After three years with Tyler Kolek, Shaka Good is bullish on his future.
He’s sure.
The Knicks obtained a keeper of their second-round select of Marquette, somebody who will mesh nicely with the tradition that has been established by coach Tom Thibodeau, Jalen Brunson and Co.
Kolek was thought-about a possible first-round decide after main the nation in assists.
He ended up falling out of the opening spherical, and needed to wait a day to listen to his identify referred to as.
However the Knicks scooped him up with the thirty fourth total decide within the draft, and confirmed they valued him, signing him to a four-year, $9.06 million contract.
Clearly, they consider within the polished 6-foot-1 level guard.
“Tom Thibodeau is named the hardest, grittiest, most hard-nosed coach within the NBA, and Tyler Kolek is hard, he’s gritty, he’s aggressive, he doesn’t again down from any problem,” the Marquette coach stated on Monday. “So I believe that’ll be an actual match for him.”
Kolek was an unheralded recruit popping out of St. George’s Faculty in Newport, R.I.
He was unranked.
As a freshman at George Mason of the Atlantic 10, he put up modest numbers — 10.8 factors, 2.3 assists and 1.3 steals — earlier than transferring to Marquette following the 2020-21 season.
There, he developed into one of many premier level guards within the nation, bettering every season beneath Good.
This previous 12 months, he led the Golden Eagles to their first Candy 16 look since 2013, and was No. 1 within the nation in assists at 7.7 per sport.
He was the Large East Participant of the Yr as a junior and a two-time consensus All-American.
He grew to become a robust outdoors shooter, hitting 38.8 p.c this 12 months on 3.9 makes an attempt whereas averaging a career-best 15.3 factors.
Now, he’s making a substantial leap to the skilled ranks.
First up is the NBA Summer season League in Las Vegas, the place Kolek can start to indicate his new workforce what he can do and probably show to them he could be an instantaneous contributor.
“His passing is nearly as good as I’ve seen, and I believe it would actually, actually translate. Now you need to have the ball in your fingers, and he’s not going to have the ball in his fingers as a lot as he did right here,” Good stated. “However I really suppose the a part of his sport which will shock some individuals up there, that I’ve all the time felt was underrated, is his capturing. As a result of now you’re taking part in with Brunson, you’re taking part in with [Mikal] Bridges, guys that command a whole lot of consideration. Are you able to make that open shot when your [defender] helps? And I believe he’ll be capable to try this at a excessive degree.”
The Knicks are flush with guys who have been robust faculty gamers and have been ignored within the draft.
Brunson, Josh Hart and Miles McBride are a couple of good examples, gamers Kolek can study from and mannequin his development after.
They know what it takes to make it within the league.
“For those who have a look at the personnel on the Knicks, Tyler has to go in and earn every thing he will get,” Good stated. “I believe he’ll admire these guys [around him] and people guys will admire him.”
Second-round decide Ariel Hukporti agreed to a two-way contract, the Knicks introduced Monday night time.
The 6-foot-11 massive man from Germany was drafted 58th total by the Mavericks and traded to the Knicks on draft night time.
