Summer League Wrap Up

Kris Pursiainen shares his final thoughts on the Vegas Knicks

Bon après-midi depuis la belle Paris! Still waiting to see my first Guerschon Yabusele national team jersey, but otherwise this city has been worth the 42-year wait. I’ll have more to report in my vacation wrap up next week.

In the interim, Kris Pursiainen closes out his summer reporting on the Vegas Knicks today. As for weekend news, the only item of note is Marcus Smart reportedly reaching a buyout with Washington to join the Lakers. According to Stefan Bondy, New York couldn’t offer him the sort of role he was seeking, which is no surprise given the Knicks’ suddenly stacked bench.

Reminder: if you’re a free subscriber, this is the last full, non-preview edition of the newsletter you’ll receive until the eve of training camp.

Summer League Wrap Up

by Kris Pursiainen

Summer League is over. The New York Knicks went home with a 1-4 record.

They went to Las Vegas tied for the NBA’s worst odds of leaving the desert as champs. They technically didn’t have the worst team performance; both the Pelicans and Magic went winless in their five games.

The league did not view the Knicks’ Summer League squad as a draw either. The team played all five of its games in the Cox Pavilion. The smaller of the two UNLV gyms has approximately 15% of the seating capacity of Thomas & Mack.

1-4 at Summer League on its own means nothing. The Wizards are chock-full of exciting young talent and needed to get to their ninth man to have someone on the floor who wasn’t drafted in the last two years.

One is left only to make whatever they’d like of whatever they can. In this case, one is me. And as opposed to breaking down just a performance or two, especially given the nature of the final game against the Wizards, we’ll discuss my top-five takeaways from it all.

An honorable mention goes to the Knicks’ Summer League coaching staff. Even with recent changes leaving some assistants unsure about their status with the team for next season, the group was close-knit.

The challenge was to work together and foster a productive basketball environment where new head coach Mike Brown could implement some principles and judge the results. After spending the first two games connecting with management and players, Brown brought a pen and notepad to the rest of New York’s contests (and used them.)

The Knicks were one of ten teams that averaged fewer than 90 points per game at Summer League. Their -7.8 point differential over their five games was only underperformed by the Heat, Pelicans, and Magic.

The effort was there, though. The team prioritized pace, getting the ball up the court and into action much quicker than the 2024-25 Knicks would have. If the goal was to look more like a Mike Brown basketball team, it was achieved.

5. Dink Pate: firing the clay

I was surprised when Dink Pate went undrafted in the 2025 NBA Draft. He had buzz as a potential top-20, or simply first-round, prospect at this time last year. Pate attempted to enter last year’s draft after his G-League Ignite were disbanded and was blocked from doing so. A year with the Mexico City Capitanes gave him more experience playing against professionals; it also added a year to his draft age.

Pate is still only 19. He averaged 10.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game on 40.7% FG and 25.8% 3FG in 34 games with Mexico City. With the Knicks in Las Vegas, Pate averaged 9.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 17.6 minutes per game.

He made half of the 3-pointers he attempted. Given the hitch in his jumpshot, this was a legitimate concern coming into Summer League. It doesn’t look like Klay Thompson’s, but his jumpshot looked improved. He was comfortable getting shots up from deep.

His 20-point double-double against the Wizards was a sweet finish to the somewhat bumpy ride out there. He went 4-of-7 from downtown. His ten rebounds off the bench further combat narratives about his motor as a Capitan.

Pate is a legit athlete with two years of experience playing in the G-League at 19. The Knicks plan on being a good team for each of the next several years, meaning that they’re unlikely to make any selections in the lottery. Finds like Pate, players with athleticism typically not found outside of the first round, will always be worth their time.

Get this kid a two-way and to Westchester.

4. Tyler Kolek: Growing Pains

To properly challenge Tyler Kolek, the coaching staff gave him a fair bit of responsibility. The Knicks opened Summer League running an offense that heavily involved Kolek as a creator for himself and others.

By the third game, Brink had altered the rotations to ensure Kolek would have more ball handlers on the court and not be left to run the show on his own.

This was not indicative of failure from Kolek. His improvement as the games went on may have been more encouraging to those in charge than any individual performance of his.

Kolek averaged five assists and four turnovers in 26.6 minutes per game. He shot 32.3% from the floor and 17.1% on 3-point attempts. Working through the defensive attention he saw early on, and throughout Summer League, was most important.

Coming out against the Nets with a 23-point first half was sweet. He was confident and, I assume, showed everything the Knicks wanted to see. His performance late against the Pacers was tough, too.

Especially given the addition of Jordan Clarkson, the Knicks may not be planning for Kolek to have a consistent, heavy workload.

Letting him continue to face different kinds of adversity and learn how to get out of that mud on his own can only help.

3. Kevin McCullar Jr: I Love the Hustle

McCullar Jr. only played in two games this Summer League. He donned a mask in the second, bringing back NBA nostalgia from the early 2010s, because he took a hit at the end of the Pistons game. Despite the mask, a nasal contusion suffered against Boston held him out of the final three contests.

I can’t shake the feeling that what I saw while crammed into the seats at the Cox Pavilion in those first two games was incredibly real, or rather, translatable to the NBA.

McCullar Jr. averaged 27.8 minutes in those two, fateful Summer League duels (can you see my face?) and cleaned up with 21.5 points per game. His 30-point explosion against the Celtics is carrying a fair bit of weight there. But that game wasn’t the result of a flukey 3-point shooting performance.

His 10-for-15 showing that day implies decent offensive volume but only his 1-of-5 3-point shooting illustrates just how in-command he was when inside the arc. He turned the ball over way too much. He fouled even more. His job was never to be a point guard. The NBA is about winning closeouts now, as I’ll tell anyone or anything if they’ll listen, and McCullar Jr. honed skills that will help him do so against the best.

I covered the 6’6 wing in last year’s Draft Class and referred to him several times as reminiscent of Josh Hart because of his motor, hustle, intensity, and overall willingness to contribute whatever is needed of him. I don’t know how I feel about that comparison anymore. But I don’t have a better one just yet.

2. Pacôme Dadiet: Alright, Walt, You Got Me

Walt Perrin, you cheeky bastard.

In Las Vegas, I spoke to two people whose basketball opinions I value about Dadiet who believe to this day that he is one of the ten best prospects from last year’s draft.

He played two games and shut it down. This did not happen because he is viewed as being on the level of a Cooper Flagg or Stephon Castle. He sustained a left foot injury. Nothing exciting there.

But Dadiet’s 17-point performance against the Pistons was just so smooth. Yes, I probably have several things wrong between my ears that led to me putting that sentence together. But bear with me here.

We spoke earlier about how Pate represented the kind of athletic profile that teams struggle to find in the second round or among undrafted free agents.

I don’t know for sure that the Knicks took Dadiet with the 25th overall pick last year because he was willing to take less than the typical rate. This allowed the team to complete a roster without giving Brock Aller hypertension.

It allowed Dadiet to say for the rest of his life that he was a first-round draft pick. As Lex Luthor said in Smallville, “Relationships aren't always about love, Clark. Sometimes they're about mutual goals.”

Think about Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, & Co. for a bit. What archetypes of players complement each of them best? What archetypes of players complement them best as a group? What archetypes of players off the bench should they stagger their best talent with?

Dadiet measured up at 6’7.75 without shoes predraft, which makes you wonder if he would have been listed at around 6’10 if he went to Villanova. I’m leaving this year’s Summer League more intrigued by Dadiet than I was going into it. I think that means something given that he only played two games.

He was no sniper from downtown. I think that’s a great thing. Why, you might ask?

We’ll spin a hit record – a blast from the past – from a previous era to answer that one, courtesy of DJ Freddy Katz. ‘You just have to see him in practice.’

1. Mo Diawara: Built to Last

Let’s go back to the archetypal discourse we had concerning Dadiet. We can even go back to last offseason, or the one before it. We can turn into gnats and eavesdrop from the vents of any of 30 NBA war rooms.

Everyone is looking for long, strong, switchable wings. How does 6'9 with a 7'4 wingspan and 9'2 standing reach sound? Good? Alright.

We’re going to turn to my pal Teg for some assistance, here – because I do think there are some parts of Diawara’s game you just need to see.

Diawara was novel, exciting, and – at times – straight up laughable at Summer League. No, not laughable like that. I mean on passes like this.

Ball handling? He dabbled in it. Taking the ball up the court? It happened. Walking up into a 3-pointer? Here you go.

You wanted to see Groot- I mean, Diawara put it on the floor and make a read? Here you go.

Here’s Diawara putting it on the floor again, no Latto. And here’s an 80-second mix of more than just a handful of select plays.

Luc Mbah a Moute came to mind several times as an NBA comparison (the official thief of joy, sponsored by the Grinch) because of his ability to leverage his length into impact on both ends of the floor, even without the basketball. He has more size than Mbah a Moute did, though, which is tough to teach.

Mohamed Diawara averaged 7.0 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in Vegas. He fit into a team that didn’t have much structure and consistently stepped up to help provide it. He made the right reads off the catch and the dribble. He defended well, putting his size and length to good use.

I think he’ll be able to play small-ball center at the NBA level by year two or three. His ground bound style of athleticism isn’t going to change by then. It might be a situation where he’ll either be ready for that kind of role – or not.

To Conclude…

Thanks for riding along with me. These three newsletters were a blast to write. I hope they were a tenth as fun to read. That’d be pretty good!

The Knicks have stars. They have starters. They have key reserves. They did not enter Summer League looking for someone to emerge as the franchise’s savior. They did not enter Summer League looking for someone to emerge as a new addition to the starting lineup.

The Knicks went to Las Vegas to figure out what they had. That means both to figure how this group of coaches can complement Mike Brown and to figure out how this group of players can complement their top-end talent.

Ultimately, we’ll find out how Knicks brass truly felt about these five games from their rotational decisions. If something unexpected happens, like Dadiet being in the game-one rotation for the second straight year, it would be fair to think that 17-point outing against the Pistons on a hot summer day played a part.

You’re defined by what you do when nobody is watching. And at Summer League, nobody is watching. That’s the best part. And it’s why I’ll watch it forever.

NBA insider and proud Fordham grad Kris Pursiainen has been covering the Knicks for two years. You can check out his excellent NBA podcast here and his superb writing at Clutch Points.

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“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”