Good morning! Lots to get to today with no time to waste…

Going into yesterday, no team in the league had more roster additions ahead of them than the New York Knicks. NBA teams can carry up to 21 players in training camp, and yet the Knicks only had 12 players on their roster, all of whom are signed to standard NBA deals. While much of the attention has focused on who will wind up getting the final roster spots once the regular season began, there was still much to be decided where two-way contracts and camp contracts were concerned as well.

Not anymore.

Yesterday, the Knicks signed 11 players in total – briefly giving them two more than the maximum allowed for training camp – before waiving two of those signees to get to the grand total of 21.

Several of the players signed yesterday had already been reported or at least rumored, and while much is left to be decided, but at least now we have some clarity on the competition at hand. Per Knicks PR:

  • Exhibit 9 contracts: Landry Shamet, Malcolm Brogdon, Alex Len

  • Exhibit 10 contracts: Matt Ryan, Mohamed Diawara, Garrison Mathews, Tosan Evbuomwan

  • Two-Way contracts: Kevin McCullar Jr., Trey Jemison III

  • Signed to E.10 contracts and waived already: Bryson Warren, Dink Pate

Two important notes on the above: Ian Begley reported that Evbuomwan will get New York’s third two-way spot and that Diawara has been earmarked for the rookie minimum deal that the Knicks will eventually sign, regardless of whether they clear enough room under the second apron for a second vet minimum.

As for the difference between Exhibit 9 and 10 contracts, Exhibit 10’s are typically handed out to younger players who a team wants to get in their G-League system, which makes sense given some of the more unheralded names. Exhibit 9’s are deals most known for the injury protections they provide teams in the event a player gets hurt during camp, but they are fully non-guaranteed and do not count against the cap until the regular season begins. Most pertinently, if an Exhibit 9 player makes his team’s regular season roster, the deal essentially converts to a standard non-guaranteed contract without the injury protections.

What about the players themselves? We know about Shamet and Brogdon, as well as Matt Ryan, who spent time with the Knicks last season, but Len is an interesting name in this bunch. The former 5th overall pick was on Sacramento’s roster for the entirety of Mike Brown’s tenure as Kings coach, so there’s familiarity there, but keeping Len would mean having five players who can play center between him, KAT, Mitch, Hukporti and Yabusele.

But hey, they East is big, man.

Speaking of big men, Jemison III is a 25-year-old center who has spent time with the Wizards, Grizzlies, Pels and Lakers over his two NBA seasons. Evbuomwan was with Brooklyn last season after splitting time between the Grizzlies and Pistons as an undrafted rookie out of Princeton. Warren will be 21 next month and spent all of last season in Miami’s G-League affiliate. Pate will get a chance to grow in Westchester after starting his professional career with the now defunct G-League Ignite.

One name missing: Dennis Smith Jr, who reportedly worked out for the team on Monday after spending last season overseas.