Miles McBride may be the Knicks player who benefits most if Drew Eubanks or James Wiseman sticks on the opening-night roster.
That sounds backward at first, but the logic is pretty simple: if New York uses one of its final spots on a center, it can put off the trade chatter that’s already hovering over McBride. If the Knicks don’t add a big, then Deuce becomes the obvious name to dangle when they go looking for frontcourt insurance.
That’s because the perimeter options New York signed don’t really solve the problem. Bruce Brown Jr., John Konchar and Ochai Agbaji aren’t built to replace McBride’s value, especially when it comes to the amount and efficiency of three-point shooting he brings. So if the Knicks leave the 14th roster spot for a wing, they still don’t have a clean answer behind their current guard group.
What they do need is a third center. Right now, the roster is one Karl-Anthony Towns rolled ankle away from real trouble in the frontcourt. Andre Drummond is a useful minimum pickup, but there are going to be lineups and stretches where he isn’t the right answer to handle the backup load on either end.
If New York doesn’t sign a center, it will have to trade for one. And that’s where McBride starts looking vulnerable. Pacome Dadiet doesn’t bring much trade value, and his $3 million salary is harder to use as the centerpiece of a deal by itself.
The case for keeping McBride gets stronger if the Knicks simply sign a center.
Given their salary-cap situation, moving Deuce for a backup big would be a wild move. He’s not some spare part.
If you squint, you can even see him getting Sixth Man of the Year buzz. Trading him for someone who might only be the backup to Towns’ backup is a shaky use of assets.
His upcoming free agency doesn’t change that much, either. The money he’s likely to command has been overstated, and the NBA’s latest salary-cap projections actually give the Knicks a little more breathing room under next year’s second apron.
Of course, all of that depends on Eubanks or Wiseman being good enough to claim one of the final roster spots. If neither one makes the cut, the whole conversation shifts back toward New York needing a more urgent answer at center.
Even if the Knicks are willing to lean into more no-center lineups, adding a third big would still be a necessity. And while the buyout market could eventually help, names like Brook Lopez or Deandre Ayton aren’t instant fixes, and they’re not likely to become available before February’s trade deadline.
So if Eubanks or Wiseman makes the team, it isn’t just about those players earning a job. It would also be a quiet signal that New York may already be content enough with its big-man situation to hold off on moving McBride.
That doesn’t make him untouchable. But it does buy the Knicks time.
They’d have more runway to evaluate the market, see whether a better option surfaces for Dadiet’s salary and draft compensation, and wait to see if the buyout landscape changes sooner than expected. In that scenario, a Deuce McBride trade could still happen eventually. The difference is, if the Knicks sign a center now, they give themselves a much better chance of never having to make that move at all.
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Knicks fan, also said he will not attend because of the initially high ticket prices, a reminder of how quickly a big-night buzz can run into real-world sticker shock. The team said it will roll prices back to last years levels with an average 12% increase and refund customers who already bought at the higher rates, but the episode has already added an awkward twist to what should have been a clean celebration. [Read more 🡒]
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That matters in a place like New York, where every roster spot is scrutinized and every opportunity feels hard-won. Players around the league notice when a coach is willing to look deeper than the obvious choices, and the Knicks have already become the kind of team some veterans and younger pieces view as a possible opening rather than a dead end. The question now is which of these camp additions can turn that belief into something more lasting. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Camp Battle Just Got More Interesting For One Roster Spot
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Brown makes the subplot a little more interesting because New York had already looked into him at the 2024 trade deadline, and he brings a versatility that can help on both ends of the floor. The Knicks will sort through several moving parts as they evaluate the rest of the roster, but this fight for one spot now has a familiar name in the mix and a clearer sense of urgency attached to it. [Read more 🡒]