What is the story about?
The SummerKnicks wrapped up their scheduled Las Vegas slate with an 87-77 loss to the SummerWarriors, ending their Sin City run with a 1-3 record and a consolation game against the SummerMavs later today.
No recap nor scenes, so here’s a kinda sorta summary of the most important performances we watched, along with a bunch of other links and notes.
- The Knicks roster is mostly settled, but there are still a couple openings in the 15-man squad and one of those must be filled before the start of the regular season:
- It keeps looking like Tyler Nickel has the cleanest NBA skill and could contribute buckets off the pine with gusto.
- German will-he-won’t-he-stash Kayil has the most intriguing upside and has had the highest of highs and lowest of lows through Summer League.
- Jaden Akins had the biggest scoring game and explosion, but that might as well had been a one-off thing.
- Big man Liam Robbins fits the biggest positional need, but he hasn’t been any convincing.
- Dillon Jones was already in tow last season has the Brown’s trust advantage.
- Pacome Dadiet looked good for a minute but not so much the rest of the way, as well as having a fourth-year option deadline looming.
- Akins was the man of the minute on Thursday, coming off the bench and dumping 21 points on 9-of-20 shooting and 3-of-8 from three, but his late case for one of New York’s two-way slots might have come, well, too late. At the end of the day, Akins had scored two points in his previous appearance.
- Nickel scored nine points, all from three, and remains the most reliable shooter and perhaps even all-around player in the SummerKnicks roster at this point, even though he’s got a clear 1A skill and then a bunch of Ds elsewhere is his toolbox. The defense looks competitive enough—against similar SummerTeam opponents, mind you—but it’s increasingly likely we see Nickel here and there from October on.
- Robbins continued to make his own case to land one of the spots as the Knicks third-string center with 13 points, nine rebounds, four blocks, and two assists, in a cool performance with numbers across the board.
- Kayil came down to earth and looked like a 20-year-old second-round pick, finishing with four points on 2-of-9 shooting and missing all seven of his threes. That said, put up a solid stat line with five rebounds, four assists and one steal, but the offensive shine disappeared a bit and he committed three turnovers.
- Dadiet had another rough shooting night, scoring nine points on 3-of-12 from the field and 1-of-7 from deep. The Knicks have until Oct. 31 to decide on his fourth-year option, and the evidence so far has not exactly made the $5 million question easier. If anything, New York could pick it up to move him later if they fear/don’t want to lose him for free in free agency next July. Not sure if you can dump Paco for anything in return, though.
- Jones finished with five points, seven rebounds… and seven turnovers. Not six, seven. He remains valuable to Mike Brown behind the scenes and has two championship rings in two seasons, but Summer League point-forward Dillon Jones may need to return to the laboratory.
- Jalen Brunson spoke at a Wall Street Journal’s sports event, per the New York Post, and revealed the biggest challenge facing the Knicks as the reigning champs. Target on thy back! Also, as for Mitchell Robinson, Brunson said he will always love him, except for a very precise 192 minutes.
“How are we going to evolve as a team? How are we going to figure out what’s the next
step for us? And that’s going to be a really big, important question coming in the training camp: How are we going to be better? How are we going to literally look at the trophy, know that was last year and then forget about it? And so, it’s going to be a very interesting training camp to see where our mind’s at. But I’m excited for the challenge.”
- The New York Post dropped their early NBA power rankings following the end of free agency—pending LeBron James’ decision—and ranked the Pacers as the biggest threat for the Knicks in the East… while burying the ECF Cavaliers all the down to No. 16.
- LeBron James gave the Knicks some significant praise during his live Mind the Game appearance at Fanatics Fest, naming the Knicks’ “unsung hero” of the entire championship run and giving Mike Brown big kudos for his tweaks.
- Tyrese Haliburton tried to get LeBron to announce his decision during Thursday’s live “Mind the Game” podcast, without luck.
- A Queens kid got more out of LeBron than Haliburton did.
- Adam Silver revealed why the NBA has not finished next season’s schedule.
- Pat Riley is not being subtle about Miami’s intentions.
