, play the three, play the four at points, be the lead ball handler if you need him to be. Now it’s going to be one of the way less proven Naji or Dawara, which fans, I mean, myself, I did not see this coming initially. What we all thought is that the Knicks would be able to sign both McCuller and a veteran to a veteran’s minimum deal. And now that is not the case. And that does have things a little bit different. I mean, McCuller only played in four NBA games. He averaged one and a half points and two rebounds. He didn’t shoot the ball very well, but it was four games. We really can’t crucify him for that at all. And in the G-League, he put up 11.6 points, five rebounds, and four assists after coming back from that knee injury. He looked very good, had multiple triple doubles, and looked really good at different points. However, ultimately he was back so late in the season, his minutes were not insane by any means. They were trying to make sure he’d be okay, be fully healthy. So, they did sort of hold off on really giving him that full scale like thrown into the fire situation. Want to make sure he’d be ramped up slowly so he would be healthy. That means that McCuller, who showed up in two G-League games before going down with an injury to his face, and he was good in him, he is not going to get that spot, which means he’s likely going to be headed towards a two-way contract. Now, McCuller put up 21.5 points, five rebounds, and two assists, shooting 51% from the field. And the Knicks had seen enough because he was dealing with that injury to the face. They decided, we know what what we have in Kevin McCuller Jr., we don’t need to keep putting him out there and risk him getting hurt. We could take him out. The Knicks did the same thing with Pakome Dier, who was dealing with a toe thing. So, they kind of stopped him from playing because they understood what they had with Dier and Dier is a longer term type of project deal. McCuller’s 24 years old and it felt like he was actually going to be able to get a chance to get some burn with the Knicks, but now things again they’ve changed and that makes things very difficult for multiple people going forwards as well. I mean we also see out of the two guys who they could bring in here. We see Muhammad Diawara who put up seven points per game, five rebounds and two assists with a steal and shot 40% from the field and 15% from three in the summer league as well. He definitely had his moments but looked very raw as was expected when the Knicks drafted Dawir. not sure if he’d come over or not. And then there’s James Naji whose minutes were the lowest they’ve ever been in the summer league when he was with the Knicks. They were lower than last year where he was getting around 17.5 minutes a game, getting four points and six rebounds. And his numbers did suffer. I mean, he still put up three points and four rebounds. The numbers were not bad and he didn’t miss a shot of the shots he took. His offensive rebounding was nice. His below the rim defense and offense was very impressive. He’s a good athlete. There is a lot to like about both these guys. And considering the Knicks could use another big man, James Naji or Mohamed Diawara would be a helpful ad to this team when it felt like it was a surefire thing that it would be Kevin McCuller. But that also has implications on a lot of other stuff going forwards as well that we have to consider. I mean, now that we know that Leon Rose and the Knicks will be signing someone who’s not McCull signing one of Diawara or James Naji most likely, that’s going to have an impact on the two-way deals. Right now, the Knicks have all three two-way contracts open. Now, McCuller is going to be on one. We know that now. probably I mean diara if he doesn’t get signed to the main roster will definitely be on a two-way contract as well but I’m expecting Muhammad Diawara to be the guy that the Knicks sign that means James Naji is likely headed for a two-way deal as well that means there’s one more deal left there’s one left that you could have and there’s a few different names that pop up I know for a fact who the most common one is and I’m not going to pretend like I don’t it’s Dink Pate Nicks fans are loving Dick Pate I see it too he’s a freak athlete he’s a actual point guard who’s 6’8 he’s confident he’s got all the tools to become a great NBA player. He’s raw and I think a two-way contract makes a lot of sense for him. But as long as we’re talking about Dink Pate, we’re going to address the obvious. There’s going to be a lot of Knicks fans who will be calling for Dink Pate to get that final roster spot with the Knicks, that final rookie minimum roster spot and say, “No, send McCuller. Send Diara. Send James Naji to those two-way contracts. Bring on Dink Pate onto this team. He’s a 6’8 point guard. It’s essentially the Ben Simmons situation.” Except I’m going to be honest, the people might not love that I’m going to say this. Ben Simmons right now is better than Dink Pate. Dink is still raw. He’s still figuring it out at the NBA level. Going to the G-League was probably the wrong move for him cuz he ended up on the Ignite, then spended a year with the Capitans down in Mexico City where Juano Anderson currently plays and said that he thinks think Pate’s going to be a future superstar. So, the Knicks, they’ll be able to bring on Pate at some level of whether it’s a two-way or main contract. I’m expecting a two-way deal to be the thing here, but that’s going to also implicate off training camp. The Knicks are waiting a little bit to figure out what exactly they’re going to do with these two-way deals and with this final rookie minimum spot. Obviously, the veterans minimum spot does have a lot of names that their hat or their hats in the ring. The most common ones again, Landry Sham, Ben Simmons. I expect it’ll be one of them. It could end up being someone else as well. We are going to do a video breaking down two other names. Once again, we did the Thomas Bryant video. We’re not trying to I’m not trying to over hammer those. cuz I know you guys don’t love them. So, like I do try to take it a little bit easy. But when it comes down to it, there is a name that Nicks fans are calling for a lot and I am going to do a video on it just cuz I’ve never talked about him on this channel. So, I think it’d be fun. I think you guys will enjoy that video. That’s not the point of this though. What we’re going to see likely I’m going to make a prediction right now for this fella. I think that the Knicks are going to sign Mohamd to that rookie minimum deal. Then I think they are going to sign Kevin McCuller Jr. to a two-way contract and look all season long to try to get him off of that and get him locked up longterm on some three-year deal where one the first year is guaranteed, the next two are not, and they’re really, really cheap deals. And then then they’re going to start playing McCuller a lot and try to thrust him into a rotational role. So, McCuller can just be a valuable Knicks piece while also on a nothing contract. So, it works out really well for the Knicks. On top of that, what I then expect is the Knicks to bring on Dink Pate on a two-way deal along with James Naji. And that’s how they’re going to go into this upcoming season with the idea that McCulla is going to be the first guy off unless obviously Pate or Naji just absolutely shows up. But it should be McCuller being the first one off with Mohhamd on the actual roster going into next season. What do you guys think about this? I’ll be honest. I figured McCuller would be in the same deal. I didn’t know that that two-way year was going to have an impact on him, but it does. So now we’re going to see what happens going forwards. Let me know what you guys think in the comments down below. Like this video. Subscribe. Turn on post notifications.

Chris Gallagher breaks down how the reports on Kevin McCullar Jr were dead wrong.

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