James Wiseman's Second Chance at Knicks Training Camp
James Wiseman will walk into New York Knicks training camp with a minimum deal, a medical file as thick as a playbook and one edge money can’t buy: the head coach already believes in him.
Mike Brown, now in charge of the reigning NBA champions, still sees something in Wiseman, according to Marc Stein of The Stein Line. That history instantly turns a routine Exhibit 9 camp battle into something more layered, more personal.
Five veterans are coming in on those camp deals. Only one, maybe two, will stick. Wiseman and Drew Eubanks are fighting for minutes in the middle. Bruce Brown, John Konchar and Ochai Agbaji are trying to punch their ticket on the perimeter.
The math is simple. The decision isn’t.
Brown and Wiseman, Reunited
Brown knows exactly what Wiseman looks like when things are going right—and how quickly it can all fall apart.
He was on Steve Kerr’s staff in Golden State when Wiseman arrived as the No. 2 pick in the 2020 draft, a 7-footer with soft hands, a high release and the kind of fluid athleticism that makes front offices dream big. As a rookie, Wiseman put up 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, flashing the vertical lob threat and face-up scoring that justified the Warriors’ gamble.
Then the injuries started.
A knee issue cut that first season short. The entire 2021-22 campaign disappeared. By February 2023, Golden State moved on, sending Wiseman to Detroit. The reset never truly took. Another chance came in Indiana, another cruel twist followed: five minutes into the 2024-25 opener, he tore his left Achilles tendon.
That’s the file the Knicks are opening now. A 25-year-old, 7-foot center with elite physical tools and a career repeatedly interrupted. Availability, defensive recognition, consistency—those aren’t footnotes. They’re the central questions.
Brown’s belief doesn’t hand Wiseman a roster spot. It does guarantee something almost as valuable: a real audition, evaluated by a coach who has seen more than a handful of summer scrimmages and workout clips. This is a coach who remembers both the promise and the stalls.
A Real Need in the Middle
This isn’t just a feel-good reunion story. New York has a basketball problem to solve.
Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond headline the center rotation. That’s a strong one-two punch. But with Mitchell Robinson and Ariel Hukporti gone, the depth behind them is a shrug. One injury, one foul-plagued night, and the safety net disappears.
That’s where this camp battle turns serious.
Wiseman brings size, vertical spacing and rebounding upside. He can run, finish above the rim and, if healthy, tilt the geometry of the floor as a lob target. Eubanks, an eight-year veteran, brings something different: reliability. He knows coverages, understands positioning and offers a steadier defensive baseline, even if his ceiling isn’t as tantalizing.
The Knicks can carry 15 standard contracts. They’re expected to start the season with 14 unless they make another move to trim salary. Thirteen spots are already guaranteed. One chair is open when the music stops on October 21.
Do they protect the frontcourt with a third center? Or do they turn to the wing?
Because the perimeter group in camp isn’t window dressing. Bruce Brown, Konchar and Agbaji all profile as playable rotation pieces—defenders who can survive in a playoff environment, connective wings who don’t need the ball to matter.
The choice is philosophical as much as it is tactical. Extra size behind Towns and Drummond, or one more trusted defender on the wing?
A Familiar Audition, A Different Stakes
New York has been here before.
Last fall, the Knicks staged a similar competition. Landry Shamet, Malcolm Brogdon, Garrison Mathews, Matt Ryan and Alex Len all arrived on camp deals, all chasing the same limited opportunity. Then Brogdon unexpectedly retired. A lane opened. Shamet seized it, played his way into the championship rotation and eventually landed a four-year, $24 million contract.
That’s the template sitting in front of Wiseman now. Not the role—Shamet is a guard, a movement shooter, a very different player—but the arc. Come to camp on the margins. Prove you belong. Force the front office to rewrite its depth chart.
Wiseman doesn’t need to be the player he was projected to be in 2020. He doesn’t need post touches or a featured role. He needs to screen with force, rebound in traffic, anchor coverages and live within a narrow, defined job description.
If he can stay on the floor, defend with discipline and embrace that limited role, Brown’s faith might turn into something more concrete: a roster spot, a rotation crack, and the rarest thing in the league for a former No. 2 pick whose career has been derailed again and again.
A second chance with a coach who still remembers why he was drafted that high in the first place.
