How Tyler Kolek Earned Knicks Rotation Spot

The December New York Knicks are blooming for all of New York to see. They've won eight of their last nine to jump within two games of the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed and advanced to the NBA Cup semifinals in Las Vegas, finally healthy enough to deploy close to a fully healthy rotation in adding to their winning record.

This provided New York's management with the perfect junction to deploy their young benchwarmers to the G League, sending Pacôme Dadiet, Ariel Hukporti and Mohamed Diawara down to the Westchester Knicks to get some burn while the core Knicks soak up the big league minutes.

That clump of rookie and sophomore draftees notably lacked a notable name: Tyler Kolek.

The young point guard has slowly creeped his way into regular possessions as a member of New York's second unit, and he's clearly earned the grace to stick around and continue polishing his role as the rest of the minute-eaters do their thing around him.

New York Knicks Guard Tyler Kolek — Nov 28, 2025; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks guard Tyler Kolek (13) reacts after making a baked during the second half against the Milwaukee Bucks at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Kolek's Summer Checklist

The former Marquette star looked to have burned through whatever trust new coach Mike Brown had in him with numerous unimpressive garbage time outings in the season's first month, but a sudden injury to Landry Shamet opened up a 10th-man role deep in the Knicks' guard room.

Eight double-digit minute loads immediately followed Kolek's resurgence in Brown's rotation, with his defense and efficient shooting on an admittedly low volume particularly shining heading into the Cup's knockout round. He's gelled better than he did as a rookie, shooting without hesitation and playing off-ball with a strong awareness of his surroundings.

Kolek does Mikal to Mikal who does it back pic.twitter.com/9Y3mRAAtQT
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) October 10, 2025

Kolek admitted to hitting the weight room harder than ever before this past summer, but he's notably looked to hone his attention to detail, an especially important trait for bench players to demonstrate in filling into a role on the fly.

"Guy my size, I got to be exact on everything," Kolek said. "I got to be in the exact right position on defense. In the right spacing on offense. I can’t be a little bit off. There’s no margin for error there."

Adjusting to the Bench

That mentality shift to a spot performer had to be particularly difficult for a player like Kokek, who had been the man just two years ago in college.

He led the Big East in assists over all three years he spent in the gritty conference, averaging as many as 15 points per game on a heavy nightly workload. The sub-four point per outing mark he's at in his second year with the Knicks is a far cry from what he'd grown used to, but the strides he's made in fitting in to the next level have started to show.

“You definitely change," Kolek said. "I was actually doing less on the floor. You can look back on my college career (at George Mason and Marquette) and all that and say I overworked to get to this point and that’s what I had to do. And now I have to change that philosophy. Because once you get here, you have to work smarter. I was killing my body. I was never fresh. I was never feeling my best."

"So now, coming into the summer, I wanted to feel my best in order to go harder on the floor, go harder in the weight room. If you go 100 percent all the time in shorter bursts, it’s better than going 75-80 percent, but you’re doing more. Less is more sometimes.”

Marquette Guard Tyler Kolek — Marquette guard Tyler Kolek (11) turns the corner on North Carolina State guard Jayden Taylor (1) during the first half of their game in the semifinals of the South Regional of the 2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Friday at American Airlines Arena in Dallas. | Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

He's still far from solidifying himself as reliable enough for 20 minutes in any given game, as the Knicks' most recent Cup matchup proved in forcing a shortened rotation that held Kolek to eight minutes. His process has helped relieve Jalen Brunson's own herculean workload, though, and his upward trajectory has already elevated him from the lowest level of benchwarmers.

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