The New York Knicks have been playing some excellent basketball of late, currently sitting at 22-9 after Saturday night's road win over the Atlanta Hawks. Although he had a quiet game on Saturday, backup point guard Tyler Kolek has been making the most of his opportunity in Deuce McBride's injury absence, putting together several big stat lines over the last couple of weeks for New York, and earning the trust of head coach Mike Brown in the process.
With this being the case, some have wondered how Kolek's emergence might affect the Knicks' plans at the NBA trade deadline.
“Kolek's strong recent play could lead the Knicks to look at addressing their frontcourt depth instead. Especially since summer signee Guerschon Yabusele has fallen out of Mike Brown's rotation,” reported NBA insider Jake Fischer on Marc Stein's Substack.
However, Fischer did point out that “As impressive as Kolek has been, not having a playoff-tested veteran behind star guard Jalen Brunson is a potential vulnerability for a team with championship aspirations.”
Before the season, the Knicks had signed Malcolm Brogdon to be their backup point guard, but he decided to retire before the campaign tipped off. However, Kolek has been able to fill that role well in his opportunities so far this year, having a huge fourth quarter in the Knicks' recent Christmas Day win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It remains to be seen how things will shift once McBride is back from his injury, as he too was enjoying a strong season for New York before being sidelined.
However, at this point, adding another point guard would seem to be very low down on the list of Knicks priorities heading into the trade deadline.
In any case, the Knicks will next take the court on Monday evening against the New Orleans Pelicans on the road.
