East Rock alum Tyler Nickel couldn’t get on the floor at North Carolina, didn’t do much in one season at mid Virginia Tech, put up decent numbers at Vanderbilt, and that was enough for the 2026 NBA champs.
The 6’7” wing was taken with the 47th pick in the 2026 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks on Wednesday.
Nickel projects as a floor spacing guy with his ability to shoot from three – he was a career 39.4 percent shooter from long-range in college, on volume, averaging 6.5 attempts per game at Vandy in 2024-2025, and 7.6 attempts per game in his senior season, in 2025-2026.
And really, that’s about it with his game – he averaged just 2.2 two-point shots per game in his two seasons at Vanderbilt, and as a result, doesn’t get to the line much (1.6 FTAs/g at Vandy in his two seasons there).
His defense and athleticism are average, but he’s 6’7”, and he can shoot the ball – think: Joe Harris, Sam Hauser.
What gets me is how Hubert Davis missed on the former four-star recruit, only giving Nickel 6.0 minutes per game in his freshman season at UNC, and then Mike Young, who would seem to use all the talent he could get access to, couldn’t figure out how to use Nickel in his one season in Blacksburg.
Nickel, as a sophomore in 2023-2024, averaged 8.8 points per game, on 6.6 shot attempts per game, mostly coming off the bench for a Tech team that finished with a 19-15 record.
He finally hit his groove at Vandy, where he was a double-digit scorer in each of his two seasons, topping out at 13.5 points per game in his senior season.
As a second-round pick, he’ll likely have to play his way into the NBA through a two-way deal, meaning, he probably starts in the G League, where the front office will be able to see how his game might work at the pro level.
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Chris Graham
