Oct 26, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo (13) drives to the basket against New York Knicks center Ariel Hukporti (55) during the first quarter at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Knicks Coach Clarifies Reserve Center's Rotational Status

Originally posted on New York Knicks on SI
By Henry Brown | Last updated Nov 12, 2025 4:00 PM ET

The New York Knicks, true to their word, have delivered on bringing in useful bench pieces to consolidate their contending hopes.

Last season's top-heavy rotation and thin bench made it increasingly clear that this squad required extra hands if they wanted to surpass last spring's Eastern Conference Finals high-water mark, and they spent their summer bagging a few recognizable faces to add some additional help and start seeing some of those goals through.

Balancing New Faces

Mike Brown is now at the controls, and he's more than willing to keep the Knicks adapting after several years spent as one of the more uncreative and unbalanced squads in the game.

He retained New York's assortment of scoring stars in Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, their duo of two-way wings in OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, as well as the fringe-spot-starter combination of Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart. Behind them sits a reliable bench scoring option in Miles McBride, who's joined by the free agent acquisitions of Jordan Clarkson, Landry Shamet and Guerschon Yabusele, who continues getting opportunities as he works out of an early slump.

Those are the Knicks' top-10 per-game minute leaders through their first 10 outings, leaving one of New York's opening night starters in a completely different role. Just a few weeks after Ariel Hukporti played over 17 minutes in the squad's regular season debut, Brown's admitted that he's out of the rotation entirely.

"I don't know. I can probably play 10 guys, and right now, he's not in the top 10, so he's just gotta keep himself ready," the coach said. "And when his number's called, he's just gotta go out there and he's gotta play hard on both ends of the floor for his minutes."

New York Knicks Center Ariel Hukporti Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Playing out of Necessity

He hustled hard during the opportunities he was given during Robinson's absence, doing a decent impression of the veteran center's rebounding and rim play-finishing, but few can replicate his defensive versatility at his humungous size. After cracking double-digit minutes in two of the three games that followed, the young center has as many DNPs as appearances.

His per-36 minute estimations are misleading, as Hukporti works at his best in these limited opportunities. Brown is appreciative of a player willing to work for his offensive rebounds, but has no need for his complete lack of offense, especially given the amount of veteran shooters lining his bench.

He'll stay handy in case Brown needs another rebounding punch, a statistically likely opportunity given Robinson's colorful injury history. As it presently stands, though, he'll have to spend most of his time watching from the sidelines alongside his fellow prospects.

This article first appeared on New York Knicks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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