The Knicks made their last roster call before the opener, and it went the way almost nobody expected. New York waived Bruce Brown and kept James Wiseman, per ESPN, handing the 15th spot to a center who has played five games in two years.
It is the right call anyway.
The Knicks Needed Size, Not Another Wing
Look at what New York actually lost this summer. Mitchell Robinson walked in free agency to Boston. The Knicks replaced him with Andre Drummond, and that left exactly two real centers behind Karl-Anthony Towns on a title defense. Two centers is how you end up playing a 6-foot-6 forward at the five in February.
Brown, meanwhile, would have been the eighth or ninth guard-wing on the roster. He played all 82 games for Denver last season and averaged 7.9 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists, which is useful and also completely redundant here. There was no path to minutes for him in New York that did not involve an injury to someone the Knicks need healthy.
So the choice was a reliable veteran who would not play versus a flier at the one position where the roster is thin. Front offices talk constantly about not paying for depth you will never use. This is that principle applied, and it stings because Brown is the more respected player.
Wiseman’s Injury History Is Real, and It Is Not What You Think
Worth getting this right, because it gets repeated wrong. Wiseman tore his Achilles with the Indiana Pacers in the 2024-25 season opener in October 2024, not with Toronto. The Raptors acquired him from Indiana in February 2025 strictly as a salary and cash maneuver and waived him the same night while he was still rehabbing.
He came back on a 10-day hardship contract with Indiana in December 2025. Add it up and the No. 2 overall pick from 2020 has appeared in five games over the last two seasons. He also missed all of 2021-22 with a knee injury. The last time he held a steady rotation job was 2023-24 in Detroit, where he averaged 7.1 points and 5.3 rebounds in 63 games.
In four preseason games with New York he went for 8.0 points and 4.3 rebounds. That is not a revelation. For a third center who will play spot minutes, it is plenty.
The Money Forced It
Both players were on non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 deals signed in mid-September, so neither carried a financial commitment. The Knicks plan to convert Wiseman’s into a league-minimum contract. SNY reported New York could not keep Brown because of second-apron restrictions, and that tracks with how this front office has operated all year. The second apron has been treated as a hard line, which turns the final roster spot into a single yes-or-no decision rather than a bidding exercise.
Given one slot, you fill the hole. Wiseman is 25, he is long, and the worst outcome is that he plays 60 total minutes and nobody notices. Brown is the easier name to defend on talk radio. He also solves nothing the Knicks were actually worried about.
New York got this one right. If Towns or Drummond goes down in November, nobody in the building will be arguing about Bruce Brown.
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.