He knows something we don't...

When the Los Angeles Lakers waived Dalton Connect, he had choices. The Cavaliers, Kings, and Timberwolves were all interested, but he picked the New York Knicks. And Mike Brown knows something that we don't about Dalton Connect. And Connect is perfectly on board with this as well. And on Sunday, Connect told us why he feels this way, saying, It just feels like the best opportunity. I talked to the coaching staff. I've known them a while, so it was good. Thought this would be a great fit, and I'm excited to be here. And Mike Brown already has a plan for him. He doesn't want Connect sitting at the end of the bench. He wants him playing, and that starts with the Westchester Knicks. So down the line, in a couple of months, when the Knicks can afford a 15th man, Dalton Connect is going to be ready to go and ready to show what some fans have already highlighted as all-star potential for the Knicks. Giving them another great bench piece, so this bench, even if they do make moves, even if they can't pay everyone, they have another weapon on this team who is integral with his style to winning championships. This could not be better for the Knicks, and let's dive into this. Now, let's remember, this is a guy who the Knicks trust. He just tied an NBA rookie record with nine threes only two years ago, showing how great of a shooter he is, and we see the way shooters get paid Dalton Connect costs nothing on the Knicks salary cap right now for a team that is very, very deeply in some salary cap trouble. And to get out of it, it could hurt their chances to win. But for the Knicks, they still have a 9% chance on Kalshi to win the 2027 NBA championship. And guys, if you think a move like this does matter for the Knicks and will help them win, then that is perfect for Kalshi. And I want to thank them for sponsoring this video You are trading directly against other users, not the house like traditional sportsbooks. You're buying yes or no outcomes on events across sports, politics, and even the weather. For example, the New York Knicks winning the 2027 NBA championship. And guys, this is the place to do it because right now, if you were to trade $25 on the Knicks winning, you get a payout over $250. $150. And if you are interested in trying out Kalshi, so use the link in our description. It's also in our pinned comment down below. Sign up using code DIGESTNBA and you can get $55 when you trade your first 25. It's a great deal for you and it helps the channel out a bunch as well. Now, first things first, let's start with the choice that Dalton Connect made to sign with the Knicks because he didn't have to. He had suitors, he's a former near lottery pick just two years ago. Teams were interested and once he cleared waivers and became a free agent, once he was free, teams called. Teams with more open minutes than the defending champions called. However... To make room, the Knicks were also going to have to waive someone, and they did in Kevin Mc Culler Jr., who had just gotten his championship ring just days ago. That's how serious the Knicks were about signing Dalton Connect. All three of their two-way spots were full, but they opened one up with a guy who had won a ring with them just a couple months back. And now, think about that. Of all those teams, on all of those teams, he could have walked into more minutes right away than the Knicks. The Knicks just won a title. Their wing rotation between Mikael Bridges, O.G. Ananobi, Josh Hart, Deuce McBride, Landry Shamet, Muhammad Diawara is pretty full. There's no easy route to playing time here for Connect, but he still picked New York, and he said it himself. He talked to the coaching staff. He's known them a while, and he thought it was a great fit. And that tells me two things about the Knicks and Dalton Connect. One is that he trusts these coaches to actually develop him, to really put him in spots to succeed, to really grapple with that all-star level potential that fans are saying that he has. And two, he wanted a team with a plan, not just a roster spot where he would go and try to nail threes. He wanted a team that knew that they were going to build him up, that wanted him as a part of their long-term plan. The Knicks are in a financial spot that they really can't sign a lot of big contracts, but Connect, they could sign him to a shorter... Or just a, overall, a smaller multi-year deal where Connect can be within the franchise and they can set out a plan and a role for him going forwards. And that's exactly what the Knicks' goal is here. So what exactly is that plan that the Knicks have? Well, in Mike Brown's own words, and I quote, right now he is a two-way guy and we want him to play as much as he can. So he's going to play some games in Westchester. And he added, if we need him to play with us, he'll do that. So this is not a demotion. It's a two-way street. Literally. And here's how that contract works. On a two-way deal, Connect can play up to 50 games this season. The rest of the time, he can play for the Westchester Knicks in the G League, and he can't play in the playoffs unless the Knicks convert him to a standard contract, something they are going to explore doing. And Westchester's season starts on November 6th against the Maine Celtics, so Connect is going to be playing very, very soon, and he won't be alone in Westchester. Dink Pate is back there as well. He's 20 years old. Last season averaged 16 points and 6.5 rebounds and nearly 4 assists per game with the Westchester Knicks. Jay Nickens and Tyler Nickel are on two-way deals with Connect, and that's a real group of young players who the Knicks want to get reps down there so they can figure out who do we give that final roster spot to because all these guys can sign cheaper deals than what we could have signed Bruce Brown to, but we can't afford any other deals, so we're going to need a smaller contract. And now, why does this matter so much? because last season, Sitting is exactly what happened to Connect. He played 54 games, but just at 10 minutes a night, they were not consistent minutes, and his scoring dropped to 4.2 points per game in those limited minutes, and his three-point shooting fell as well. He shot 37.6% as a rookie and then shot 34%. For a shooter, rhythm is everything. You don't find your shot by sitting for three quarters a game and sometimes getting completely iced out and then playing in a little bit of garbage time. It's not going to lead to success shooting the ball. You're not going to get that rhythm. You're not going to get that flow of the game. It's just not going to work. You're not going to get three to four shots you need so you kind of get in that flow. And this preseason, he shot just 25% from three and from the field, I should say, in four games for the Lakers. This is a guy who needs reps more than anything else. So the plan is simple. Get him real minutes in Westchester. Let him be one of the main guys for this team. Have him shoot eight threes a game. Let him shoot through the misses, find the rhythm, and when the Knicks need a shooter, when injuries come and guys are taking games off, you call connect up. You give him some minutes. You say, hey, we believe in you. You were a first-round pick two years ago for a reason. We think that you are the real deal. We want you to be a big part of this team's future. I'll tell you right now, The Knicks would rather play Dalton Knecht and they will play Dalton Connect over playing Pacome Dadié. That I can guarantee. Let's also remember the player they are getting in Dalton Connect because he's super talented. At Tennessee, he averaged 21.7 points per game. Won the SEC Player of the Year and was a consensus first-team All-American. There's a reason why the Lakers did take him 17th overall in 2024. Because he actually does have that talent. He actually is that good. He's 100% able to be a real impact player. And he hit the ground running in the NBA. In November of 2024, he scored 27 points against the Pelicans. Three nights later, he dropped 37 on the Jazz with 9 threes in 12 attempts. That's the game that he tied the record. rookie record for most threes made in a game. And as a rookie, he played in 78 games and averaged 9.1 points about 19 minutes a game played and shot 37.6% from three on more than four attempts per game with 59.4 true shooting percentage. He was very, very talented. And here's the stat that explains why the Knicks won him. 92% of the threes made were assisted. He hit 40.7% from the corner. He's a catch and shoot guy. You find him, he lets it fly, and he gives you three points. And he's not just a spot up guy. He did finish 78.9% of his shots at the rim and threw down 45 dunks. He also barely turns it over at all. He's a good athlete as well. He's got a real jump shot, and it's really hard to find someone like that on a two-way deal. And even in his bad second year, when he did shoot, he was efficient. A 56.8 true shooting percentage and a 61.3 percentage on his two-pointers. He didn't forget how to score. He just stopped getting the ball. The Lakers stopped feeding him, and that was the main issue there. And the knock on him has always been defense. His defensive box plus minus was negative both years, so Westchester is where he can work on that with the training staff, with the coaching staff, with everyone watching so they can find a way that he can be a beneficial guy on the defensive side. So what exactly does this mean for the Knicks in the near future? Because we know what it means in the far future. A guy who's going to be able to instantly give them an impact, who also will be on a cheap contract for years to come. But for right now, it also matters. Mikael Bridges started slow to this season. OG Anunoby had a slow start before the third game of the year. And obviously those guys will heat up. They're too good not to. But it shows how thin the margin is. If injuries hit or if the shots stay cold for a week. A ready-made shooter in Westchester is exactly the type of guy you call. Or even if someone like Landry Shamet goes down with an injury, Connect's the guy you call because the Knicks signed Shamet and he was the last guy to make the team in 2025. And then 2025, 2026, he finishes as an NBA champion who is the sixth man on that team. The Knicks are not afraid to play guys into big rotational minutes and Connect can easily do that as well because of his laser three-point shooting. And then there's the money. A two-way contract doesn't count against the cap and the Knicks are only about $3.3 million away from the second apron and owner James Dolan has said they're not going to go into it. So the Knicks add a former first round pick, an SEC player of the year for nothing against the payroll that matters and the Lakers are still paying him $4.2 million this season. The Knicks have done this before. Isaiah Hartenstein, Donte DiVincenzo, and Shabazz who I just mentioned all came after struggling somewhere else and turned it around in New York. Connect picked a team ...that knows how to get the best out of its guys. And guys like DiVincenzo and Shamet are both shooters. And Dalton Connect, he saw this happen. He saw these shooters break out in New York and thought, oh, this is the type of place I should go. There won't be a lot of pressure. I mean, because there's a lot of shooters around. So I just have to hit mine. I got to get mine. And then between Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, the defense will collapse on them. Mike Brown likes to spray threes. I'll sit in that corner and wait to let that thing fly. No problem about it. That is really where it comes into it. And here's the long-term plan. If he plays in Westchester and in his NBA games, the Knicks can convert him to a standard contract because he'd be under that 3.3 veterans minimum deal because he hasn't played enough years for that to be the money he would get. So they could convert him for the playoffs. He could become their 15th man. And if he doesn't, and if it doesn't work out, it'll cost them nothing. And Stephen Simonary mentioned in Sports Illustrated that a low-cost lottery ticket with potential big, big, big potential payoffs right there. When you're 25 years old with 132 games in already, he isn't a project. He's a real shooter who just needs his confidence back and the Knicks are the perfect team to give him that. Now guys, also, if you do want more Knicks content broken down like this, make sure to go ahead and subscribe to the channel. We're at this time of recording the video, 25 subscribers away from hitting. 28K and we're trying to get to 30K before the year ends. I love this Dalton Connect move. I think the fact that he had other teams and went to the Knicks shows how important the Knicks have become in regards to the top franchises in the league and where players want to play because it leads to success. And I think Connect saw that and the staff is going to do their jobs. I love getting him real minutes in Westchester and using it like a minor league system, which it is, so the Knicks can keep their shooter warm until he's ready to come in and he's ready to knock some threes down. And in their very best case scenario, they might have just found another Landry Shamet who was integral to them winning an NBA final. So hard to argue with this, but tell me, does Dalton Connect play a role for the Knicks this season? What do you think about the move? What do you think about the real reason why he signed here? Like this video, subscribe, turn on post notifications, have a great day, and go Knicks.