{"id":775393,"date":"2026-07-01T13:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/775393\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T13:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:27:18","slug":"report-knicks-planning-cost-cutting-move-involving-rookie-jack-kayil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/775393\/","title":{"rendered":"REPORT: Knicks planning cost-cutting move involving rookie Jack Kayil"},"content":{"rendered":"

The free-agent market opened on Tuesday, and nobody outside<\/a> Rich Paul and LeBron James made us bat an eye. It\u2019s the new NBA economy, in which trades are the coolest kids in town.<\/p>\n

In any case, the New York Knicks have reportedly been doing business for a few days now, re-signing<\/a> three players<\/a> to team-friendly<\/a> deals in Jose Alvarado, Mo Diawara, and Landry Shamet. Not bad for a start! The elephant in the room isn\u2019t going anywhere, or actually, I should say he\u2019s definitely going somewhere, but that\u2019s a sad story for another day.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Knicks, in staying below the second apron as James Dolan wishes<\/a>, are expected to take a cost-cutting approach to second-round pick Jack Kayil.<\/p>\n

According to SNY\u2019s Ian Begley<\/a>, New York intends to stash Kayil in Germany for the 2026-27 season rather than bring him onto the NBA roster immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan entering free agency for second-round pick Jack Kayil is that he play next season overseas with his current club in Germany,\u201d \u2014 SNY\u2019s Ian Begley<\/p>\n

If Begley\u2019s information is correct, then Kayil will remain with ALBA Berlin playing Bundesliga hoops for one more year while honing his skills, but most importantly, the move will allow the Knicks to avoid using a roster spot and committing any more guaranteed salary to an end-of-bench player who, realistically, wasn\u2019t probably going to sniff the court that much as a true freshman.<\/p>\n

Kayil, selected with the No. 39 overall pick, is coming off a strong season in Germany, averaging 12.2 points, 3.5 assists, and 2.8 rebounds while earning the Bundesliga Best Young Player award. From that to leading an NBA team, however, there\u2019s a stretch. And Kiyal will have to wait, even against his preferred<\/a> outcome.<\/p>\n

After the wave of re-signings heading into free agency, the Knicks are operating with limited flexibility and with an estimate<\/a> of around $9 million in space to fill three of the four remaining roster spots. With no rookie-scale salaries pre-assigned to second-round picks, the Knicks could have signed Kayil to either a two-way deal or a standard contract, but for no less than an absolute minimum of around $1.4 million. Marginal savings, but huge against the background the Knicks are navigating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The free-agent market opened on Tuesday, and nobody outside Rich Paul and LeBron James made us bat an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,19498,2964],"class_list":["post-775393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-knicks-roster","tag-knicks-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116844956439361641","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}