The Knicks’ final roster spot has been a moving target all offseason, and the Miles McBride chatter could end up changing the whole conversation.
For much of the summer, the idea was simple: use that opening to add another big man behind starter Karl-Anthony Towns and newly signed veteran Andre Drummond. But the market has not exactly been overflowing with clean answers, and with rumors still swirling around McBride, New York may have more room to maneuver than it first seemed.
If the Knicks do not get a long-term deal done with McBride before the season, The Athletic’s James L. Edwards III wrote that “it feels like we’re heading toward a departure.”
What that return would look like is anyone’s guess. It could be a one-for-one swap.
It could be a salary dump. Either way, the kind of move that sends McBride elsewhere could also bring a big man back into the picture, either in a trade or later through the buyout market.
That would give Leon Rose and the front office some flexibility with the last roster opening, and it could point them toward a different kind of bet: Tyler Nickel.
The rookie wing, selected 47th overall in June’s NBA Draft, made a strong impression during Summer League. He scored 12.2 points per game and grabbed 3.6 rebounds while shooting 41.3 percent from three, flashing the kind of smooth perimeter stroke that turns heads fast.
Nickel has already framed himself as the sort of sharpshooting role player who can space the floor, naming Duncan Robinson, Max Strus, and Sam Hauser as the players he compares himself to.
The fit is not perfect on paper. New York already has wing depth, with Landry Shamet among the bench options and McBride also in the mix. But both have had injury issues in recent years, and McBride’s status remains the bigger question if the season starts without a new agreement.
That is where Nickel starts to look less like a luxury and more like insurance. He gives the Knicks another option at the two and three, and if he carries over his Summer League form into training camp, a standard rookie deal could become a smart long-game play for 2026-27.
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Knicks Championship Window Suddenly Comes Down To Leon Rose
The Knicks finally broke through in Mike Browns first season, ending a 53-year championship drought and giving Leon Rose immediate validation for the roster he assembled. What made the title run especially striking was how little of the core came through the draft, a reminder that this front office leaned on veteran talent and shrewd team-building to get over the top.
Now the challenge shifts from celebration to preservation, because the hard part of keeping a title window open is often less about finding stars than keeping them aligned. New York still has important work to do on the contract front, with Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart both needing to be locked in beyond their current team control, and the next steps will say plenty about how Rose plans to sustain what the Knicks just built. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Could Lose A Crucial Championship Piece For One Frustrating Reason
Miles McBride has become one of the Knicks more important supporting pieces, but his long-term future in New York is already looking uncertain. With the team expected to keep operating under salary cap pressure tied to owner James Dolan, the guard is on track to finish out the final year of his current deal rather than work out an extension, a setup that puts the Knicks in a familiar bind when it comes to retaining useful role players.
For a team trying to stay in the championship conversation, losing a dependable guard because of finances would be a frustrating outcome even if it is not yet a done deal. If McBride does reach free agency, there should be no shortage of interest, with the Brooklyn Nets, Sacramento Kings and Memphis Grizzlies among the clubs that could come calling, leaving New York to weigh whether it can afford to keep one of its more valuable pieces in place. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Core May Hinge On Two Stars Making One Sacrifice
The Knicks offseason math is starting to come into focus, and it is not especially forgiving. With Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart both nearing extension territory, the front office has to weigh how much of its core it can keep intact while still leaving room to build around it. The broader question is familiar in todays NBA: contenders often survive not just on talent, but on whether key players are willing to ease the financial pressure long enough for the roster to stay balanced.
In New Yorks case, that means the conversation may center less on pure market value than on the sacrifice required to keep the group together. Towns remains one of the most important pieces on the roster, while Hart has become the kind of connector every contender needs, and both situations could shape how long this version of the Knicks can stay together. The model is clear enough, but the hard part is whether the numbers end up matching the teams championship ambitions. [Read more 🡒]