Tyler Kolek is making the most of his first true rotational opportunity with the Knicks that was not necessitated by an occasional injury to someone ahead of him.
With Cam Payne in Indiana and veteran signing Malcolm Brogdon retiring during training camp, Kolek has served as All-Star point guard Jalen Brunson’s primary backup during the Knicks’ 2-0 start entering Sunday’s game in Miami.
After notching seven points and two assists in 14 minutes in the season-opening win over the Cavaliers, the second-year guard played 13 minutes off the bench Friday night against the Celtics with two points and four assists, albeit with three turnovers.
“I’m just trying to set up the offense and do what I’m asked by Coach,” Kolek said after Saturday’s practice in Tarrytown, referring to new Knicks coach Mike Brown. “Cam Payne last year actually taught me something. He was the backup last year and just kind of learned from him.
“Coming into this role, when you get into the game, you want to change it in some way. You want to change the speed of the game or get the ball moving a little bit more. You’re there and you have the first — for me I have the whole first quarter or whatever it is seven or eight minutes — to really watch and dissect what the other team is doing and what we’re doing as well on offense and defense. Just trying to come in and impact the game any way I can.”
Kolek was a second-round draft pick one year ago out of Marquette, but he played sparingly last season under then-coach Tom Thibodeau, 7.2 minutes per game over 41 appearances.
Brodgon, a former Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man award winner, was signed to a nonguaranteed deal over the summer to compete for the backup point guard spot, but the nine-year NBA veteran abruptly called it a career in mid-October.
The 24-year-old Kolek has received the first opportunity to run the second unit.
“Just taking it day by day. I wasn’t really too focused on the outside noise of who is going to play,” Kolek said. “Those are Coach’s decisions at the end of the day.
“For me, it was just every single day come into the gym and work hard and show what I could do. Hopefully, that would lead to some time on the floor… I had the whole training camp and a lot of the summer with the coaching staff and the preseason to really get a grasp of the offense.”
Brown believes the 6-foot-2 Kolek brings “versatility and toughness” and has showed an “uncanny knack to pass” the ball.
“He can play-make for himself, for others. He gets us organized. He had a really good game defensively [Friday] night for the most part,” Brown said. “During the first stretch, he was really good offensively.
“In the second half, he wasn’t as good, but he’s a young guy, and, he’s gonna learn and grow from any minutes that he gets, and that’s what I like about him, because you know he’s young, he’s smart, but more importantly, he’s tough-minded, so he can take any type of coaching or any adversity that he goes through at any time and he’ll bounce back the right way.”
Kolek added that he and Payne would talk “all the time” last season, even breaking down what they saw from Brunson from the bench during games.
“Me and Cam were on the bench a lot last year. So you are watching the game and you are obviously watching Jalen. Learning from him is more kind of by watching,” Kolek said. “It’s not words back and forth. I can always bounce off questions and ask what he sees.
“But when you are sitting there watching it live, me and Cam were sitting there, and he was like, ‘You see this, this and this.’ That’s the best example of it … I have a great relationship with all the older guys whether on the floor or off the floor. It’s really important for me as a point guard coming off the bench to have synergy with all those guys and knowing where they want the ball, how they want the ball, what plays they like.”
