What’s Next for Knicks and Tyler Nickel After His Two-Way Deal

Just a couple of weeks ago, we weren’t sure if Tyler Nickel would be a Knick.

New York took its sweet time signing their rookie sharpshooter mainly due to their desire to maintain as much financial and roster flexibility as possible. Given the lengthy process, rumors surrounding Nickel’s potential return to college started to swirl. But Knicks fans who had grown to like Nickel after a hot-shooting NBA Summer League let out a collective sigh of relief when it was announced that he was signing a two-way contract.

But what does this deal actually mean for the two sides?

This was a significant step for both the Knicks and Nickel. For the rookie, going back to college must have been enticing given the NIL money he could’ve received. But his dream, like every other draftee, is to be an NBA player. This will be his first professional contract and gives him the most direct path to being an NBA player at the moment.

New York gets to secure their rights to Nickel for two seasons-something they wouldn’t have been able to do had he returned to college. They can now keep a close eye on him and develop him with game reps down in the NBA G League while still having the option of utilizing him as early as this season.

The big question, though, remains just how big (or small) a role Nickel will have with the A-squad. Over the course of a long, grueling, and unpredictable NBA season, anything can happen. Second-round picks often play a non-insignificant role, even on contenders. And two-way players, although less commonly, have done so as well.

Pat Spencer, Jonathan Mogbo, Caleb Love, Dominick Barlow, Ryan Nembhard, Daniss Jenkins and Spencer Jones have all had some nice moments as two-way players. Nickel’s elite shooting at his size should allow him to do so as well. But unfortunately for Nickel, he currently lacks one thing that the others all had—opportunity.

As mentioned earlier, anything can happen throughout the course of an NBA season.

A couple of injuries, a player stepping away for personal reasons, or a trade could all easily provide Nickel with an opportunity to earn consistent minutes. If he can defend with the kind of effort he displayed during Summer League and learn head coach Mike Brown’s offense, his shooting should do the rest. In such a scenario, the Knicks could benefit greatly from his movement shooting.

Tyler Nickel has shown flashes but his role is uncertain and playing time may still be hard to come by

Yet as things stand right now, Nickel’s rookie year looks like it’ll resemble Miles McBrides’s first season in New York. The Knicks have a plethora of options at the wing position. Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Landry Shamet are all locks to be ahead of him in the depth chart.

Barring a major falloff, the Knicks’ re-signing of Mohamed Diawara should mean he’ll get an incredibly long leash ahead of Nickel, too. And we haven’t even gotten to the potential addition of Bruce Brown or Ochai Agbaji.

The defending champions may take some of the 2026-27 regular season lightly. During those stretches, as well as the games in which they win or lose by large margins, Nickel will see some minutes. And if the Knicks do struggle at some point with offense and Nickel is lighting it up in the G League, fans will inevitably call for more of the sharpshooter as they did with McBride.

As much as I, like many other Knicks fans, like Nickel, the team's priority is to win another championship. This team isn’t in an era of only developing its young players and trying to plan for the future. In a perfect world, the Knicks can accomplish all of those things. Developing Nickel in an attempt to help bridge the gap to Brunson’s latter years would be a nice side story to keep an eye on.

But the Knicks can become the first team since 2018 to repeat. If Brown believes his set of veterans and whoever else they fill out the bench with is the best option to do so, and he likely will, then Nickel won’t and shouldn’t see many minutes.

My bet is that he’ll have a couple of flashes that make fans believe in the idea of Nickel. He’s an amazing shooter and has thus far shown enough connective passing and, more importantly, defensive hustle to warrant spot minutes. It would still be surprising to see the second-rounder become a consistent rotation player in year one. And that’s not an indictment of Nickel, but more so a product of the Knicks’ depth and how convoluted his path to minutes may be.

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