Choosing Landry Shamet to complete the roster coming out of training camp last year turned out to be one of the smartest decisions made by the New York Knicks. He ranked among the NBA’s best contracts, contributed to a championship run, and then took less money to stay in the Big Apple this summer.
Spoiler alert: The Knicks aren’t going to recapture any of that end-of-roster magic this year. Look no further than the names they’re being linked to if you’re wondering why.
Big man Drew Eubanks and once-upon-a-time sharpshooter John Konchar are on New York’s expected list of training-camp invitees, according to SNY’s Ian Begley. Tyler Nickel, the 55th overall pick in this year’s draft, should also find himself competing for a roster spot—provided he doesn’t wind up going back to college.
Other names will invariably be added to the list, too. Perhaps Maxey Kelber gets a call if he doesn’t head back overseas. Kelly Olynyk is floating around out there as well.
Given how last year’s training-camp battle between Shamet, Malcolm Brogdon, and Garrison Mathews panned out, it’s only natural to hope the Knicks can find another diamond in the rough—not necessarily the next Landry Shamet, but a late-summer/early-fall success story. While that’s understandable, it’s not realistic.
Landry Shamet was a unique case the Knicks can’t repeat
Although Shamet’s emergence last season was a pleasant surprise, it hardly came out of nowhere. He was on the Knicks to close out the 2024-25 campaign. His role wasn’t nearly as prominent, but he showed flashes of deadeye shotmaking (39.7 percent clip from three), and scrappy defense.
Even if nobody expected him to become, say, the seventh-most important player on the eventual champion, he provided a unique glimpse into higher-end play.
Let’s also not forget that he was viewed fairly highly around the league after getting drafted in 2018. Despite getting thrown into a few trades, he delivered plenty of promising stretches with the Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Clippers, and Brooklyn Nets.
Nobody the Knicks will realistically bring into training camp has ever shown that type of upside.
The Knicks will have to adjust their expectations
Eubanks comes closest. He has almost always finished relatively well around the basket, and provided dabs of baseline rim protection and offensive rebounding.
At the same time, Eubanks also could not get consistent run on the Sacramento Kings last season. If he secures a roster spot and ends up usurping Andre Drummond in the backup-center rotation, something has probably gone horribly wrong with the latter.
Hardly any other names the Knicks could look at are worth clocking. Konchar has never played enough, for long enough, to validate his reputation as a knockdown shooter. He’s also undersized, at 6’5”, if you’re looking for him to soak up true-wing minutes.
Meanwhile, other options like Olynyk, Kleber, Gabe Vincent, Ochai Agbaji, Kevin Love, et al. are years removed from their last display of high-impact basketball. And while Nickel may prove to be a nice find at the end of the second round, expecting him to be the next Mohamed Diawara discovery makes little sense when he fills neither of New York’s biggest holes: another backup center, or backup wing.
That’s not the end of the world. Training-camp deals are designed for fringe-NBA players. The Knicks hit a home run last year. The odds of them doing so again are slim to none, particularly after going through the pool of candidates. If they’re going to acquire anyone who cracks the regular-season rotation before opening night, it’s more likely to happen via trade.
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