The Knicks’ last roster decision is no longer a quiet camp formality. It has become a real competition, one that now sits in the middle of their preseason setup.
That is the read from the New York Post, which described the team’s push to sort out the final roster spot as something that could be pivotal to the season. Posting and Toasting put it even more bluntly: the Knicks’ training camp “suddenly became vastly more interesting this week” after the team added five veterans to nonguaranteed Exhibit 9 deals.
Those five veterans — Bruce Brown, John Konchar, Ochai Agbaji, Drew Eubanks and James Wiseman — are not guaranteed anything. Exhibit 9 contracts are essentially training-camp tryouts, and the Knicks’ decision to load up on them turns the back end of the roster into a live contest rather than a placeholder exercise.
The latest additions, Konchar and Eubanks, make that especially clear.
Konchar is an undrafted 6-foot-5 wing out of Purdue Fort Wayne who spent the bulk of his career with the Memphis Grizzlies, where he built a reputation as a defensive specialist. He has played in 363 regular-season games and averaged four points, four rebounds, 1.5 assists and 0.9 steals in 17.6 minutes per game. Eubanks, meanwhile, posted a career-high 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds per game as a starter in 2021-22.
The Knicks are not just inviting competition; they are boxed in by it. They currently have 13 standard NBA contracts, one short of the required 14, and only room for one more standard deal if they want to stay under the second apron. That means the team cannot simply keep stacking veterans without making room somewhere else.
Posting and Toasting noted that the Knicks have room for two more standard contracts, but keeping both camp veterans would likely require a salary-clearing trade to remain below the second apron. The New York Post’s version of the situation is even tighter: only one more standard deal fits under the second apron without additional maneuvering.
There has also been a long stretch without a major roster move. As one report put it, “We haven’t heard of a real roster move since the attempt to sign Mavericks center Moussa Cisse to an offer sheet back on July 19, but as training camp approaches in the next few weeks, the Knicks need to figure out who’s filling the final roster spots.”
That leaves the Knicks with a training camp roster that is already crowded enough to create pressure, but not settled enough to remove it. The team is at 17 players, with 13 standard deals, two training camp deals and two players likely to be signed to two-way contracts. In other words, there is still room to add bodies, but not much room to add certainty.
And certainty is exactly what the Knicks do not have at the moment.
It is extremely unlikely that both Konchar and Eubanks will make the Opening Night roster, and the same financial limits that make the competition interesting also make it narrow. The Knicks can bring in veterans for camp, but turning those invitations into permanent spots is another matter.
That is why the final roster spot has become the story, not a footnote to it. The Knicks have five veterans on Exhibit 9 deals, 13 standard contracts already on the books, and a cap structure that leaves little margin for error. Training camp is about to decide which of those names stays in the picture when the season begins.