The New York Knicks have spent their offseason keeping the vast majority of the free agents from their 2026 NBA Championship roster. Jose Alvarado, Jordan Clarkson, Landry Shamet, and Mohamed Diawara were all signed to new contracts.
Mitchell Robinson and Ariel Hukporti, however, were not. The pair of big men each signed with one of the Knicks' Atlantic Division rivals, with Robinson shipping up to the Boston Celtics and Hukporti joining the Philadelphia 76ers.
While New York added Andre Drummond to directly back Karl-Anthony Towns up, they’re still without a third-string center over six weeks into free agency. A training camp battle for the final roster spot seems inevitable. The Knicks may have just played against two centers in the NBA Finals worth some consideration in Bismack Biyombo and Mason Plumlee. Few names at this point of the offseason are sexy, but the pair of San Antonio Spurs free agents could be worth a look with a non-guaranteed camp deal.
Biyombo and Plumlee both bring experience to the table
Biyombo appeared in 25 regular season games for the Spurs last season, averaging 0.9 points and 1.0 rebounds in 5.6 minutes per game. Despite being just 33 years old, the big man has 15 seasons of experience in the NBA. He played 25 total minutes across nine appearances for San Antonio throughout the 2026 postseason.
It's been quite some time since Biyombo was impacting playoff games at a high level; the center is 26-23 all time in the postseason, having started 11 of those matchups. He grabbed 26 rebounds in an Eastern Conference Finals game in 2016, tying an NBA playoff record from 1984.
Good basketball trivia doesn't have value on the court, though. But how many centers still available at this stage of free agency will? Nick Richards remains unsigned, with the Knicks having been linked to the Kentucky product before. If they really wanted him, though, they likely would have just picked him up after the Dallas Mavericks matched their offer for Moussa Cissé.
Bringing a bunch of veterans to training camp seems like it's going to be the way to go. And even someone like Plumlee, who has 14 years of NBA experience under his belt, could be the kind of big that the Knicks turn to in a pinch early in the season. They have plenty of time before the 2027 trade deadline to tweak the roster responsible for defending their NBA Championship.
For now, they might just want to throw a band-aid on their biggest flaw.
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