It's hard to believe a 21-year-old, recently selected first-round pick would have zero trade value. However, that's exactly where the New York Knicks are with Pacome Dadiet, and his preseason play certainly didn't do him any favors on this front.
Yes, the soon-to-be junior showed some signs of slight improvement in a few areas of play, most notably his willingness to step out and shoot from beyond the arc (attempted 3.4 shots per game) and his overall aggressiveness.
Of course, even with these factors at play, Dadiet's blunders completely overshadowed any positive takeaways that could be had from his five games played, with the biggest lowlight of all coming in Thursday's preseason finale, where he literally dribbled the ball toward the Knicks' own basket on a crucial, late-game inbounds play, turning the ball over in the process.
It is widely accepted that the Knicks took the wing with their 2024 first-round pick largely because he was willing to accept less than the standard rookie-scale salary for someone of his draft stock, not because they were necessarily blown away by his talent.
Needless to say, three years into his tenure with the team, Dadiet makes this more evident by the day, and now, with New York trying to shed salary to make room for two new signings, the Knicks are the ones paying the price.
Knicks may have to offload Tyler Kolek to sign Bruce Brown
The Knicks are getting so desperate to create salary space in their reported efforts to sign both James Wiseman and Bruce Brown that they're now considering the idea of moving on from Tyler Kolek to make the numbers work.
According to SNY's NBA insider Ian Begley, due to the lack of interest in Dadiet on the trade market, the belief is that New York will now "explore other deals" to shed salary, and specifically name-dropped Kolek as a potential trade chip.
Unlike Dadiet, Kolek has proven himself to be a quality role player throughout his tenure in the Big Apple, even logging double-digit minutes in multiple playoff games this past postseason.
Make no mistake about it, Kolek is no star. However, with his efficient 38.6 percent long-range shooting clip and solid 3.09 assist-to-turnover ratio registered last season, it's clear he's a solid rotation piece in the association.
Sadly, with the club's newfound desire to bring on Brown along with the presumed frontrunner for a standard deal in Wiseman, trading Kolek could very well be the most realistic and easiest way to create the space to do so.
Add us as a preferred source on Google