James Wiseman's Crucial Opportunity with the Knicks

James Wiseman will walk into New York Knicks training camp with no guarantees, a fragile résumé and one crucial edge: the man in charge already believes in him.

Mike Brown, fresh off a title and firmly in command of the Knicks’ locker room, still sees something in Wiseman, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line. That connection instantly turns a routine camp battle into something more layered. New York has brought in five veterans on Exhibit 9 deals, a standard move for a contender. Wiseman is the one who arrives with both the highest ceiling and the heaviest baggage.

He’s not alone. Drew Eubanks is his direct rival at center. Bruce Brown, John Konchar and Ochai Agbaji will scrap for perimeter minutes and a potential roster slot. The math is unforgiving: the Knicks can carry 15 standard contracts, but they’re expected to start the season with 14 to manage salary. Thirteen deals are already guaranteed. On paper, that leaves one job when the regular season tips on October 21.

For Wiseman, that single opening might feel like the last crack of daylight.

Brown’s Familiar Project

This isn’t a blind audition. Brown coached Wiseman as an assistant under Steve Kerr in Golden State during the center’s first two seasons. He saw the flashes that made Wiseman the No. 2 pick in the 2020 draft: the length, the soft touch, the ability to run the floor and play above the rim. He also saw the stops and starts that derailed a promising beginning.

As a rookie, Wiseman put up 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game before a knee injury cut his season short. Then came the lost year: he missed the entire 2021-22 campaign. Golden State eventually moved on, sending him to Detroit in February 2023, a trade that was supposed to reset his trajectory.

It didn’t last. Another opportunity came in Indiana, and it vanished almost as quickly as it arrived. Wiseman’s Pacers stint effectively ended after five minutes — a torn left Achilles in the 2024-25 opener.

That’s the file the Knicks are working with: a 7-footer, only 25 years old, with tools you can’t teach and availability you can’t trust. His physical gifts remain obvious. The questions are just as clear: can he stay on the floor, anchor a defense and deliver the same effort every night?

Brown’s backing won’t hand him a roster spot. It does guarantee something just as valuable in camp: a real look from a coach who isn’t guessing. Brown’s opinion is rooted in years of practices, film sessions and playoff scouting, not a handful of September scrimmages.

A Real Need Behind Towns and Drummond

This isn’t just a feel-good reunion story. The Knicks have a basketball problem to solve.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond give New York a powerful one-two punch at center, but the depth chart thins out fast after that. Mitchell Robinson is gone. Ariel Hukporti is gone. The safety net behind the top two bigs has vanished.

That’s where Wiseman and Eubanks come in. Wiseman offers size, vertical spacing as a lob threat and rebounding upside if he can stay engaged. Eubanks, now eight years into his NBA career, brings something very different: reliability. Coaches know what his defensive floor looks like, even if the ceiling isn’t as high.

The choice may hinge on philosophy as much as performance. Do the Knicks prioritize protecting their frontcourt with another true center, betting on either Wiseman’s upside or Eubanks’ steadiness? Or do they decide they’re comfortable with Towns and Drummond and instead use that final spot on the wing?

Bruce Brown, Konchar and Agbaji all present arguments there. Brown is a proven playoff performer and versatile defender. Konchar can space the floor and do the small things that glue lineups together. Agbaji brings youth, length and the potential to grow into a two-way rotation piece.

Every decision will be made with a contender’s lens. This isn’t a rebuilding team handing out minutes to see what sticks.

A Familiar Script, a New Lead

New York has played this game before.

Last fall, the Knicks turned camp into a similar proving ground, inviting Landry Shamet, Malcolm Brogdon, Garrison Mathews, Matt Ryan and Alex Len. It looked like a crowded, mostly routine competition. Then the script flipped: Brogdon unexpectedly retired, a door swung open, and Shamet walked through it.

Shamet didn’t just survive camp. He carved out a role, became a trusted piece of a championship rotation and eventually earned a four-year, $24 million contract. One Exhibit 9 turned into long-term security.

Wiseman now stands where Shamet once did — only with more pedigree and more scars.

Brown’s belief gives him a head start. The rest is on Wiseman: his health, his defensive commitment, his willingness to accept a limited, defined role on a team with title ambitions. New York doesn’t need him to be the player he was projected to be in 2020. It needs him to be dependable in 10 to 15 minutes a night, ready when Towns or Drummond sit or foul trouble hits.

If he can do that, a modest camp deal could become something far bigger. If he can’t, the league’s former No. 2 pick will watch another team move on, and another chance slip away.

Training camp will tell the story. The question is whether this is Wiseman’s last audition as a project — or the moment he finally becomes a piece a contender can trust.