James Wiseman's Opportunity at Knicks Training Camp
James Wiseman will walk into New York Knicks training camp on a modest deal, with a major injury file and one very real edge.
Mike Brown already believes in him.
The Knicks head coach, still a Wiseman backer according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line, knows the former No. 2 pick better than most. That connection adds a layer of intrigue to what might otherwise be a routine preseason sorting exercise for the reigning NBA champions, who have brought five veterans to camp on Exhibit 9 contracts.
Wiseman and Drew Eubanks will scrap for minutes — and maybe a job — at center. Bruce Brown, John Konchar and Ochai Agbaji will try to wedge their way into the wing mix. The math is simple enough: New York can carry 15 standard contracts but is expected to start the season with 14 unless another salary-clearing move appears. With 13 guaranteed spots already locked in, there is, in all likelihood, one chair left when the music stops on October 21.
Brown’s Long Memory
Brown’s interest in Wiseman isn’t based on grainy scouting clips or summer workout videos. It goes back to Golden State.
As Steve Kerr’s assistant, Brown was on the Warriors bench for Wiseman’s first two seasons. He saw the raw, towering outline of the player who went second overall in the 2020 draft. He also watched that promise stall, over and over, as injuries and interruptions cut through any chance of rhythm.
Wiseman’s rookie year offered a glimpse: 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, flashes of touch and athleticism, then a knee injury that shut him down. He lost the entire 2021-22 season. Golden State moved him to Detroit in February 2023. The next chapter, in Indiana, barely began — five minutes into the 2024-25 opener, he tore his left Achilles tendon.
That’s the file the Knicks medical staff will pore over. That’s the context Brown carries with him.
Wiseman is 25 now. Seven feet tall. Still armed with tools coaches can’t teach: length, mobility, vertical pop. The questions sit elsewhere — can he stay on the floor, read the game defensively, and deliver the same effort every night?
Brown’s backing doesn’t hand him a roster spot. It does guarantee something almost as valuable at this stage: a real chance. Not a courtesy look, not a back-end cameo, but a camp where the head coach evaluates him from a place of history, not hope.
A Real Need Behind Towns and Drummond
This isn’t just sentiment. It’s roster construction.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond anchor the center rotation. Behind them, the depth chart thins out quickly. The exits of Mitchell Robinson and Ariel Hukporti stripped New York of an established third big, the kind of insurance every contender quietly relies on by January.
Wiseman offers size, vertical spacing as a lob threat and rebounding upside. On the right night, he can tilt the geometry of the floor above the rim. Eubanks counters with something less glamorous but often more comforting to a coaching staff: eight years of NBA experience, dependable positioning, and a defensive baseline you can more or less predict.
The choice may not be framed as Wiseman versus Eubanks in public, but that’s the tension. Protect the frontcourt with a high-variance talent trying to restart his career, or lean into a veteran who rarely surprises you — for better or worse.
There’s another fork in the road. The Knicks could decide the back end of the roster is better spent on the perimeter. Bruce Brown brings championship experience and defensive grit. Konchar offers size and shooting on the wing. Agbaji, younger and still developing, brings athleticism and two-way potential.
One slot. Three wings. Two centers. One coaching staff trying to balance need, upside and trust.
A Familiar Path — With a Different Name
New York has walked this tightrope before.
Last fall, the Knicks used camp to stage a similar competition, inviting Landry Shamet, Malcolm Brogdon, Garrison Mathews, Matt Ryan and Alex Len. Brogdon’s surprise retirement cracked the door open. Shamet stepped through it, played his way into the championship rotation and earned a four-year, $24 million contract.
That’s the template sitting in front of Wiseman now.
He doesn’t need to be the player he was projected to be in 2020. He needs to be healthy. He needs to defend with focus. He needs to accept a limited role on a loaded team and excel inside it, not outside it.
Brown’s belief gives him a runway. The Knicks’ need for a reliable third center gives him a lane.
What Wiseman does with that intersection — talent, opportunity, and one more shot at relevance in New York — will decide whether opening night at Madison Square Garden includes a quiet reunion on the bench, or another chapter in a career still searching for its true beginning.
