{"id":375967,"date":"2026-10-18T01:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T01:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375967\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T01:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T01:08:17","slug":"knicks-waive-bruce-brown-pave-way-for-james-wiseman-to-get-final-roster-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/375967\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks waive Bruce Brown, pave way for James Wiseman to get final roster spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Knicks roster is now set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They waived Bruce Brown on Saturday, meaning it will be center James Wiseman who takes the 14th and final roster spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They only had room to keep 14 players<\/a> on the roster in order to stay under the second apron. It set up a competition in training camp and the preseason among five veterans \u2014 Wiseman, Brown, Drew Eubanks, Tony Bradley and Ochai Agbaji \u2014 for that spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That competition came down to Wiseman and Brown as the final two.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Knicks guard Bruce Brown (1) and Toronto Raptors forward Collin Murray-Boyles (30) battle for the ball during the second half of a preseason game in Toronto, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. Nathan Denette\/The Canadian Press via AP<\/p>\n

Ideally, the Knicks would have liked to keep both Wiseman and Brown. But that would have required making a trade to clear up cap space and they have so far been unable to find a deal, The Post\u2019s Stefan Bondy reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And with the Knicks needing a third center behind Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> and Andre Drummond, Wiseman always had the leg up on Brown<\/a>, who is a wing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The Knicks can still bring Brown back if they are able to make a trade. The two most likely candidates are Pac\u00f4me Dadiet and Tyler Kolek, though they\u2019d likely have to give up draft capital in order for a team to take on Dadiet\u2019s contract, and Kolek has little value around the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So for now, Brown is free to sign elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wiseman, the No. 2 pick in the 2020 draft, now gets a shot to resurrect his career with the defending champions. He played a total of just five games the last two years after tearing his Achilles in the first game of the 2024 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Knicks center James Wiseman (35) dunks the ball in the second half of a preseason game at Madison Square Garden, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026, in New York. Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n

After failing to live up to expectations with the Warriors, Wiseman had brief stints with the Pistons and Pacers. Given his athleticism and former stature as a top prospect, he had the most upside in the competition \u2014 but also represented the biggest unknown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He will fill the role that Ariel Hukporti \u2014 who left for the 76ers, but is out for the year after tearing his Achilles<\/a> in the preseason \u2014 served last year as the third-string center. With Towns\u2019 bad habit of getting into foul trouble, it\u2019s a role that certainly is important.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The center position behind Towns has been completely revamped, with Mitchell Robinson having left to join the Celtics<\/a> in free agency. He was replaced by the much cheaper Drummond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Knicks coach Mike Brown, who was an assistant with the Warriors when Wiseman was there, has been a fan of Wiseman\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s young, he\u2019s talented, he\u2019s raw, still,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI think he\u2019s still trying to establish a foothold in this league. But with the God-given attributes he has, in terms of athleticism and length and quickness, [that] can bode well for him on both ends of the floor. And at 25 years old, he hasn\u2019t even reached his prime, especially knowing he hadn\u2019t played a ton of basketball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bruce Brown, who has been a useful bench piece in the league, became a victim of the NBA\u2019s apron system<\/a> \u2014 which has made it harder for the middle class of players and veterans like him to fill bench roles. The Knicks, with their starting lineup all commanding significant money, had little money to spend on bench players and remain under the second apron. Many contenders like the Knicks are forced to fill out their bench as cheaply as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very surprised,\u201d Brown previously told The Post about the lack of interest in him during free agency. \u201cI played every single game last year, played meaningful minutes the whole year. Thought I did decently or good enough in my role that I was given. But when free agency started, that wasn\u2019t the case.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Knicks had clear interest in him, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, unless they manage to make a move, the apron system means they can\u2019t keep him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Knicks roster is now set.\u00a0 They waived Bruce Brown on Saturday, meaning it will be center James…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[38385,138277,21,9,11,1104,10,319],"class_list":["post-375967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-bruce-brown","tag-james-wiseman","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}