Off and Sputtering

The Vegas Knicks have two games under their belt. Plus, a special announcement about the summer.

Good morning! We have a jam-packed newsletter today, so let’s get right to it without further ado, starting with some special announcements…

Summer at the KFS Newsletter

Howdy folks. After what feels like a nonstop nine and a half months, we’re finally nearing a bit of a break. That doesn’t mean the KFS Newsletter stops though. Better than that, I have something special in store for the roughly 11 weeks between now and the start of training camp.

More on that in a moment. First up, let’s get some logistics out of the way. As you’re reading this, I’m in Italy on a family vacation celebrating my mom’s 75th birthday. It’s something we’ve all been excited about for some time now, and I look forward to reporting back with a full travel diary when we return late next week.

As for what’s going to happen in my absence and upon my return…

Summer Schedule

Starting this week, the KFS Newsletter will move to the usual reduced summer format. For Full Subscribers, you’ll be getting three newsletters a week, likely on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, plus any special editions as required. For Free Subscribers, barring any big breaking news, next Monday will be your FINAL newsletter until the Monday before training camp opens. If you are a free sub and want to continue getting your blue and orange fix through the summer months, you know what to do:

Introducing: 25 for 25

This will now be (I think) the third time I’m shamelessly stealing a concept from my favorite podcast, The Big Picture, for use with KFS. If anyone reading this knows Sean Fennessey, please convey my open invitation to the podcast so I can thank him in person.

Just as The Big Pic has been running a special podcast series dedicated to the best 25 films of the last 25 years, we’ll be doing the same thing here at Knicks Film School by ranking the best 25 Knicks of the last 25 years. This will be a dual endeavor between the podcast and the newsletter, but with one key difference: while the podcast rankings will be based on the opinions of everyone at KFS, the rankings here are purely my own.

As such, I’ll be penning odes to my personal 25 best Knicks of the last quarter century, starting with No’s 24 and 25 next Wednesday. I’m already looking forward to this generating some spirited debates in the comments section over the summer.

Guest Authors

For the fourth summer in a row (!!!), the great Ray Marcano will grace the Knicks Film School Newsletter with his writing. Mr. Marcano, who recently added to his overflowing list of awards and accolades when he was named the best columnist in the state of Ohio by the Society of Professional Journalists, has a mix of columns in store for your delight, including “A Knick You Knew,” “5 Questions With…,” trivia, and more. Reminder that Ray also pens the premier bourbon newsletter on Substack, The Bourbon Resource.

In addition to Ray, KFS intern turned Knicks beat reporter and NBA insider Kris Pursiainen will be covering Knicks action at Summer League, starting today, and continuing this Wednesday and next Monday. We’ll try to get these newsletters out at the usual 5am time, but bear with us if they arrive later than usual (like today). For more of Kris’ excellent content, you can check out his excellent NBA podcast here and his superb writing at Clutch Points.

That’s it! Let’s talk about those Summer Knicks…

Off & Sputtering

by Kris Pursiainen

LAS VEGAS – The New York Knicks began their 2025 NBA Summer League run with two losses. The Detroit Pistons, a 2-0 team through its first games, beat them 104-86 on Friday. The Boston Celtics beat New York 94-81 on Sunday.

In both games, the Knicks committed 27 total fouls as a team. Their opponent fouled them 31 times each game. There were 33 combined turnovers between the Knicks and Pistons. 38 between the Atlantic Division rivals.

C’est la Summer League.

Most know about the daily marathon of games taking place simultaneously in two gyms on UNLV’s campus. An opportunity to see novel talent play professional sports, some for the first time.

Teams, agents, players, and brands all meeting in one city makes it relatively convenient to do business, too. The Knicks seemingly decided on at least one member of new head coach Mike Brown’s staff as they plan to hire Riccardo Fois, per Fred Katz.

At Summer League, NBA teams control aspects of the live-game environment in which their players are proving their worth. For rookies, players on new teams, or teams with new coaches, it may be for the first time.

The Knicks came to Summer League with three players on their July roster having guaranteed spots for October and on. The starters in both games have been all four of the players the team drafted last year and MarJon Beauchamp in the veteran shot-hunter role that Duane Washington Jr. had previously been cast in.

The results thus far have been poor. New York wasn’t expected to make any noise in Las Vegas with their Summer League roster. Their +8000 odds to ‘win it all’ going into the action were tied with two other teams for worst in the league. But the struggles of the players on the roster to fit with each other and collectively provide what the team needs on both ends have been real.

The Knicks’ problems have been directly tied to individual players’ shortcomings. It can be difficult not to point those simple things out. But Summer League is where to find out just how much responsibility a player can handle. Pushing them to their limits allows teams to not only learn more about their abilities on the court, but how they deal with adversity on and off of it.

New York has been trying to play fast. Jordan Brink, the Knicks’ lead coach at Summer League, told reporters that directive came from new head coach Brown.

“We’ve communicated foundationally on what we want to do on both sides of the ball,” Brink shared. “A huge part of it, and he [Brown] talked about it with you guys [reporters] in his presser, is just playing fast.”

Tyler Kolek is a smaller guard with a mature feel for the game and the ability to get the ball from point ‘A’ to ‘B,’ wherever each of those are. Seeing him aggressively hunt shots would indicate the team wants to prepare him for NBA minutes by ensuring he can punish defenses as a scorer.

Pacome Dadiet is an increasingly-smooth operator who will turn 20 years old a week after Summer League ends. He is long and Summer League is a great opportunity for him to work on breaking down defenses with the ball and event-creation on defense – leveraging his length and mobility to thwart offensive gameplans.

19-year-old Dink Pate went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft after playing two full seasons’ worth of games in the G-League against grown men with NBA experience. He’s a mystery box of tools that hasn’t shown a consistent enough ability to either shoot the ball or shut his matchups down for early NBA minutes. But a Summer League stint with the Knicks is an opportunity for Pate to get on the floor as one of his team’s key reserves and not its featured scorers.

Each player on the Knicks’ Summer League roster inherently represents the organization’s philosophy to some extent, whether that’s the several second-round draft selections they traded to position themselves to draft Kolek or bringing in Pate’s tantalizing tools and athleticism in such a low-risk fashion.

It seems the front office is on a quest to leverage their time in Nevada and discover if any of these players can compete for the final roster spot or three available two-way contracts. But without a guard, or player of any archetype, that can consistently pressure the rim? Vertical spacing threats like Ariel Hukporti are left clogging the lane, making it difficult for non-shooters to make the most of their chances.

Without a knockdown 3-point shooter? Players have a harder time creating good offense when the defense isn’t respecting their teammates as shooting threats. Stop me if you’ve heard this before.

The environment being fostered on the court has led to the Knicks tallying more fastbreak points than their opponent in both games, even if they only got Detroit by one. One would think that could qualify as playing fast, in a way. It could also have been a result of the sloppiness of each game resulting in enough turnovers being committed by each team for transition opportunities to pile up.

The point is that the evaluation has been unconventional through two Summer League games. These games, in my opinion, are so heavily swayed by ‘luck’ – randomness and variance.

Mohamed Diawara, the Knicks’ draft pick with the 51st overall selection this year, has both the length and functional size to make him stand out. He leverages his lanky arms tactfully on both ends of the floor, with low pick-up points and conventionally unlikely contests all around. He had seven points and seven rebounds against Detroit before getting a six-minute bump in playing time against Boston. He had five points, three rebounds, and two steals against them on Sunday.

Dadiet took over garbage time against the Pistons, finishing with 17 points on 8/13 shooting. Kolek had 10 points, six rebounds, and eight assists in that game, but more on him in a second. Kevin McCullar Jr. starred against the Celtics, chipping in 30 points, four rebounds, and two steals on 10/15 FG. It was also a mixed bag, as his six turnovers and Summer-League-exclusive eight personal fouls showed. But he gave the Knicks whatever heartbeat they did have in that one.

Kolek’s lack of production has spurred plenty of discussion amongst Knick fans about topics ranging from wondering why the team traded up for a small guard that ‘can’t’ play next to Jalen Brunson to wondering if Tom Thibodeau was unfairly punished for his lack of willingness to deploy players like Kolek more often.

In short, Kolek indeed turned 24 in April. And the Knicks sent three second-round picks to the Portland Trail Blazers to draft him last June. The 1/13 FG, 0/6 3PT, four TOV stat-line is a jarring read. For someone who needs to become a hybrid on-ball and off-ball threat to consistently win closeouts and thrive in the modern NBA, Kolek’s struggles with both on Sunday weren’t encouraging.

It is worth noting that for as much grief as some fans gave Thibodeau for not playing Kolek, and the playoff performances of Cam Payne and Delon Wright against the Pistons and Pacers make the discussion irrelevant, the fact of the matter is that Kolek played just 302 minutes as a rookie including the playoffs. All young guards need time to work through things.

That said, I might just end each of these newsletters I have the opportunity to write for what I know is an incredible group of readers with this double-bladed reminder: it is just Summer League.

🏀

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”