Ochai Agbaji entered the preseason with a résumé that once looked a lot sturdier than it does right now. A year ago, he had three seasons of NBA experience, had started nearly half his games, and was coming off his best stretch with Toronto, where he averaged double-digit scoring and knocked down 40% of his threes.
Now the question is far less flattering: where does he stand with the Knicks?
After Tuesday night’s preseason opener against the 76ers, the answer looks shaky. Agbaji finished with one point and one rebound in eight minutes, missed all three of his three-point attempts, and may have made his case tougher at exactly the wrong time.
Preseason is ruthless like that. Every quiet night gets remembered.
The Knicks already look settled from one through 12. The starters are in place, and so are Andre Drummond, Miles McBride, Landry Shamet, Jordan Clarkson, Mohamed Diawara, Tyler Kolek and Pacome Dadiet. That leaves only one or two roster spots still hanging in the balance.
Agbaji is fighting uphill for one of them, and not just because of one rough outing. He’s buried in a crowded wing battle that includes Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, Deuce, Shamet and Clarkson, with Bruce Brown, Kevin McCullar Jr. and Dadiet also in the mix.
By that count, Agbaji may already be the ninth man at his position. That’s a hard climb for any player, especially one trying to break through with a smaller wing spot in a roster that can’t carry everybody.
Mike Brown used 20 Knicks against Philadelphia, but the minutes weren’t handed out evenly. Only Tony Bradley and Drew Eubanks played fewer than Agbaji, and that says plenty about where things stood in the coaching staff’s eyes on Tuesday.
Bradley logged six minutes and Eubanks was out there too, but the Knicks are clearly higher on Andre Drummond and James Wiseman than on those two bigger, less established options. The minutes reflected that. And when a player like Agbaji gets less run than nearly everyone else in the same competition, it’s hard not to read that as a sign.
That’s the part working against him: the staff already knows what most of the other candidates bring, and they still saw fit to give Agbaji a shorter look than almost all of them.
Of course, it’s one game. It’s one preseason game. But if New York were truly eager to find another wing, and truly encouraged by what Agbaji can offer, he probably would have had more than eight minutes to show it.
The fit matters here. In today’s NBA, balance is the name of the game, and contenders need players who don’t break the machine.
Boston, Oklahoma City and last year’s Knicks fit that mold with rotations built around two-way pieces. Agbaji doesn’t naturally check every box in that kind of setup.
His shooting is the swing skill. He did hit 40% from deep in 2025, but the seasons around that were rougher, with marks of 30% and 27% from three.
Against the 76ers, he was one of four Knicks who didn’t score, though the other three are not in the same spot. McBride has already proven enough that a scoreless night won’t move the needle.
Tyler Nickel is a late second-round pick still settling in. Eubanks is an eight-year veteran who has never averaged better than seven points a game, and nobody is drawing up shots for him anyway.
Agbaji is different. If he’s going to make this roster, he has to shoot well. He doesn’t bring Bruce Brown’s versatility or Jordan Clarkson’s ballhandling, so the shot has to be there to keep him relevant and keep the Knicks’ spacing intact.
If it isn’t, someone else will probably take the swing on him. The league moves fast. But if Agbaji can’t fit cleanly with the champs, that opportunity may have to wait for another team to come calling.
In Other News...
Bruce Brown Is Suddenly In A Knicks Fight Fans Didn't Expect
Bruce Browns path to New York has been shaped as much by the leagues new spending rules as by his own rsum. The 30-year-old forward, long valued as a high-energy bench piece, landed with the Knicks on a training camp deal after drawing limited interest elsewhere, a reminder of how the NBAs second apron has made life harder for veteran free agents hunting for the kind of stable, longer-term opportunity Brown once would have had.
Now Brown is simply trying to stick, which is a different challenge entirely. Training camp invitations always carry an edge of uncertainty, but in this case the Knicks depth chart leaves little room for comfort, and the competition for a roster spot has become the real story as New York sorts out its back end before opening night. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Opener Got Pulled Into A LeBron Embiid Tension Story
The Knicks preseason opener wound up carrying a little extra chatter before the ball was even tipped, thanks to a Mike Breen mention of a story involving LeBron James and Joel Embiid. The buzz centered on an alleged incident in which James supposedly reprimanded Embiid for being late to a 76ers practice, a bit of sideline gossip that quickly spread beyond the game itself even though neither star took part in the matchup against New York.
LeBron publicly pushed back on the tale on Instagram, while Embiid has stayed quiet. Inside the 76ers, the picture has sounded much calmer, with reports indicating the groups practices and workouts have been viewed in positive terms. For the Knicks, it meant a preseason game briefly got pulled into a bigger league conversation, the sort of off-court thread that can linger even when the players at the center of it are not on the floor. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Are Running Into A Harsh Pacome Dadiet Reality
Pacome Dadiets first year in New York has not exactly given the Knicks much leverage. The team is said to be exploring ways to move the young wing in order to clear a roster spot and create a little more salary-cap flexibility, but the market has not responded the way they had hoped. After a lukewarm Summer League, World Cup qualifiers and preseason showing, Dadiet has not built the kind of buzz that usually helps a player become a useful trade chip.
For the Knicks, that leaves a familiar front office problem: trying to turn a roster logjam into a clean solution without paying too high a price. There has been no concrete deal reported, and the lack of outside interest suggests New York may have to get creative to get anything done. For now, Dadiet remains on the roster and the team is still looking for a path forward that fits both the cap sheet and the depth chart. [Read more 🡒]