Kevin Knox is getting another crack at the NBA, and this one comes with the Orlando Magic.
The former Knicks lottery pick has agreed to a training camp deal with Orlando as he tries to keep his career alive. Knox is 27 now, and after spending all of last season in the G League, he’s aiming to work his way back onto an NBA regular-season roster.
That was a big shift for Knox, who had appeared in NBA games every year for seven straight seasons before last year. His most recent NBA action came in 14 games with the Golden State Warriors in 2024-25, and before that he had bounced around five different teams. The Magic do have an open roster spot, though they could just as easily decide to keep it open when the regular season starts.
Last season, Knox played for the Windy City Bulls in the G League and put up productive numbers. Across 39 combined regular-season and Tip-Off Tournament games, he averaged 21.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists.
For Knicks fans, Knox’s name still carries the “what if” tag from the 2018 NBA Draft. New York took him ninth overall, and the comparison game has never been kind. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went two picks later, while Mikal Bridges went 10th, Michael Porter Jr. went 14th, and Jalen Brunson went 33rd.
There were signs early that Knox might grow into a real piece for the Knicks. As a 6-foot-8 forward, he made the 2018 All-Summer League First Team, and he was still not quite 19 years old when he did it. A few months later, he was named the Eastern Conference’s Rookie of the Month in December.
His best scoring night in the league came on January 13, 2019, when he scored 31 points. But that rookie season also came during a brutal 17-65 year for New York, and the team’s struggles never really turned into a stable launchpad for his development.
His role shrank in each season after that first year, and by the time the Knicks reached the playoffs in his final full season with the team, he played just one game in their first-round loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
In 195 career regular-season games with New York, Knox averaged 8.2 points and 3.1 rebounds. The shot-making never quite caught up to the hype, either, as he finished his Knicks run shooting 36.9% from the field and 34.6% from 3-point range.
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