{"id":879842,"date":"2026-10-12T16:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T16:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/879842\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T16:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T16:22:12","slug":"karl-anthony-towns-trade-rumors-and-the-knicks-second-apron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/879842\/","title":{"rendered":"Karl-Anthony Towns Trade Rumors and the Knicks Second Apron"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Five<\/a>The New York Knicks stand for the national anthem before playing the Washington Wizards at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 8 in New York. (Sarah Stier\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The New York Knicks have one open standard roster spot entering the 2026-27 season and five veterans on non-guaranteed camp contracts competing for it: James Wiseman, Bruce Brown, Drew Eubanks, Tony Bradley and Ochai Agbaji. <\/p>\n

After two preseason games, Andre Drummond has claimed the backup center job, playing 32 minutes across both games, including more than Karl-Anthony Towns in Thursday\u2019s 111-109 loss to Washington. <\/p>\n

Eubanks, Bradley and Agbaji did not play Thursday, leaving Wiseman and Brown as the leading candidates. The Knicks sit $3,273,768 below the second apron, enough for one veteran minimum signing. Trading Pac\u00f4me Dadiet\u2019s $2,983,680 salary would open room for both.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we know: Five veterans signed camp deals for one spot on the Knicks roster. After two preseason games, Mike Brown has told us which two he\u2019s actually looking at.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t say it in a press conference. He said it with minutes.<\/p>\n

Thursday night, the Wizards beat the Knicks 111-109 at the Garden. Anthony Davis scored 16 in his first game for Washington, AJ Dybantsa had four steals in his NBA debut, and the crowd was loud enough, with chants aimed at Trae Young from the opening introductions, that it felt like more than a preseason game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Knicks fans was into it all the way to the end,\u201d Al from Harlem said on The Knick of Time Show postgame. \u201cThey were trying to see a buzzer-beater.\u201d<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t get one. But they got the clearest look yet at how this roster is going to shake out.<\/p>\n

Two games in, the camp veterans and Drummond have been used like this:<\/p>\n

Brown and Wiseman are the only two who have played in both games. Agbaji, Bradley and Eubanks sat Thursday at home against the biggest frontcourt the Knicks will see before opening night.<\/p>\n

Preseason coaches\u2019 decisions can include scheduled rest, and Brown has been rotating guys. But if all five were still in it, the minutes would be spread around. They aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Start with the one thing that isn\u2019t up for debate anymore.<\/p>\n

Drummond played 20:24 Thursday, more than Towns, Anunoby and every starter but Hart and Brunson. He had eight points, nine rebounds, five of them offensive, four assists and two steals, and the Knicks were plus-1 with him on the floor. Across both games, he\u2019s plus-10.<\/p>\n

The panel didn\u2019t agree on what that means.<\/p>\n

Al saw the hole Drummond can\u2019t fill. \u201cOne thing Drummond doesn\u2019t have: he doesn\u2019t fill the dunker spot,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s not really a big lob threat.\u201d When Mitchell Robinson rolled to the rim, he pulled the corner defenders in with him, and those corners were wide open. Al\u2019s point is that Drummond\u2019s role doesn\u2019t create that gravity, so the corner threes the Knicks\u2019 whole offense is built to produce won\u2019t come as easily.<\/p>\n

I pushed back on the show. Drummond makes better decisions on the short roll than Robinson did, and he hits his free throws, so the game doesn\u2019t stall when he gets fouled. Brown has also been running offense through him at the elbow, the same spot Towns uses, and he has flowed into handoffs faster than I expected. I haven\u2019t seen a Knicks center set screens with that kind of timing since Isaiah Hartenstein. My worry is finishing. Two games in, he hasn\u2019t scored around the rim the way he used to.<\/p>\n

Ryan G, back on the show after the summer, came away relieved. \u201cGoing into the season, I thought the big man position was really a big concern,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter seeing what Drummond has done in the first two preseason games, I\u2019m not really that concerned anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our fearless leader, J. Ellis, wasn\u2019t ready to go that far. He wants to see Drummond against real size first. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to do these things versus the so-so teams,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I\u2019m thinking about another chip, and to win another chip you’ve got to get through the big doors.\u201d He means Cleveland, San Antonio and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

My read is in the middle. Drummond isn\u2019t a playoff backup center. He doesn\u2019t have to be. If he gets the Knicks through the regular season, they aren\u2019t desperate at the trade deadline for an Yves Missi or a Moussa Diabat\u00e9, and that leverage matters.<\/p>\n

If the Knicks keep one veteran, the evidence points to a third center.<\/p>\n

New York has three two-way players: Tyler Nickel, Kevin McCullar Jr. and Jaden Akins. None of them is a big man. Behind Towns and Drummond, there\u2019s nobody on a guaranteed deal or a two-way contract who plays center.<\/p>\n

Wiseman is the only camp center getting real minutes. He\u2019s scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting across two games, and he\u2019s playing like somebody who knows what\u2019s at stake.<\/p>\n

\u201cWiseman is playing as if he wants a spot on this roster,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

Al went further. \u201cI think he has that final center spot,\u201d he said. Wiseman gives the Knicks something Drummond doesn\u2019t: a big who threatens the rim on the roll. Al noticed it on Wiseman\u2019s first possession Thursday, a lob that didn\u2019t connect but still pulled the defense.<\/p>\n

I made the same argument on the show from a different angle. When a defender walls Wiseman off in the dunker spot, he can reposition and find another way to score, and that\u2019s a more advanced skill than Robinson ever showed. The coaching staff has simplified his job: run the floor, finish at the rim, defend. He looks better for it, and like Drummond, he came into camp noticeably lighter.<\/p>\n

The weak spot showed up Thursday. He grabbed one rebound in nearly nine minutes on a night when Washington won the glass 67-51. A 7-footer has to do more than that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been the loudest voice for Brown all month, and I still am.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Knicks stand for the national anthem before playing the Washington Wizards at Madison Square Garden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-879842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}