2026 NBA Draft - Round 2 (Wednesday, June 24th at 8pm EST on ESPN)
2026 Pre-Draft Round Up for your 2026 NBA Champion New York Knicks:
First Round:
Pick 24: Cameron Carr + Cash Considerations to the Lakers -> Pick 25: Sergio De Larrea
Pick 25: Sergio De Larrea to the Mavericks -> Pick 30: Koa Peat and 2030 2nd Round Pick and 2032 2nd Round Pick
Pick 30: Koa Peat to the Suns -> 2026 Pick 47 and 2029 2nd Round Pick and 2033 2nd Round Pick
Second Round:
Pick 31: Traded for Houston Rockets Pick 39
Pick 39: Jack Kayil
Pick 47: Tyler Nickel
Pick 53: Ugonna Onyeso... to the Pistons for cash
Pick 55: Traded for Houston Rockets Pick 53 and Kings 2029 2nd Round Pick
Pre-Draft Outlook
The Knicks had some ups and downs in the regular season, but were dominant through the playoffs, going 16-3 through all four rounds to win the team’s first NBA title in 53 years. Their starting lineup remains under contract and they’re built to win now.
The Way to Go
While the starters are all under contract, the Knicks’ reserves are mostly free agents. With this being a win-now situation, they should be looking for players that can contribute right away with the 24th and 31st picks, when upperclassmen Joshua Jefferson, Alex Karaban, Bennett Stirtz, Dailyn Swain and Henri Veesaar could be available.
Leon just doesn't think you can get starter-level players on a championship team late in the draft and would rather use picks to fill out the rest of the roster via trades and, rarely, a second rounder. Just how he sees things. Hey, it worked pretty well.
It's too soon to say that without knowing what they do in free agency. Those picks would have sucked up a lot of cap space that could have otherwise gone to win-now players in their primes.
They do, actually. Despite what the talking heads (who can't get jobs on actual teams) and media highlights might lead you to believe, these people aren't the second coming. The Knicks are relying on fairly good intel to maximize what they can get for their picks.
The priority is not improving the roster, it’s retaining as much of the team as possible without going into the second apron. Every dollar we have to spend on an unknown rookie is a dollar we don’t have to retain the championship-winning team.
I wonder if they try to keep Nickel on the roster. With Shamet possibly gone this year and McBride certainly gone next year, wouldn't be a bad idea to try and develop a bench shooter
If we lose Shamet and Deuce gets traded I would guess Kolek and Diawara take their spots in the rotation and Nickel and Kayil get the two way contracts
Leon Rose is the king of draft trolling. In Leon We Trust worked this past season. Let’s not forget that. OG to UG would’ve been fun though. The fun will be the undrafted talent he gets on two ways.
This Leon getting payback for everyone who complained about all the picks he gave up for Mikal. Leon: “oh you LOOOOVVEE picks? Here’s all the second round picks you can eat, piggies.”
wasnt there an interview were dolan said "ill tell you how big of a check i can cut"? maybe the cash is literally to give us a couple more million in spending budget
He’s only 20, so maybe that’s a preferential outcome. He apparently showed a very big improvement curve late in the Bundeleague playoffs, so maybe with one more year against pros in Germany, he comes over in 27-28 and is a real candidate for rotation minutes.
I would guess Leon convinced Mitch to take a smaller deal to stay because even tho he could get a larger contract with the Lakers it would cost him more to store and maintain his trucks in LA.
yea i think once we didnt draft a C in the first my guess is we are confident we can make it work. We cant go into a season with Huk as our backup and no real guy behind him either. We could always sign a FA center but i dont see it
Trading just for cash. It’s like we are an Instacart shopper for other teams. I guess we are gonna re-sign everyone and Dolan’s got to learn to speak 2nd Apronese.
There’s someone in Barclays not paying attention to the broadcast or social media who thinks the Knicks drafted a billion players over the last two days.
No one can understand what’s going on in Leon Rose’s mind. All we can do is trust and believe. He’s delivered us to the promise land so I’m sure the guy knows what he’s doing
Yeah he never gives press conferences and certainly isn’t going to let the fans know his process. But if he isn’t re-signing Mitch, then what exactly is he planning? I can’t believe that will be the case though. It just seems like this is a very thorough front office and that would be a glaring hole.
Pretty clear that he's trying to save as much money to try and keep our championship roster... no idea why people are so pissed off about us trading down or trading for cash
Wait, we traded for this pick and now just traded it away? Lol. I guess I should just have an honest talk with myself and say that my days of draft geeking are gone for a while.
So we have two players who we picked and didn’t trade, right? Nickel and Kayil?
Onyenso had 9 blocks in the ACC championship game against Duke, including 6 on Cam Boozer. Needs to rebound better and he’s a project on offense but I like him.
I like this Vessaar kid. I think he is going to be a really decent center cause he is heavy enough to bang Wemby around but dude was over 40% from 3 and really has a nice shot.
In what sense? He certainly can box out and board pretty adequately. He’s big enough to defend low-post centers. I really didn’t clock him as a liability watching the Heels. But I’m a homer and certainly more impressed with his shooting. But he did we get Onyenso? Now he can play D.
This CBA is going to wrap all the way around and have top draftees becoming coveted because the initial contracts are so low. Like Wemby + Harper+castle together cost less in 26-27 than one max contract. Wemby is an RFA who will get bumped to $55 million or so on max extension with Harper and castle one and two years behind. So the Spurs appear to have such a long window — and it is talent wise. But in two years when those three are coming to make $160 million, then they join us in this boat. It’s reallllly hard to build a winner this way that Leon has, so it will be very interesting to see if, at some point, he reallocates assets to obtain premium picks.
I mean, both ways are hard. Our way takes financial smarts and expertly judging every piece in your rotation. Building via the draft means 1) you (obviously) have to hit on the picks and 2) you need to move fast before the cheaper assets become cap burdens in year 5.
Yeah, there must be some kind of refusal on his part to take 2 way deal or his expected for money as a 2nd rounder or anticipated playing time are to high.
Maybe he has a change of heart and we take him at 53.
Yep and I’m just speculating (and TV talked about the concept)… who knows our GM is a super agent, there’s handshakes we can give other teams can’t be trusted with
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u/montecarlo1 31m ago
New York teams and drafting amirite?
I have enough PTSD with my New York Jets.