As the Knicks get set to defend their title, the bench is where the real uncertainty lives. The starters may have mostly settled the hard questions, but the reserves still have plenty hanging over them, from role definition to trade chatter to whether the second unit can hold up night after night.
Jose Alvarado’s Knick tenure already gave the team a moment nobody will forget. He was electric in the second half of New York’s 29-point comeback in the NBA Finals.
But the full picture was uneven. In 28 regular-season games with the Knicks, he shot 41.4% from the field and just 33% from three.
His February burst against the 76ers - 26 points on 8-of-13 shooting from deep - was followed by a rough stretch in which he made only 5 of 34 threes over 14 games.
New York does not need Alvarado to be a big scorer on a roster this deep. What it does need is a guard who can knock down open looks and keep the offense moving when Jalen Brunson sits. With the Knicks lacking steady ballhandling and playmaking behind him, Alvarado’s consistency will be under the microscope.
Miles McBride sits in a different kind of uncertainty. He looks like an obvious opening-night piece because of how important he is and because his deal is so team-friendly.
Still, his future is one of the few major roster questions left. He becomes a free agent next offseason, and the Knicks have a history of moving players before they can leave for nothing.
If New York decides it wants to chase a relatively big fish, McBride is the most likely name to come up, whether that happens before the season or at the trade deadline.
Landry Shamet, meanwhile, is trying to prove that his championship run was not a one-off. He had a huge 36-point game against the Heat, then followed it with valuable defense and shooting in the Cavaliers series.
Even so, the numbers tell a more complicated story. This was only the third season of his eight-year career in which he shot better than 38.7% from three.
Before arriving in New York, he had already posted seasons at 33.8% and 36.8% from long range. Shamet has built his reputation as a shooter, but the question now is whether this version of him is the real one - and whether he can finally string together three straight seasons above 39% from deep.
Mohamed Diawara is another reserve with a lot riding on the next step. There was real belief in him last season, and that belief has not gone away.
But Summer League was a rough introduction. The extra ballhandling responsibilities and the loose, everyone-for-himself style of those games seemed to work against him, and he looked uncomfortable instead of ready to pop.
If that version of Diawara is the one New York gets, the Knicks will have to lean more heavily on John Konchar, Jordan Clarkson, and maybe even Tyler Nickel. That group should be enough to get through the regular season.
But if the Knicks want the best version of themselves - and want to start building toward the future - Diawara has to be more than serviceable. His defense, connective passing, cutting, and rim pressure should fit better once the games count, and if his three-point shot returns, he should be in good shape.
Clarkson’s situation is murkier. His role and minutes may depend almost entirely on how the rest of the group performs.
He re-signed, so it is fair to assume he was given some chance to earn a place in the rotation. At the same time, it is just as believable that the whole thing is out of his hands.
If the Knicks trust Diawara - and that is no sure thing, especially with Konchar now in the mix - then a second unit built around Alvarado, McBride, Shamet, and Diawara leaves little room for Clarkson. But Diawara is still unproven, and McBride and Shamet have both missed significant time over the last two seasons.
Clarkson could open the year buried on the bench and still end up playing more than expected. The honest answer is that nobody really knows until the season starts, and even then the minutes could keep changing.
At center, the Knicks seem comfortable enough to roll with Andre Drummond as the backup to start the year. New York did not bring in anyone specifically to challenge him for that job, though James Wiseman and Drew Eubanks could still make the roster. Neither is expected to jump Drummond on the depth chart.
Even so, the long-term outlook at the position is still cloudy. The safest bet has not changed: the Knicks will probably look to upgrade at center before the trade deadline.
That trade-deadline theme runs through another part of the roster, too. There are a lot of questions around these two players - whether they have a role, how useful they can be, whether they get moved before opening night, and what the Knicks could get back if they do. The most obvious takeaway is that both will have a tough time carving out steady minutes, and their biggest value to the team may come in a trade.
Tyler Nickel’s path got a lot less certain a few weeks ago when there were questions about whether he would even stay with the Knicks. Rumors suggested he might consider going back to college, and it looked like the idea of him becoming a big-shot specialist could vanish before it ever started. But with Dadiet possibly on the trading block, Nickel now has a real chance to stick.
Even with that opening, the rookie still has a steep climb. The Knicks have added plenty of veteran wings to training camp, so cracking the rotation is a long shot.
He will have to win Mike Brown over with his shooting and, more importantly, his defense. Still, the door is at least open now.
A few strong games, or an injury to one of the reserve wings, could put Nickel in the spotlight earlier than anyone expected.
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If the Knicks want to bring Nickel in on a standard deal, it would not be as simple as signing and filing the paperwork. A move like that would likely force the front office into a trade conversation, with Miles McBride and Pacome Dadiet emerging as the names most worth watching. For a team trying to balance present depth with long-term flexibility, that kind of domino effect is exactly the sort of roster wrinkle that can linger well past camp. [Read more 🡒]
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Instead, the Knicks are counting on Drummond to do the sturdier, more defined work that still matters over the course of a season. His value is supposed to come from rebounding, interior defense and dependable minutes off the bench, giving the roster a different kind of presence behind its starters. The challenge is clear enough: New York wants his game to complement what it already has, even as the departure in the middle leaves a spot that cannot truly be filled by one player alone. [Read more 🡒]