Ahead of the New York Knicks' third regular season game of the 2026-27 season, head coach Mike Brown asserted that no bench player's job was safe. The sobering reminder that things change quickly at the NBA level came before Sunday night's loss to the Orlando Magic, when Brown benched 33-year-old backup big man Andre Drummond for James Wiseman, the 25-year-old third-stringer, in the second half.
That change won't be permanent, both because Wiseman failed to impress and because Drummond gives Brown a significantly better chance to win as the backup to All-NBA big man Karl-Anthony Towns. Elsewhere in the rotation, though, backup guard Jose Alvarado sprained his left ankle. That made room in Brown's rotation for Tyler Kolek, who Brown leaned on for 15 minutes of action against the Magic.
In his time on the court, Kolek missed all four of his shot attempts. That included two looks from behind the 3-point line. But he also got a steal, pulled down three rebounds, and racked up nine assists without turning the ball over a single time. As of Monday, it's unknown how much more time Alvarado is set to miss after the team's Tuesday night game against the Detroit Pistons.
Brown, however, has consistently shown he's open to anything that will help the Knicks play better. If Kolek continues to make the most of the chances he gets in Alvarado's absence, the 25-year-old could emerge as a solution.
Brown has made clear Kolek needs to defend to play for his Knicks
The Knicks were missing both Josh Hart and Mitchell Robinson for their first game under Brown — last year's season opener. Perhaps as a result, or maybe just to set the tone on the infamous minutes police, the coach deployed 11 different members of New York's roster against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
One of them was Kolek, who scored seven points in a win. After the game, though, Brown told reporters about how the guard's defense was more influential with regard to his playing time than any other part of his skill set. He added that Kolek knew as much, too. While the young guard wasn't long for the coach's rotation, he did make a good enough impression to stay right in Brown's back pocket — even for big games like the NBA Cup Championship.
Alvarado came up big, several times, in the NBA Finals alone. He deserves the benefit of the doubt, and a grace period, when he returns from his ankle sprain. But in the meantime, Brown has another option who's ready to go. And Leon Rose's front office could very well be vindicated, early on in the season, for keeping Kolek over a free agent like Bruce Brown.
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