By Eli Cohen | at July 18, 2026 12:00 pm
When the Knicks selected point guard Jack Kayil with the 39th pick, it was unclear whether he’d come over to the NBA right away or stay in the German league, though signs pointed to him staying abroad, Ian Begley writes for SNY.
While he has struggled with his scoring efficiency during Summer League, he has shown some real flashes, including a 19-point, four-assist game in a win over the Pistons. It would be a win for the Knicks if they could bring him over on a team-friendly contract, Begley says.
However, the team is currently $3.3MM below the second apron with 13 players on the roster and no third-string center, making it unlikely that Kayil will receive the 14th roster spot. Furthermore, the Knicks would be barred from paying Kayil’s NBA buyout from his German team if they were to offer him a two-way spot, a complication they wouldn’t face with their other draft pick, the sharp-shooting wing Tyler Nickel.
While Kayil will likely get a chance to play for the Knicks in the future, it seems that the logistics required to make that happen this season are complicated enough that it could prove a barrier for the team, which is focused on maximizing its championship roster while avoiding financial penalties.
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One of the financial factors the Knicks have to navigate is the extension eligibility of star center Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns is likely to be offered an extension, James L. Edwards III writes in a mailbag for The Athletic, but the question is, will the team offer him the full four-year, $272MM max? Towns is 30 years old, and the team is getting very expensive even before factoring in **Josh Hart**‘s upcoming extension eligibility. While it’s hard to predict what the number would be, Edwards says he’d be surprised if the two sides agreed to a deal for the full max.
Mohamed Diawara entered this year’s Summer League fresh off signing a four-year contract and ready to hit the ground running. Unfortunately, that momentum hit a bit of a snag as he struggled to find any kind of offensive rhythm, shooting 1-of-14 from the floor and 1-of-10 from three while adding four turnovers to just one assist across two games. However, Edwards doesn’t believe the performance will have any impact on how the team feels about him in the big picture, especially as he mostly played without Kayil, the one real point guard on the Summer League roster. Diawara is not expected to be a star who can create his own offense consistently, but rather a player who is effective at working off the great players already on the Knicks, which is why this setting was not one to draw too many conclusions from.
Despite only having two centers on the roster in Towns and the recently-signedAndre Drummond, Edwards doesn’t believe the Knicks will go long stretches of the season playing small-ball should one of the two get hurt. If they don’t add another center with their 14th roster spot – Nick Richards is likely the best name still available – Edwards expects them to use a two-way spot to bring a big man in. There’s also a good chance they leave the 14th spot open and have a training camp competition for it, similar to what they did last year, which resulted in Landry Shamet earning the spot, a move that had a major positive impact on their title run.
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