The Knicks added three more names to a crowded training-camp battle on Wednesday, signing Bruce Brown, Ochai Agbaji and James Wiseman to non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 contracts.
Brown arrives as the most established of the trio. The 30-year-old wing played in all 82 regular-season games for Denver last season, putting up 7.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.0 steal in 24.4 minutes per night while shooting .475/.385/.762. Steve Popper of Newsday reported that some people in New York’s front office have liked Brown for “a long time.”
Agbaji’s path has been a lot less direct. The 14th pick in the 2022 draft has already spent time in Utah, Toronto and Brooklyn, and he flashed some real value in 2024/25 with the Raptors.
In his third season, the 6’5” shooting guard averaged 10.4 points and 3.8 rebounds while hitting .399 from three in 64 games, including 45 starts. His role shrank sharply the following year, though, and after averaging 5.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in 15.7 minutes over 62 games for Toronto and Brooklyn in ’25/26, he did not get a qualifying offer from the Nets and hit unrestricted free agency in July.
Wiseman, meanwhile, is still trying to get his career moving after a string of health setbacks. The No. 2 overall pick entered the league with Golden State in 2020, missed the entire 2021/22 season with a knee injury, and then tore his Achilles at the start of the ’24/25 campaign.
Across 152 regular-season games with the Warriors, Pistons and Pacers, he has averaged 9.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in 18.8 minutes while shooting 56.0% from the field. Last season, he appeared in just four games for Indiana, with brief roster stays to begin the year and again in December.
Brown, Agbaji and Wiseman now join a roster fight that also includes center Drew Eubanks and wing John Konchar, who had their own non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 deals officially announced by the team on Wednesday. All five are in the mix for the back end of the regular-season roster during camp and preseason.
New York has taken this same kind of approach before. Last year, Landry Shamet won the final roster spot over Malcolm Brogdon, Garrison Mathews and Matt Ryan, then went on to become a trusted piece for head coach Mike Brown before signing a new four-year deal with the Knicks earlier this offseason.
The numbers game is tight. The Knicks currently have 13 players on guaranteed contracts, which leaves two openings on the 15-man roster unless a trade changes the picture.
But filling both spots would push the team into second-apron territory, and that’s a line the front office has treated like a hard stop in recent years. Team owner James Dolan made that clear in June when he said he’s adamant about not surpassing the second-apron line.
If that stance holds and no preseason trade clears salary, Brown, Agbaji, Wiseman, Eubanks and Konchar are effectively fighting for one spot. If New York creates room by moving salary or decides to live above the second apron temporarily, more than one of those players could still stick.
The Knicks now have 19 players under contract. That group includes the 13 guaranteed deals, the five new Exhibit 9 signings and Liam Robbins, who signed an Exhibit 10 contract on Tuesday. The team also signed six players to Exhibit 10 contracts on Tuesday and waived them right away, setting them up to join the Westchester Knicks in the G League.
Exhibit 9 language is a little different from Exhibit 10. It protects the team if a player gets hurt in preseason, but it does not create the same path to a bonus if that player is waived and later joins the club’s G League affiliate.
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