The Knicks on Thursday afternoon waived big men Drew Eubanks and Tony Bradley as well as wing Ochai Agbaji. The only two players left on Exhibit 9 training camp contracts are Bruce Brown and James Wiseman, and they could be competing for one roster spot, barring a trade.

Head coach Mike Brown referred to veteran guard Bruce Brown as a “winner everywhere he’s been” prior to Thursday’s preseason game, tweets James L. Edwards III of The Athletic, and noted that Wiseman is a talented center who still has room for growth at age 25.

Wiseman is considered the frontrunner for the 14th roster spot because the Knicks are said to be prioritizing a third-string center behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond.

Here’s more on the Knicks:

• NBA general managers voted star guard Jalen Brunson — the reigning Finals MVP — as the league’s best leader (he received 53% of the vote) as part of John Schuhmann’s annual GM survey for NBA.com. Coach Brown said he wasn’t surprised by the results, per Kristian Winfield of The New York Daily News. “He studies the game, and that helps a lot because you can always grow in any field you do. But he walks the talk,” Brown said Thursday. “He works extremely hard, and he strives for perfection from himself. And when you do that, your peers see you do that, and you’re looked upon as the best player on the team, and it gives you credibility to tell somebody else when they’re not given their all or when they need to do this a little bit better or that a little bit better.”
• Stefan Bondy of The New York Post (subscriber link) recently spoke to three rival executives and two “high-powered agents” to get a better sense of how Towns is valued around the league and how his contract situation might eventually play out. The six-time All-Star has publicly admitted he’s frustrated he has yet to sign an extension and said he was “very disappointed” that the team put out a statement saying it was tabling negotiations until later in the season. Towns has suggested he’s willing to take less than his max ($276MM over four years) on a new deal, while the Knicks are said to be offering around $200MM over four years. Most of the people Bondy talked to thought Towns might get in the ballpark of $40-50MM annually if he hits free agency next summer (he holds a $61MM player option for 2027/28), though one Eastern executive suggested New York’s offer to the former No. 1 overall pick was on the low end. “He’s worth more to them than they offered him,” the exec told Bondy.
• Starting wing Josh Hart sat out Thursday’s preseason finale because of a sore right ankle, according to Steve Popper of Newsday (Twitter links). Second-year forward Mohamed Diawara got the starting nod with Hart sidelined.