The Knicks Might be Forced to do This...

The Knicks may be forced to do this because on Sunday night against Orlando, Jose Alvarado was out with a sprained ankle, and now, once again, he will be out for a second straight game with a sprained ankle. And when Alvarado missed that game against Orlando, Tyler Kolick finally got on the floor. He played 15 minutes and did not score a point, but he had nine assists in those 15 minutes of action. And in the first two games of the season, Tyler Kolek had not gotten on the floor at all. He was a coach's DNP, and basically, he was being relegated to the role that he's had the last two years. A guy who's really only going to be a point guard for depth, but he's better than that. And frankly, he has shown it now, and because the Knicks, they are in a very weird financial situation, which has led to this becoming a real problem. He's talented, he's too talented to be benched, Alvarado just signed a new deal, and with the Knicks watching every dollar, They can't keep both of them. They're not getting rid of Alvarado. And with Deuce McBride's contract ending and the Knicks might not be able to pay all of Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, and Deuce McBride without going into the second apron, we are looking at a trade coming fast for the New York Knicks. We're gonna start this off with the injury that let Tyler Kolek play because Jose Alvarado was ruled out against Orlando and now has been ruled out against Detroit with a left ankle sprain. And there's still no timetable for his return, though it's not expected to keep him out for a long time. And it's not like Alvarado was lighting the league up before that. In the first two games, he played 16 minutes against Philadelphia and scored 8 points, then 11 minutes against Boston with 2 points, 2 assists, and 3 turnovers. So Brown had a choice on Sunday. He had Deuce McBride, who played 13 minutes, Landry Shamet, their 6th man, who played 22, Jordan Clarkson, who played 5, and he still gave 15 minutes to Kolek, which is more than what McBride got. It's more than what Clarkson got. And, overall, when we look at Kolek, he showed the same thing he's always been great at. Now, he may have went 0-4 from the field and finished minus 4 in a game the Knicks lost by 9, but he did have 3 rebounds, a steal, 0 turnovers, and 9 assists in 15 minutes. A pace you never see from a backup or really anyone in the NBA nowadays. That is the Tyler Kolek question right there in one night. 9 assists and 0 points tells you he can run a team. he can run an offense and it also tells you that he needs Jose Alvarado or someone else to not be available for him to play even though he clearly is way too good to just be a reserve and when we look at the Knicks searching for answers we do see that Kelsey is them at a nine percent chance to win the NBA championship over this time right now and if you think that's too low after the 0-3 start that's exactly where Kelsey comes in and I want to thank Kelsey for sponsoring this video on Kelsey you're trading directly against other users not the house like traditional sports books you're buying yes or no contracts on the outcomes of events across sports politics and even the weather for example the New York Knicks finishing as a top two seed which going into the weekend Kelsey had about a 38 percent chance on Friday and guys if you're interested in trying out Kelsey use the link in our description it's in our pinned comment down below as well and sign up using code Digest NBA And you can get $55 when you trade your first $25. It's a great deal for you. It helps the channel out a bunch as well. We're going to start off with talking about why Tyler Kolek is worth keeping because he certainly is. There's no doubt about it. The 6'2 point guard was the 34th overall pick in the 2024 draft, taken by Portland, and the Knicks traded for him, sending out the draft rights to Danny Diaz and second-round picks in 2027, 2029, and 2030. But this was also part of the Knicks just moving picks around constantly and they did have two picks back-to-back towards the end of the first round. They traded one of them, used the other one on Pacôme Dadié, and before all this happened, Tyler Kolek was the best point guard in college basketball. At Marquette, he was the Big East player of the year in 2023, and in 2024, he led the entire country in assists and made second team All-American. And his rookie year in the NBA was quiet. He averaged two points and 1.7 assists and only shot 30% from three, or well, 29.8% from three, but we're rounding up right here. Then, in his second season last year, he took a step forward. He averaged 4.4 points and 2.7 assists with 1.6 rebounds in 62 games. And he shot 38% from three, but still, his minutes were never consistent. He was never in a consistent role. He was just playing when it felt like they needed more ball handling. And once Jose Alvarado arrived to the team via trade, we saw Kolek's minutes cut down. And we look at everything per minute, he only played 11.7 minutes per game. You scaled it to 36 minutes, and it's 13.5 points and 8 assists. Those are certainly starter numbers, and we've seen this on the high end. On December 23rd against Minnesota, we saw him have a 20, 11 rebound and 8 assists game, which was a career high in points, and two days later on Christmas Day, he scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to help the Knicks beat Cleveland. That's when all the jokes began that Tyler Kolek saved Christmas. And, guys, that's the thing. You have a 24-year-old point guard who could pass, who hits his threes at an efficient clip, who was part of a team that beat the San Antonio Spurs 4-1 in the NBA Finals, who was one of the main reasons the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup back in 2025. And guys, it is time that Kolek gets on the floor, but if he's not going to have a role in New York, then that's going to happen elsewhere in some form of a trade. Now we take a look at the other side of things, because Jose Alvarado is a real player, and the Knicks didn't just stumble into him. They traded for him at the deadline in February as they traded Gershon Yabusele to the Chicago Bulls and then acquired Daylon Terry, who they sent to the New Orleans Pelicans, along with two second-round picks in exchange for Jose Alvarado. And his numbers with the Knicks were small, but they were solid. In 28 games, he averaged 17 minutes, 6.6 points, and 3.8 assists. Over his whole career, it's 8 points and 3 assists and shooting 41% from the field while he's being an excellent point-of-attack defender. It's what the Knicks say they value matters, though. CBS Sports compared him to Josh Hart, but six inches shorter because of the deflections, the way he dives for loose balls, the way he can also really, really get into the paint. Mike Brown loves the effort on the floor and also his ability to get into the paint and kick the ball out, getting those spray threes, as Mike Brown calls them. Typically opens up corner threes. The Knicks have a ton of great corner three shooters. Now, on June 26th, the Knicks locked him in. Alvarado turned down his $4.5 million player option and agreed to a three-year deal worth more than $14 million, with some reports saying about $15 million. The third year is only partially guaranteed at about $2.7 million. It does go down financially then, so the Knicks can really have him on a very cheap deal come that time in a few years from now. So it does lead to the Knicks having a very, very nice situation at hand with a guy in Alvarado who's effective, who is on the floor for them in one of the biggest moments in Knicks franchise history when they made the greatest comeback in a single game in NBA Finals history against the Spurs. Alvarado was on the floor the majority of that fourth quarter playing well and being a huge impact guy and Mike Brown ran with him and there's no real way we'd see Brown put Kolek over Jose Alvarado as of right now and one outlet called that a clear message about how New York feels with the backup point guard situation. So that's Alvarado, the Knicks have decided he's their guy. So what does happen with Kolek? So here's the problem, and no, it has nothing to do with talent. It's the money and the roster spots. Kolik is making $2.3 million this season, and the Knicks have a $2.5 million team option for him next year that they will almost certainly pick up. Alvarado's deal is worth about $4.7 of $5 million a year. If you spread it evenly, put those numbers together, and the Knicks are paying about $7 million for two backup point guards who play somewhere between 12 and 7 minutes a game on average is what you can expect this year and money matters for the Knicks reports this summer had the Knicks about 14 million dollars under the second tax apron with at least four roster spots to fill James Dolan does not want to cross that line and even though the front office has reportedly wanted to they've not been allowed to James Dolan has put up a wall right there and then we look at the floor the Knicks have Alvarado they have McBride they have Clarkson they have Landry Shamet who are all fighting for bench minutes behind guys like Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG, because obviously the center position is a little bit different, but it's pretty fluid outside of that. It's point guards, then the three guys in the middle, and then Karl-Anthony Towns, and we know that Shamet's the sixth man. That's his role, and Deuce plays an important role, but he only played 14 minutes against Philadelphia, but then 30 against Boston, where he scored 20 points, went six for eight from three, so when Alvarado comes back, Kolik isn't only behind Alvarado. He's behind McBride, too, And Brown has shown that he is still willing to use Deuce McBride like a sixth man. And look what it does to Kolik. He needs something to open up. A trade or injury is the only way that operates that. That's a guy who had nine assists in 15 minutes and then is sitting two games in a row at other points because the Knicks don't have anywhere to put him. So they're going to have to make a change. Also, guys, if you do want all these Knicks rotational questions and everything else in the team broken down, make sure to hit subscribe. We are nearly at 28,000 subs. and we are pushing for 30,000 before the year ends. It's completely free. It helps the channel out a lot, and I really do appreciate it. But the question is, who goes? Who do they move on from? Well, I can tell you right now, it's not Jose Alvarado. It's not going to be him. They just re-signed him, and he's on way too cheap of a deal to justify moving on from him. So we can take that one out of discussion. And there certainly is a case for trading Tyler Kolek. I mean, he's six foot two. He's been the third guard behind Alvarado for now. we're going into the second season of this and he's on a cheap deal with a team option that's the exact type of profile other teams would love to trade for he's also the one the Knicks would get something back for pretty well I mean they paid three second round picks in a draft right for him so a trade is going to bring back some second round picks as well and it lets the Knicks keep the guy who they just signed on the dotted line now with Alvarado again they're just they're not going to trade him Alvarado just re-signed in June and players who sign a new contract can't be traded right away we're gonna have to wait until the winter and also again they're just not going to so with this we do have to look at the other option here and that other option is pretty obvious it's Deuce McBride I mean look right now we look at where the New York Knicks are we know that Karl-Anthony Towns is first priority for the Knicks to pay next comes Josh Hart if the Knicks pay them the money that those two want there's a good chance they won't be able to afford Deuce McBride without going into the second apron Deuce has already garnered trade interest on the block already teams have shown that they would love to trade for Deuce McBride because he does everything well excellent point of attack defender who shot 42 percent from three last year putting up 12 points getting a steal per game I mean the man just does what you need him to do he's a very very very talented guard he's a true combo guard he can handle the ball he can shoot well a great great great defender and honestly guys I really do think that the Knicks seeing Tyler Kolek even though yeah maybe him and Jose Alvarado they're kind of similar players they're both ball dominant but Kolek also isn't unsimilar from Jalen Brunson and Jalen Brunson is always at his best when there's another great ball handler on the floor Brunson does really well with Deuce McBride on the floor Brunson also does really well with Jose Alvarado on the floor so I don't see any reason why Tyler Kolick wouldn't be doing really well with Jose Alvarado on the floor as well. It would free Kolick up for some more spot-up shots, which would make him a more than just a one-dimensional pass-first type of player. Yeah, Kolick creates excellently, but typically has the ball in his hands the entire time when he's in there. If the Knicks put him in a combo role, in a sense, he'd be able to nail his threes. He'd also still probably be the primary playmaker on the team. He's a better passer than Jose Alvarado. Alvarado could hit a couple spot-up threes as well it'd be a fun tandem to use and also it would give the Knicks another shooter in Kolek who they can call in if they are to trade Deuce McBride considering McBride is the guy who i'm not going to say he's on the trade block because he's not but he is the guy who can garner the Knicks the most value out of any one player we know they would be at least willing to move on from and i do think that is the key part there why the Knicks would lean this way and Kolek has shown he's ready to go and honestly i do think it does make a lot of sense to keep Kolek around because how cheap he is they could sign him to a cheap extension because he's been played a ton and the Knicks get to really watch him break out over the next couple of seasons and become one of the most dominant passing players in basketball so tell me in the comments who would you want to move on from how would you want to rectify this problem let me know in the comments down below and i will share some of those comments on the next video guys like this video subscribe turn on post notifications have a great day and go Knicks