The Nix favor a center with their 14th standard roster spot, according to Stefan Bondi of The New York Post (subscriber link) who says James Wiseman became the favorite to make the team out of training camp.
However, there is an important caveat to Bondi’s report — Wiseman becoming New York’s No. 3 center will depend in part on his performances in the preseason. Bondy hears the former No. 2 overall pick has looked good in camp, but notes Wiseman has played just five games over the past two years since tearing his Achilles tendon in October 2024.
Wiseman is one of five players – the other four Tony Bradley, Drew Eubanks, Bruce Brown and Broken black — at the exhibition, 9 deals are competing for 14th place. Barring a trade, the Knicks are expected to open the season with a 14-man roster because adding a 15th player would push them into the second tax bracket that the owner owns James Dolan said the team would avoid.
While the head coach Mike Brown declined to share his thoughts on the lineup battle, he acknowledged that the team is paying particular attention to big men. He also spoke highly of Wiseman, whom he coached for two years as an assistant at Golden State.
“A fantastic man, a fantastic young man” said Brown.Good to see him in the gym. When you’re that long and that athletic, with the skill — he’s got the skill — there’s a place for you in this league. Sometimes you need the right moment, the right team, the right situation and all that to be able to adapt and develop somewhere.”
- Brown praised Bradley during the same media session, per Ian Begley of SNY.tv. “We are looking for large ones. Tony is a veteran guy who is still in his prime and has a good feel for the game, knows how to play the right way and has hurt us in the past” said Brown.Honestly, if a guy has hurt you in the past, you tend to remember him more than others. So being able to add him to camp was a positive for us because again, I said this last year, (Karl-Anthony Towns) is one of the most (difficult) positions of all because I want to move him around when I play him in the center. I want to play with him in the forward position; (if it is in) forward one to four are interchangeable. The same with And (Anunoby). OG, last year we put him in the top five. We will probably do it a little more this year. But to be able to do that, you have to have enough centers in the team, so having Tony with his skill set and feel is definitely a blessing because we are looking at that position carefully..”
- Although Brown made it clear that the Knicks will miss out Mitchell Robinson after he signed a three-year deal with the Celtics as a free agent, they are also optimistic Andre Drummond will bring to the table as a replacement at backup center, Begley adds. “We don’t expect Andre to come in and be Mitch or impact the game in any different ways than Mitch“, Brown said this week.”Just be yourself and everyone else needs to step up and bump a little bit more to help stop the penetration quicker, all the things that will make us a top tier team. We can all do a little better together.”
- Fred Katz of The Athletic explains why the Knicks might want to extend Towns through Oct. 19 rather than wait for an in-season deal. As Katz details, if Towns exercised his $61 million 2027/28 option on the extension — which is only possible until Oct. 19 — it would allow the team to lower his cap in 28/29, when the potential max extension for Jalen Brunson would theoretically come into effect.