Knicks Send Rookies to G League

The New York Knicks’ draft class is more or less going back to school.

The team announced on Tuesday that Pacome Dadiet, Ariel Hukporti, and Tyler Kolek to G League Westchester as Wednesday’s NBA Cup quarterfinal matchup with the Atlanta Hawks looms (7 p.m. ET, ESPN). That’s three members of the Knicks’ four-man draft haul from June with the outlier (Kevin McCullar) still injured).

Ironically enough, the Westchester Knicks face Atlanta’s affiliate, the College Park Skyhawks for a Wednesday morning matinee at Westchester County Center (11 a.m. ET, MSG), which gives them a chane to get their G League minutes before getting back to the bench for the knockout game.

The Knicks’ rookies have gotten varied amounts of playing time over the first quarter of the season. The center Hukporti has perhaps been the busiest, notably earning some major minutes amidst injuries in the interior. Hukporti notably got 15 minutes against Detroit, hitting all four of his tries from the field while earning two assists and rebounds each in the 120-111 loss to the Pistons, one that was missing Karl-Anthony Towns from the proceedings.

Dadiet and Kolek have played sparingly in the Knicks’ crowded backcourt situation. The first-round choice Dadiet has already been up and down on several occasions after arriving to Knicks as the 25th overall pick in June. Though he’s struggling from three-point range (26.3 percent), Dadiet has played solid defense and discovered at least something of a shooting stroke in the last two games, hitting 50 percent overall from the floor (14-of-28) and pairing 25 points with 11 rebounds.

Kolek had a fair amount of hype following him as the Knicks’ first second-round pick but he hasn’t played more than 10 minutes since Nov. 23’s loss in Utah. The Marquette alum has found a slight stroke from three in his limited time, hitting over 45 percent of his trey tries.

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