Shams Charania reported Thursday that Drew Eubanks suffered a torn pectoral muscle and that the Knicks are waiving him. Then he added the rest of it.
“The Knicks are waiving Tony Bradley and Ochai Agbaji along with Eubanks, sources said,” Charania posted.
Three players, one afternoon, five days before opening night. That is not a reaction to an injury. That is a roster crunch that was always going to end this way.
The Apron Is Running This Team
New York has 13 players on guaranteed contracts and had been sitting at 15 on the roster. Barring a trade, the Knicks must waive one more player to stay under the second apron, which ownership has mandated the team will not cross.
So the front office was going to cut somebody regardless. Eubanks tearing a pec on an Exhibit 9 contract, which limits New York’s obligation to a one-time $15,000 payment, simply made one of the decisions for them.
That is the cold arithmetic of a champion operating under the new tax rules. The Knicks won a title and now cannot keep 15 players.
James Wiseman Just Won a Job by Default
Eubanks, Bradley and Wiseman were competing for the backup center spot. Two of the three are gone.
Ian Begley of SNY reported Thursday that Wiseman had already put himself in a strong position before Eubanks got hurt. Bruce Brown is also in contention, but New York would need to trade a player under contract to fit him.
“James Wiseman appears to be the beneficiary,” Sam Amico of Hoops Wire wrote.
Wiseman was the second overall pick in 2020 and has spent six years failing to stick anywhere. He is about to open a season as the backup center for the defending champions because two other centers got cut and one of them got hurt. Basketball careers turn on less.
Who Just Lost a Job
Eubanks is 29 and has played eight NBA seasons with the Spurs, Trail Blazers, Suns, Jazz, Clippers and Kings. His career line is 426 games, 86 starts, 5.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, 15.1 minutes and 60.3 percent shooting. With Sacramento last season he played 42 games with 11 starts. In three preseason games with New York he scored 13 points with three rebounds in 28 total minutes.
Tony Bradley, 28, was the 28th overall pick in 2017 out of North Carolina and has played for the Jazz, 76ers, Thunder, Bulls, Pacers and Hawks.
Ochai Agbaji, 26, was the 14th overall pick in 2022 out of Kansas, where he won a national championship and was Final Four Most Outstanding Player. He had been with the Jazz, Raptors and Nets, and signed with the Knicks on September 16. He lasted a month.
Mike Brown Said the Right Thing
Head coach Mike Brown noted before the cuts that all three centers belonged on NBA rosters and that the decision would not be easy. He was right on both counts, and it did not change the outcome, because the apron does not care who deserves a job.
New York still has one more cut to make. Somebody on a guaranteed deal is going to find out this week that winning a championship does not protect you from a spreadsheet.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.