The Knicks took plenty of heat when they came out of the draft with Jack Kayil and Tyler Nickel instead of the bigger names some fans had circled. New York passed on several higher-rated prospects, and that immediately set off the usual wave of frustration. But once Summer League got rolling, the picture started to look a lot different.
The players the Knicks left on the board have not exactly made the case that New York missed out.
Jayden Quaintance was one of the more talked-about possibilities for the Knicks because of his elite athleticism and shot-blocking. He looked like a possible 1:1 Mitchell Robinson replacement, and he was the kind of prospect worth serious trade-up consideration while he was still there in the first round until pick No.
- But the injury concerns that followed him into the draft have only grown louder.
Quaintance didn’t play at all in Summer League, and during the event it was announced that he had undergone another surgery on his right knee to address lingering pain. The procedure had already been in the works, but the timing of the news in Las Vegas was a stark reminder of the risk involved.
He looks much more like a long-term project, which doesn’t line up with New York’s immediate need to flesh out the center rotation for 2026-27.
Dailyn Swain was another name New York could have targeted. He was viewed as a scoring burst off the bench, the kind of late-first-round swing that might have fit if the Knicks had traded into the lottery.
Instead, he went at pick No. 15, and his Summer League showing has been rough enough to land him among the event’s worst performers. Swain hit only four of 31 shots across four games and missed all seven of his three-point attempts.
The one-on-one scoring and defensive athleticism that made him appealing in college never really surfaced.
The names behind him in the draft have also done little to make New York sweat. Bennett Stirtz, Ebuka Okorie, Allen Graves, Labaron Philon and Cameron Carr all posted stronger Summer League numbers than Swain in the sample cited, while Quaintance didn’t play at all.
Then there were Alex Karaban and Isaiah Evans, two players the Knicks passed on near the end of the first round and early in the second.
Karaban’s Vegas run started badly and never fully recovered. He opened 0-for-6, followed that with just three points in his second game, then managed only four in his third.
He did break out for 21 points in his fourth outing, but that came when Summer League competition had already started to thin out as top players sat. He then finished 2-of-8 from three in the finale.
Karaban had been seen as a Knicks fit because of his four-year college background and his reputation for playing clean, mistake-free basketball, but Summer League showed his game isn’t as airtight as many believed.
Evans was the other tempting option for New York because of his shooting upside. Instead, he shot just 8-for-39 from deep, which works out to 20.5%.
He had one strong game with 22 points, but in his other three appearances for Minnesota he averaged only 6.7 points and shot 18.2% from the field. The inconsistency that showed up at Duke showed up again in Vegas.
Nickel, who the Knicks eventually took 14 picks later in the second round, outperformed him with 12.2 points per game and a huge 41.3% from three.
That’s the lesson hanging over New York’s draft haul now: rookie evaluation is messy, and the names that look safest on draft night can get exposed fast. Leon Rose stayed patient, trusted the scouting, and came away with players who are already making a case as possible steals. Even more important, the Knicks may have avoided some early landmines while still giving themselves a chance to add young contributors without forcing the issue.
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