The New York Knicks won their first NBA title in 53 years last season. The team announced Wednesday that they'd signed three new players to compete for roster spots this fall, including two former NBA champions. Guard Bruce Brown, center James Wiseman and shooting guard Ochai Agbaji will each be joining the Knicks via Exhibit 9 contracts but aren't guaranteed to be on New York's roster when the regular season begins in October.
The trio of newcomers join center Drew Eubanks and shooting guard John Konchar as recent signees in line to fight for potentially just one roster spot. ESPN's Bobby Marks explained the situation. The Detroit Pistons selected Brown in the second round of the 2018 NBA Draft, and the Boston native spent the first two seasons of his career in Motown.
Brown was then sent to the Brooklyn Nets in November 2020 as part of a three-team trade and played two years with the group. He signed with the Denver Nuggets in July 2022 and helped the team win their first NBA championship in 2023. Brown averaged career highs in minutes (28.5) and points per game (11.5) during the 2022-23 regular season.
The University of Miami product split the 2023-24 campaign between the Indiana Pacers and Toronto Raptors, the 2024-25 season with the former and the New Orleans Pelicans and re-signed with the Nuggets in July 2025. Wiseman is entering his sixth year in the league and is still trying to rid himself of the NBA Draft bust label after being selected by the Golden State Warriors as the second overall pick in 2020. The big man has battled injuries and inconsistent play across his career, having never appeared in more than 63 regular season games.
Wiseman suffered a torn meniscus midway through his rookie season and missed the entire 2021-2022 campaign. He earned a championship ring with the Warriors that year while recovering from his injury and was shipped to the Pistons in February 2023 as part of a four-team trade. Wiseman played in 63 contests with Detroit during the 2023-24 season, signed with the Pacers in July 2024 and only appeared in five games across the last two campaigns combined with Indiana.
Agbaji won both the Big 12 Player of the Year award and an NCAA championship with Kansas in 2022 before being selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers as the 14th overall pick that summer. The 26-year-old was traded to the Utah Jazz in the Donovan Mitchell blockbuster one month before the 2022-23 campaign began though and played 110 games with the team across two seasons. Agbaji was traded to the Raptors in February 2024 and spent two years north of the border before being sent to the Nets this past February.
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