It’s only been 27 days since the Knicks lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy on a warm Saturday night in San Antonio, but in those four weeks, a lot of things have happened.
From the NBA Draft to free agency to the second apron math in trying to retain the championship core, it feels like the offseason is flying by. But while we’re still over three months away from Ring Night at Madison Square Garden, the orange and blue will be back on your screens tonight.
The Knicks begin a five-game Summer League journey
tonight in Las Vegas against the crosstown rival Brooklyn Nets in a game that will simultaneously see pretty much three-quarters of one roster and zero rotation players on the other. That’s the state of these two franchises.
If you need a refresher on who’s on the team, refer here. Note that Jack Kayil, the team’s No. 39 overall pick, was added to the roster this week after some contract issues overseas.
Despite some noticeable absences on the roster and the team’s win-now prerogative leading to little young depth even eligible, there are still some storylines to watch starting tonight and throughout the next two weeks.
The Mo Diawara Show
The player on this team with the best chance of being a main contributor in the defending champion’s rotation is Mohamed Diawara. After all, they wouldn’t have the urgency to give him a four-year deal as a restricted free agent if not so.
This won’t be a Tyler Kolek-esque summer offense, where he’ll both run the offense and lead the way in shot attempts and scoring, but expect Diawara to get a lot more on-ball opportunities and work on his shot creation, playmaking, and three-point shooting, all of which he flashed in an impressive rookie year.
What I want to see from Diawara is a better slashing ability. He got played off the floor midway through his rookie year when he was really starting to gain steam because he wasn’t an automatic shooter and wasn’t able to consistently attack the gaps in the defense’s ghost coverage, which is what keeps Josh Hart playable. We didn’t see him dunk much, and his touch around the rim was suspect in limited action last year.
Diawara has the potential to be better than Hart because of his incredible size and length, but in a season where he’s going to be more of a connector and situational wing for this team, it wouldn’t hurt for him to do Hart-like things to carve out a role next year.
Can Pacôme Dadiet Take Advantage of the Opportunity?
Ah, Dadiet. The Knicks’ human victory cigar during their absolute bull rush through the Eastern Conference.
They’ll never tell you directly, but the reason why Dadiet is who the Knicks selected with their only first-round pick in the last five years was to save money. He took a very low amount with his rookie-scale contract to avoid being Eurostashed, and his sacrifice allowed the team to acquire Karl-Anthony Towns and stay under the second apron in 2024-25.
The team picked up his third-year option this offseason at a fairly manageable $2.98 million, but there is possibly no player with more to prove in this time than Dadiet, who will get a featured role alongside his longtime friend and countryman Diawara.
By the end of October, the Knicks will have to decide on Dadiet’s $5.37 million team option for 2027-28. For a player who has not received any consequential playing time through two seasons and on a team that seems to do everything possible to stay beneath the second apron, this seems like a decision that will go against Dadiet. After all, he’d become a restricted free agent in 2027 anyway if the decision backfired.
The only thing Dadiet can do from now until Decision Day is take advantage of opportunities in Summer League, training camp, and the preseason. There’s likely nothing he can do to become a true rotation player right away in 2026-27, but a strong summer could inspire confidence in him going forward and make him more than just a roster placeholder.
Consistently knocking down threes would constitute a realistic success story for him in this year’s Summer League. He’s never done that consistently in either the G League or his garbage-time cameos, and, as we all know, the clearest path to playing time for lanky wings is to be a 3-and-D role player.
The Rookies and their Contracts
Now that we have confirmation that Kayil will be in town, the Knicks will have both of their second-round rookies at Summer League with their futures very much in question.
For both players, a two-way spot is attainable, but an impressive offseason could also earn them a standard deal like Diawara did last year. The Knicks currently have 13 players rostered and will likely not have enough money beneath the second apron to get to 15 by the time the season starts. As of now, you assume that a veteran center will fill the 14th roster spot and that they’ll wait for No. 15 in the buyout market, but could Tyler Nickel change that by looking like an NBA-ready three-point sniper out of the gate?
Kayil wants to stay in America; he’s made that clear, but there’s no guarantee he will. I assume he’ll get a chance to run the offense as a combo guard that the team is more invested in than some of the other guard options. Early inclinations suggest that he’ll be headed back to Germany for this upcoming season, but if he looks readier than anticipated, there’s plenty of two-way space for him.
Can a Wild Card Make Their Way to Training Camp?
Take your pick for this year’s Jaylen Martin, Dmytro Skapintsev, or MarJon Beauchamp.
There’s two-time NBA champion Dillon Jones, who’s still two-way eligible but hasn’t inked a deal yet as of Friday morning.
There’s a seven-footer with NBA experience in Liam Robbins, who played 13 games for the Bucks in 2024-25. On a team with an opening in the center depth chart, could he turn heads?
What about the local kid, St. John’s Oziyah Sellers?
Or Westchester Knick and brief Grizzlies call-up Toby Okani?
Hell, maybe they want to add another Nova Knick in Lance Ware, who was pretty unremarkable in his one year at Villanova but counts all the same.
Odds are, a bunch of these dudes will be in Westchester this year. The question is whether anyone can get an Exhibit 10 contract to join the big boys at training camp.
Can the Knicks Complete the Treble?
The Knicks won the 2025 NBA Cup and the 2026 NBA Finals. Can they cap it off by taking all the hardware in Vegas?
Probably not. Unless Diawara is actually Pascal Siakam.
Even then, I’d be surprised if they played as well as they did a few years ago, when they made the Summer League Championship Game with guys like Deuce McBride, Quentin Grimes, and Jericho Sims.
