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Ian Begley: Knicks are outscoring Nets 26-9 in the fourth quarter to take control of the game. Josh Hart propelled Knicks early in the fourth as lineup of Hart, Tyler Kolek, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns gave club life after listless start. Knicks will improve to 3-4
Kristian Winfield: Mike Brown said Jose Alvarado and Tyler Kolek are on the same page with the Knicks' backup point guard minutes. "The reality is Jose got hurt. Tyler gave us some good minutes, but at the end of the day, I sat them both down and I told them: 'Jose, you’re our backup because you ended the season as the backup, but both you guys helped us win last year. Jose in the Finals. Tyler in the Cup Finals. So I feel like both you guys can play and contribute at a high level. So both you guys got to be ready because a change can happen at any time.' Change for a half or change for five games, who knows? But the biggest thing is trying to – as best I can, I’m a coach, so I may deviate, but try not to give up a guy’s spot when he’s injured."
Bobby Marks: With 9 players under contract in 2027-28, New York is $14.7m below the second apron. The room includes the options of Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart and Tyler Kolek. Dadiet is free to sign with NY as a FA but for no more than $5.37M (the declined team option).
Mikal Bridges was benched for all but three minutes of the second half, as coach Mike Brown rode with streaking reserves Tyler Kolek, Jordan Clarkson and Landry Shamet to beat the Bulls 133-127 on Wednesday. Bridges, who has struggled mightily to start the season, finished with three points in 13 minutes. It represented his shortest appearance as a Knick outside of the two times Bridges was subbed in briefly to maintain his consecutive games played streak. Part of the reason, according to Brown, was the Kolek-Jalen Brunson backcourt combination was effective. “We just found a combination we went with,” Brown said. “One of the things [assistant coach] Rick Brunson suggested was throwing Kolek in the game with Jalen. Just to give them a different look and get Jalen off the ball and put Tyler on the floor.
The Knicks would need to make a trade by Monday afternoon if they want to keep Bruce Brown. I think they will explore all avenues to make that happen. It's logical to assume that the Knicks will move third-year wing Pacome Dadiet. But I believe New York will explore other deals — including trades involving third-year guard Tyler Kolek — this weekend and Monday. The Knicks will be asking teams to take on a player without sending back salary. To get a deal done, New York may need to attach its own second-round picks (New York will have at least 11 second-round picks in the next seven drafts). Something worth noting here: multiple teams (Charlotte Hornets, Los Angeles Lakers and others) are trying to attach second-round picks to work through a roster crunch. So the Knicks have competition in that regard. But given their plethora of second-rounders, they have the draft capital to get a deal done.
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Marc Stein: Important addendum from @KeithSmithNBA: Karl-Anthony Towns would have to decline his player option for 2027-28 to sign an in-season contract extension and the Knicks would have to decline their team options for next season on Josh Hart and Tyler Kolek to extend them in-season.
Shams Charania: The New York Knicks are tabling all contract extension talks, per team spokesperson: "As an organization, our entire focus is on preparing for the upcoming season and delivering another year for our fans to be proud of. As a result, we will not be negotiating contract extensions until later in the season and will remain solely focused on preparing for the start of the season."
Bobby Marks: New York has 4 players eligible for an extension: - Karl-Anthony Towns - Josh Hart - Miles McBride - Tyler Kolek The deadline to extend is June 30
Towns, who has a $61 million player option for next season, is eligible for a four-year, $276 million extension. The Knicks have offered Towns a new deal around $200 million in total, according to league sources who were granted anonymity to discuss ongoing deliberations. Hart, who has a team option for net year, is eligible for an extension worth around $132 million over four years. McBride is playing on the final year of his contract. Kolek is still on a rookie deal.
Knicks guard Tyler Kolek’s girlfriend, Lexi Sousa, recounted his run-in with police after they mistook him for a fan during the team’s championship parade in New York — and she revealed that it actually happened twice. “Oh, I was there,” Sousa said in an interview with Wag Talk on Wednesday. “It didn’t happen to him once. It happened to him twice. “Not a lot of people know that.”
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The hottest topic out of New York Knicks training camp does not have to do with rings. It’s not about a starting five transforming from clunky to harmonic, emerging stardom or the wreckage the defending champs left behind them during one of the most dominant playoff runs in NBA history. Instead, it’s about contracts. Four Knicks — Towns, Miles McBride, Hart and Kolek — are eligible for extensions. Hart said Monday he does not expect one to get done. McBride is not close to receiving one, league sources told The Athletic. Kolek is lower on the list of priorities. And then there’s Towns, the six-time All-Star who threw the team over his back and hauled them to the finish line throughout parts of the 2026 postseason.
“I just gotta play my game everyday,” Kolek said to a small group of reporters while hosting a youth basketball clinic with FlexWork Sports at The House of Sports in Ardsley on Saturday. “Be consistent, whatever the coaches need just follow their direction and let it be what it is.” Kolek isn’t in control of his minutes.
He is, however, in control of what he does with the opportunities he gets, however limited, for an NBA champion looking to protect its throne. Kolek knows there’s much more to his game than he’s been able to display in short stints over his first two NBA seasons. “There’s definitely a lot left [for me to show],” he said. “Every year I try and get better. That’s how it’s been since college, year over year from my first year in the NBA and last year, the improvement. Now I’m just looking forward to improving on that.”
The Sixers weren’t the only Eastern team to make big moves. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Klay Thompson joined Bam Adeabayo and Andrew Wiggins in Miami, and the Toronto Raptors traded for Kawhi Leonard, backed out of the trade in the wake of his salary-cap circumvention scandal, yet are still in play to trade for him again. “It happens every year in the NBA. The [Oklahoma City] Thunder won the year before, and everybody loaded up to try to beat the Thunder,” said Kolek. “We win, it happens every single year. It’s a copycat league. Teams are trying to beat the best and compete with the best, so they do what they can.”
