James Wiseman’s Knicks debut may finally come Friday, and the path to it starts with what happened Tuesday night.
When Karl-Anthony Towns landed in foul trouble early, Mike Brown didn’t hesitate to lean on backup center Andre Drummond. The move paid off at first. Drummond delivered a double-double in the first half, and he did it in a single 14-minute run without coming out of the game.
That stretch gave the Knicks something to believe in. It also may have shown Brown the danger of overworking Drummond, because the second half looked different.
When Towns picked up more fouls in the fourth and Drummond went back in, he didn’t have the same pop. Embiid blocked his shot multiple times, and there were possessions where Drummond simply couldn’t rise through his man the way he had earlier.
That’s where Wiseman comes in.
He’s three years younger than Mitchell Robinson and has 7,500 fewer career minutes on his body. The Knicks did not bring him in to log 20 minutes a night.
They don’t need that. What they might need is a few short bursts each half, just enough to spare Drummond and Towns and keep everyone fresher when it matters most.
Wiseman does not have to be a featured piece to matter.
The matchup with Boston makes that idea more realistic. The Celtics are deeper at center than Philadelphia, but they don’t have a true Embiid-type force banging away inside, and that matters for a Knicks frontcourt already dealing with Towns’ foul issues.
Towns finished the opener with four fouls, and Tuesday marked the first time in five months that he committed fewer than four fouls in a game. That stretch covered New York’s final 11 playoff games and the Sixer game Tuesday.
That kind of foul trouble is a problem the Knicks can’t just ask Drummond to solve alone. He’s useful, and he’s older. That’s a tough combo to ask to carry the load every time Towns gets whistled for something unnecessary.
Wiseman gives New York a different kind of look. Defense is not why he’s in the league, but in limited minutes against Boston, the assignment is simpler: rebound, run the floor and finish at the rim when the chance is there. That may be enough to help offset Towns’ odd foul habits and Drummond’s limitations.
The Celtics’ bigs were busy in Detroit’s loss to Boston. Jalen Duren and Paul Reed combined for 16 shots, nearly twice as many as Towns took against Philadelphia. They scored 28 points and shot 63% from the floor.
New York’s centers can offer more than that, but getting there may require expanding the rotation. In other words: playing Wiseman.
Boston’s interior pieces are built around defense, rebounding and opportunistic scoring, and there’s also the possibility of the Celtics trying Paul George on Towns, a look that gave the Knicks trouble in the playoffs. That could open the door for New York to revisit a double-big setup that has worked for them before.
Towns and Robinson meshed because their games didn’t step on each other. Towns could fire from long range or attack the basket while another 7-footer handled the cleanup work and the offensive glass. That kind of arrangement can still make sense, especially if Boston ends up smaller than the Knicks.
Drummond brings power, but not much burst. Wiseman does have burst.
Even in a short stint, that changes the equation. A pick-and-roll with Wiseman while Towns drifts out beyond the arc could force Boston into a bad choice: guard Wiseman with a smaller defender and risk the lob, or put a big on him and leave Towns with a clear size advantage.
If Boston splits its bigs between those two, it also risks clogging its own offense with too many non-spacers.
The Celtics have moved far from the version of themselves that once featured Kristaps Porzingis and Al Horford as stretch bigs, but they probably don’t want to spend too much time with a lineup in which 40% of the group can’t shoot.
A year ago, few would have expected Ariel Hukporti to play such a meaningful role in the clinching game of the NBA Finals, but his energy and defense helped spark the comeback that led to the title. Wiseman’s potential minutes Friday would not carry that kind of weight, but with both teams trying to avoid an 0-2 start, he may get a chance anyway. And if he does, it could matter.
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