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3 habits Knicks can carry over from championship run to 2026-27 NBA season – SNY
The New York Knicks don’t need to be way better, but they could be – Posting & Toasting
Jordan Clarkson re-signing with Knicks on one-year deal – SNY
2026 NBA offseason rankings: Knicks, Warriors, Trail Blazers among bottom 10 – The New York Times
Sources: Knicks executive Rosas leaving team after four years – ESPN
Knicks Front Office Member Announces Exit After 2026 NBA Championship – Posting & Toasting
“This was the series that turned Knicks fans (against Joel Embiid)” #Knicks #76ers #JoelEmbiid – Knicks Film School
Pod Strickland Episode 616 feat. Sam – Eastern Conference Over/Unders – The Strickland
Knicks Legend Gets Emotional Thinking About The Knicks Championship – Knicks Fan TV
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38 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.08.05)”
This Tyler Nickel news — that he’s thinking of going back to school, because he can make more money with NIL than he would on a two-way contract — probably isn’t a huge deal for this upcoming season. But it again speaks to this idea that the deep bench so far isn’t working out according to the FO’s plan.
Though it does potentially increase the odds of Kayil coming over?
One question, Alan, because i don’t know much about this new rules for young players. If he goes back to college, will we keep the rights for the player, or does the pick auto-incinerate the moment he decides to do that?
No, we keep his rights, Cyber. Technically, we still have James Nnaji’s rights. So if Nickel plays well in college next season, we could still add him to the 27-28 roster.
Thanks, Alan. Then i think that’s great news. I don’t think he’d get time with the big club, and i’m not a G-League believer. I think he’ll develop more by returning to college than playing in the G-League.
I’m not sure we keep him unless we sign him before the 2027 draft…
I’m still trying to figure out what is behind this new rule. Why would a team bother to draft someone who could just then go back to school, anyway? What does “declaring for the draft” mean anymore?
My guess is that when all is said and done he gets a roster spot.
Isn’t it, though?
From what Begley reported, they were told seemingly on the eve of the draft that dipshit’s edict was real.
Using 24 & 31 would have cost over $6M.
Apparently nothing!
But if we keep his rights, I’m actually fine with this because I agree he probably doesn’t get much playing time this season and college seems better for development than the G-League.
But if this is the way it’s going to be, they should allow players after the NCAA season is done to get called back up to their teams. Kind of like how we can call players up from the G-League.
My understanding is that at the time of the draft Nickel had finished four years of college, and people thought he didn’t have any more college eligibility. However, there was a legal decision recently that said that certain players were entitled to five years of eligibility in college and so now he has one more year of eligibility remaining assuming that legal decision doesn’t get appealed and overturned.
We have $3.2M left and 2 roster spots.
Nickel makes sense if we want to save money but means we can’t sign a 3rd C to an NBA deal unless we dig up a promising undrafted rookie and use part of the MLE.
From a roster construction standpoint, we could use him as a bigger backup wing in case Diawara doesn’t work out.
As for Kayil, if Nickel goes back to college, I think it only increases the chance of signing Kayil slightly. Apparently we can only afford one more full contract and still stay under the second apron. Since Kayil is not allowed to sign a two-way contract, signing him would mean we can’t sign a center unless the center is on a two-way contract. I guess we could keep Kayil and Robbins that way.
You can read the hoopshype article i posted before for more details on the Nickel situation.
I’ve mentioned this before, but my guess is that Leon/Aller are trying to figure out what to do with Dadiet. Do they salary-dump him now to free up space or hold on to his non-minimum contract for aggregation purposes? If they salary-dump him, that would leave 3 roster spots unfilled, and enough cap room for two vet’s minimums and a rookie minimum. However, if they hold on to him, they can combine Deuce, Dadiet, and one of the vet’s minimums when they become trade eligible (or Kolek) for something like $9-10M incoming, I think.
Why isn’t Kayil allowed to sign a two-way?
I believe it has something to do with his buyout provision in Europe.
It’s a CBA rule that a team can’t sign a player it has bought out to a non-guaranteed contract for a period of one year after the buy out.
Or so says the linked article.
https://roundtable.io/sports/nba/knicks/news/little-known-cba-rule-could-decide-jack-kayils-future-with-knicks
Posting and Toasting article link had some interesting points, including on the importance (and rarity) of continuity; I’ll note this one:
“They’re freakishly resilient, with more 20-point comebacks the past two postseasons than the other 30 playoff teams combined. They won the most lauded, longed-for championship possible in the Association, in the most impressive way possible. And their top-seven in minutes and 11 of their top-12 are back. What if they are a lot better?”
I agree with Timo. That’s what I read too in a different place. Two way contracts are always non-guaranteed, so he needs a regular contract.
I don’t see anytyhing wrong with stashing one kid in Germany and the other in NCAA. Bring them back next year, see how much they improved & go from there….
Raven, thanks for sharing that. The value is recognized but it’s not from continuity, – it’s from the belief that if they get the lead back under 10, they have a good chance because they have Brunson on offense surrounded by elite shooters and have the defense to get stops down the stretch. This is where loosing Mitch hurt…most nights they’ll have to go with OG at the five on the last defensive posession.
If we don’t think he’s 2026-2027 roster material, it’s not a bad deal for us. He plays another year in college while we retain his rights without a year coming off his first contract. Not much different than a draft-and-stash.
It’s definitely weird, though. I am 100% in favor of college athletes getting every last dollar they can out of their careers, but it seems like everyone would benefit from clearer rules right now.
I doubt Nickel actually wants to go back to college for the NIL money. Seems like the Knicks want to pay him as little as possible and he’s trying to generate leverage.
We talked the other day about Michael Pina working on a “Jaylen Brown All-Stars” team, listing five players whom analytics are down on, but he thinks are underrated. The list is now published. Argue away!
https://www.theringer.com/2026/08/05/nba/analytics-paolo-banchero-alperen-sengun-brandon-ingram
RJ Barrett should be 6th man
Director’s mentioned Dereck Lively a few times, and I think the player he was shaping up to be before getting injured would be the perfect acquisition, but I did a quick search on his injuries and holy shit. This guy makes Mitch look like Mikal Bridges. He’s played only 98 games in 3 years, missing 60% of his teams’ games. And his current injury doesn’t look great, either:
I thought he’d be prohibitively expensive but he actually seems like a buy-low candidate (and a good one if our medical staff can straighten him out).
“I thought he’d be prohibitively expensive but he actually seems like a buy-low candidate (and a good one if our medical staff can straighten him out).”
That’s a big “if,” though. I’d be in if we had more money laying around, but we don’t have enough to be able to afford to spend *anything* on a guy who can’t actually play for us anytime soon.
Yeah, Lively’s the answer if he weren’t completely broken and there was no second apron. Sort of like Mitch staying healthy and hitting free throws…
Except I’m not saying that.
I’m saying he might be the answer.
Can not, can not take a player with injury risk making him available. Like the team’s unit in that regard, but not here and now.
“Why can’t we just play Andre Drummond for four months and start playing him after the all star break?”
No guarantee he’ll be available then, either. And even if so, maybe not for long given his lengthy injury history, which even at his young age is more extensive than Mitch’s.
Why not?
This has actually been part of Leon’s MO. He got both KAT* & OG when their trade value was diminished by injury risk & availability.
Our medical staff has been excellent keeping them (and Mitch) healthy. If they clear Lively), I don’t know why any of us should have issues.
* I think people forget how big a risk KAT was. He had missed almost half of the Wolves games the prior two seasons.
True. But KAT was also much more of a proven commodity than Lively is. Lively has 98 total regular season games at 13/11/2 per 36 right now.
slightly interesting that ishbia just had to cut the div at uwmc and raise preferred from oaktree and eat two directors
Yep.
If they clear Lively), I don’t know why any of us should have issues.
Agreed and perhaps singing from the same hymn sheet. Just think Lively gets into the “can’t guarantee availability even if rested” area.
Kayil + $8M for Ighodaro?
Knew Your Knicks – whatcha doing?
not thinking of basketball and the knicks most likely…
came across a cool vid, and thought of you…
channel is for drummers, vid though is about touring, pov style…cool cuz the camera work and editing our done well, plus like an inside peak, done for 2026…
it was the music had me thinking of you…fun stuff…
Interesting for the suns or interesting for the housing market?
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