Eight days.
That’s how long until the Knicks have their media day before beginning their training camp the next day. Just eight days later, they’ll be in Abu Dhabi and take the floor for the first time in the preseason. That’s less than three weeks until Knicks basketball, albeit at noon on a Thursday in a foreign country.
Most of the Knicks’ roster and blueprint for success in the 2025-26 season is set, but the team still has plenty of openings on their training camp roster. Teams are allowed to carry
up to 21 players on their camp roster, and the Knicks only currently have 15 players set (12 standard, 3 non-guaranteed contracts). Outside of them, they seem pretty likely to tender some sort of deal to bring Kevin McCullar Jr., Mo Diawara, and maybe even Dink Pate into camp for two-way consideration. That leaves three vacant spots, who can sign non-guaranteed deals and be easily waived before the start of the season.
As such, Leon Rose looks to fill that roster after already signing three veterans to non-guaranteed deals. Stefan Bondy of the New York Post revealed the Knicks intended to bring in Alex Len, Trey Jemison III, and former Knick Dennis Smith Jr. in for workouts and potentially a spot on the training camp roster.
There’s value in bringing these guys in. Clearly, at this stage in the offseason, they’re just willing to get onto a training camp roster as teams fill their guaranteed roster spots. While not all of the veterans that won’t make the roster will stick around after, it’s reasonable to assume that one or more could wind up spending time with the team’s G-League affiliate, similar to T.J. Warren and Chuma Okeke last season, and be around if needed.
Len, drafted fifth overall back in 2013, is a 12-year veteran center who’s played for the Suns, Hawks, Kings, Raptors, Wizards, Kings, and Lakers. Len is a clear fit for this workout, spending 2.5 seasons in Sacramento under Mike Brown before the coach was fired and Len was bought out, spurning the eventual Eastern Conference champion Pacers for the Lakers, who saw him as so unplayable towards the end that they willingly let Rudy Gobert run around like prime Shaq in the first round. He has career averages of 6.7 points and 5.3 rebounds on 51.0% from the field and 32.3% from three (although on limited attempts).
Jemison III, undrafted in 2023 out of UAB, debuted with the Wizards in January 2024, playing a grand total of 89 seconds before signing on as a fill-in on the utterly decimated 2024 Memphis Grizzlies, who’s comical amount of injuries resulted in G-Leaguers like Jemison start 14 games. He would play 38 games in 2024-25 with the Pelicans and Lakers, as the 6’11” big man showed an ability to be capable emergency depth, averaging 4.2 points and 3.8 rebounds on 55.2% from the field over 63 games with the four teams.
Lastly, Smith Jr. is a familar face. DSJ was picked in the first round by the Mavericks in 2017, a pick that led to the Knicks being mocked for passing on him for Frank Ntilikina (neither panned out). Of course, DSJ fell out of favor after 1.5 years and the emergence of Luka Doncic, resulting in him being shipped to New York as the centerpiece for Kristaps Porzingis.
He would only play 58 games over parts of three seasons, occasionally wowing with his athleticism, but ultimately disappointing. He averaged 8.7 points, 3.7 assists, and 2.4 rebounds on ghastly 37.9/28.4/55.6 shooting splits. His 44.0 TS% as a Knick is ridiculously bad. The only player with a worse TS% in the last decade over a full season is 2015-16 Emmanuel Mudiay (coincidentally DSJ’s eventual teammate here). That’s not good! He did participate in the dunk contest once, though.
Ultimately, he fell out of favor and was banished from the rotation once Tom Thibodeau arrived in Tarrytown. Smith would play just three games in the 2020-21 season before the Knicks traded him to Detroit on February 8 for Derrick Rose, one of Leon Rose’s best moves as the team’s President of Basketball Operations. He would bounce around the league from there, playing for the Pistons, Trail Blazers, Hornets, and Nets before going overseas for the 2024-25 season. He would only play four total games for Real Madrid before parting ways in February.
I’d be shocked if any of these guys made the Knicks’ roster. Maybe in a pre-CBA world, they’d have a shot but the Knicks being so perilously close to the second apron means they can only roster one. Even if they make a move, it’s two at best, and you’d assume Landry Shamet and Malcolm Brogdon would be first in line.
But hey, more the merrier!
