Tyler Kolek is fast-becoming the New York Knicks’ biggest developmental success story since Deuce McBride. Whether that’s enough to guarantee him a spot in the rotation moving forward remains to be seen. But we are about to find out.
Both Josh Hart (ankle) and Landry Shamet (shoulder) are expected to rejoin the rotation soon, potentially within the next week. Though Hart’s return shouldn’t impact Kolek’s role all that much, Shamet is an altogether different story.
Also: There’s a lineup tweak Mike Brown could (should?) still make that might actually turn Hart’s return into bad news for Kolek.
Somebody on the Knicks is going to lose minutes…
While New York may play it slowly when reintegrating Shamet, the goal will probably be to make him a prominent part of the rotation. McBride is the only other player on the roster who brings the same meld of three-point volume, long-range efficiency, and believe it or not, defensive effort.
Unless they make a trade, the Knicks can’t afford to marginalize a healthy Shamet. And if they’re giving him the almost 25 minutes per game he averaged in November prior to his right shoulder injury, they’ll have to take away ticks from someone—even multiple someones.
Kolek and/or Jordan Clarkson are the primary candidates to see their playing time dwindle. Even if New York leans into three-guard looks, there won’t be 20-plus minutes sitting around for everyone when the rotation is near full strength.
Now feels like a good time to note that Kolek did not enter Brown’s inner circle until after Shamet was injured. That, in theory, doesn’t bode well for him. But he’s shown enough to make Brown think twice about cutting his court time.
Since Shamet’s injury, the sophomore point guard is averaging 14.5 points and 7.6 assists per 36 minutes, while downing 37 percent of his threes. Although he has been far from mistake-free, the Knicks have also handedly won his minutes—both when he plays with Jalen Brunson, and when he plays without him.
New York could throw another wrinkle at Kolek
It’s not hard to build the case for the Knicks to prioritize playing Kolek over Clarkson, and perhaps even Shamet himself. The ball-handling and passing, while still a work-in-progress, are skills this team needs. This rings even truer when going up against defenses who bring obscene amounts of ball pressure.
Making this case gets harder if Brown futzes and fiddles with the starting five. The argument for McBride to start in place of Hart continues to write itself. Brunson’s defense is becoming a problem, particularly during stints with Karl-Anthony Towns. Tying more of his minutes to the team’s best point-of-attack pest should hardly be off the table.
Yet, if the Knicks go this route, it could put Kolek at further risk. Brown would really need to trust his jumper to liberally field him in lineups featuring both Hart, and Mitchell Robinson.
There are plenty of other ways New York can approach this rotation wrinkle. They could, as one example, favor smaller, Hart-at-the-4 secondary units in the face of Guerschon Yabusele’s relative unplayability.
However the Knicks ultimately play this, it’ll say a great deal about their faith in Kolek—or, perhaps, their lack of it.