James Wiseman Is Already Changing Knicks' Entire Center Outlook

"Just trying to contribute to the team with whatever I can do. Just really fight my hardest, that’s what I did," said Wiseman after the game to reporters.

Allowing the Knicks to create extra possessions and be a roll threat definitely helps his favor. He brought much-needed intensity on the floor at both ends, whether it was gathering rebounds, blocking shots, penetrating the paint—he was doing a little bit of everything.

The Knicks have been searching for a third center option behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond, the latter of whom performed well himself in his 12 minutes (six points, five rebounds, three blocks, +34.6 net rating). It’s a much-needed boost for the Knicks to see two of the centers they brought in to hopefully replace Mitchell Robinson instantly give impactful minutes when much of this offseason has been spent worrying about filling the void at main backup and third string.

It'll be interesting to see if the Knicks can tap into more with Wiseman, and they definitely have a coaching staff that knows what they’re getting with him. Don’t forget: Wiseman played for Mike Brown when he was an associate head coach with the Warriors and then Mark Bryant in Detroit when he was an assistant there (right before going to the Knicks).

According to The Post’s Stefan Bondy, Wiseman is viewed as the “front-runner” for a spot on the Knicks’ Opening Night roster, as he’s “impressed in camp, according to witnesses.” This guy is still only 25 years old—it would be a huge win for the Knicks if they were to have Wiseman provide any value that we saw when he initially was coming into the league.

The first big off the bench on Monday after KAT and Drummond was Wiseman, if you like reading the tea leaves at all. For what it’s worth, only Bruce Brown (10:19) logged more minutes among the training camp invites than Wiseman, but he most importantly played more than Tony Bradley (6:05) and Drew Eubanks (5:55).