Tyler Kolek’s minutes have gone down with the return of Jalen Brunson to the New York Knicks line up. He might not see playoff minutes, too. Nevertheless, his former Marquette Golden Eagles coach Shaka Smart still grades his first NBA regular season favorably.
In fact, he thinks he exceeded expectations.
“Did we know Tyler was going to be as good as he ended up being? I had a sense he was going to be really good, you know playing for the New York Knicks, ah,” Smart said jokingly.
Kolek was a reliable back up point guard for coach Tom Thibodeau while the team was waiting for the return of their All-Star point guard who was out for more than a month since February due to an ankle injury.
He even set an NBA record for the month of March as the player with best assist-turnover ration.
He also became the first player in league history to have at least eight assists in under 20 minutes with no turnover in a two-game span.
Tyler Kolek is ready for playoffs
Thibodeau is not the type to dig deep on the bench. His rotation might even get shorter come playoff time.
Kolek, who played a total of 41 regular season games, is keeping his finger crossed.
He believes he is ready for big time games and that’s what he learned during their game and win against the Milwaukee Bucks at the Fiserv Forum on March 28.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Kolek told Marquette Wire when asked about his experience and thoughts about the postseason.
“Just getting that real game experience, I was in there the last five minutes of the fourth quarter (against the Bucks), that’s pressure time and it was able to give me game reps of that live on the defensive end and offensive end.”
Kolek and the Knicks will face the Detroit Pistons in the first round, with first game set on Saturday.
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