What Happens in Vegas...

...stays in Vegas? The biggest question surrounding the Summer League Knicks is whether anyone on the roster will make an impact next season.

Good morning! We got some news on the associate coaching search yesterday, with James Borrego staying in New Orleans, per Ian Begley. On the heels of Stef Bondy’s report that Rick Brunson will be demoted from associate head coach to a normal assistant, there remains an opening on the staff that needs to be filled.

On that note, let’s talk about some young Knickerbockers…

What Happens in Vegas...

My, oh my, how times have changed.

Not long ago, the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League was the source of as much (if not more) excitement for Knicks fans than the actual games starting in October.

That excitement goes back two full decades, to when Nate Robinson and David Lee dominated the offseason proceedings as young players, culminating in a 2007 Summer League MVP for Robinson.

For me though, the NBA’s annual sleepaway camp became a regular part of my lexicon much later. This week is actually the 10-year anniversary of my first big SL memory, when a lanky Latvian teenager walked into Vegas and immediately raised the antennas of the entire league.

Before that week, Kristaps Porzingis was just a bad Drago impersonator who made a nerdy kid cry on draft night. By the time he left, the entire franchise had received a major shot in the arm. They had something, even if we didn’t quite know what it was yet.

We saw an even more outstanding performance two years later when 9th overall pick Kevin Knox strutted his way to All-NBA Summer League First Team honors, but it was a different Knick rookie who grabbed the “what is this guy???” torch from KP.

Mitchell Robinson looked like a newborn giraffe for most of his 2018 summer jaunt, but you understood why many thought he had top-10 talent coming into the draft.

The following summer, Robinson took Knox’s place on the All-Summer League First Team as young Kevin was having his soul snatched by Zion Williamson.

Of course, it was Williamson’s Duke teammate whose 2019 debut was the source of more excitement than even Porzingis provided. After a 7-for-33 start from the field over RJ Barrett’s first two games, anticipation quickly changed to consternation. Thankfully he steadied the ship over the rest of his stay in Vegas, and (mostly) calmed nerves heading into his rookie season.

After COVID put the festivities on pause for a year, 2021 gave us a third Knick to make Summer League First Team as Obi Toppin looked ready to make a leap in year-two. The next summer, Quentin Grimes lit up Vegas from behind the arc, earning his ticket to First Team honors in the process.

Throw in some memorable moments from Immanuel Quickley, Deuce McBride, and the interminable Iggy Brazdeikis, and for an eight-year stretch, the Summer Knicks were the hottest ticket in the hottest town in America.

Those previous highs are night and day from the last two years, when the biggest story has arguably been Ukrainian big man Dmytro Skapintsev (who was traded from the Maine Celtics to the Rip City Remix in January, in case you were wondering).

Two big components of the diminished enthusiasm have been the lack of high pedigree draft picks and the fact that under Tom Thibodeau, these players were as likely to be a part of New York’s rotation as OG Anunoby is to retire from the NBA and pursue a career as a stand up comic.

Now though, with Mike Brown in Thibodeau’s place and an apparent front office directive to integrate the younger players in some way, shape or form, maybe Vegas is worth a second look once again.

With that in mind, let’s go through the seven Summer Knicks actually worth paying attention to over the next 10 days, starting when New York tips off against Detroit at 6pm tomorrow night. I’m counting down from 7 to 1 in my personal order of interest, starting with someone who became a member of the franchise just a few weeks ago…

7. Mohamad Diawara