{"id":145796,"date":"2025-06-20T06:46:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T10:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=145796"},"modified":"2025-06-20T06:46:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T10:46:21","slug":"james-nnaji-looking-to-make-knicks-roster-next-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/06\/20\/james-nnaji-looking-to-make-knicks-roster-next-season\/","title":{"rendered":"2023 NBA Draft Pick Looking To Make Knicks Roster Next Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> trade payed dividends for the New York Knicks (the Minnesota Timberwolves as well) in its first year. The 29-year-old center wasn\u2019t perfect, particularly on defense. Towns\u2019 work on the offensive end though helped him earn Third Team All-NBA<\/a> honors, and the Knicks made their first Eastern Conference Finals since 2000. Towns wasn\u2019t the only player acquired in the deal. They also netted James Nnaji<\/a>, a 2023 draft pick that will be looking to make his way onto the Knicks roster in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

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May 31, 2025; Indianapolis, Indiana, USA; New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) prepares to shoot a free throw against the Indiana Pacers in the third quarter during game six of the eastern conference finals for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

2023 NBA Draft Pick Looking To Make Knicks Roster Next Season<\/h2>\n

James Nnaji Will Join Knicks In The Summer League<\/h3>\n

The blockbuster trade by New York and Minnesota also included a third team: the Charlotte Hornets. Charlotte gave up the rights to Nnaji to the Knicks in the deal as well. The 7-foot center was selected with the first pick of the second round (31st overall) in the 2023 NBA Draft. He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons but subsequently traded twice. First, he was dealt to the Boston Celtics, and was then traded again to the Hornets.<\/p>\n

Still just 20 years old (turns 21 on August 14), Nnaji has yet to play in the NBA. That could change though come next season. Marc del Rio of Sport.es<\/a> was the first to report that Nnaji has informed Barcelona that he is joining New York for their Summer League team, in hopes of making their regular season roster. Jared Schwartz of The New York Post later also reported on the news. The article featured a quote from Gerard Raventos, Nnaji\u2019s agent. Raventos said<\/a>,<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully after [the Summer League], we can reach an agreement. That\u2019s the plan, from both sides. It\u2019s 50-50, it depends how he does. He\u2019s coming in great shape. \u2026 Everything will be based on his performances in the Summer League.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there are fans that don\u2019t take much interest in the Summer League, perhaps seeing if Nnaji can perform well and put himself on the NBA radar will be a reason for more people to tune in.<\/p>\n

Has Played Overseas Since Being Drafted<\/h3>\n

Born in Nigeria, Nnaji was selected in the 2023 NBA Draft after playing for FC Barcelona. Instead of heading to the NBA though, he remained overseas. Last season, the center was loaned to Girona in Spain, and after an agreement to leave, was then loaned to Merkezefendi in Turkey.<\/p>\n

Nnaji played a combined 22 contests with the two teams in 2024-25. With them, he posted averages of 6.1 points, 4.0 rebounds, 0.2 assists, 0.5 steals, and 1.0 blocks in 16.3 minutes. Nnaji shot 70.3% from the field and 51.7% from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

The Knicks currently roster Towns and Mitchell Robinson<\/a> at center. They have a club option worth slightly less than $2 million on Ariel Hukporti<\/a>, the 58th overall pick of the 2024 NBA Draft. Precious Achiuwa<\/a> is an unrestricted free agent, and after mostly being out of the postseason rotation, many believe he will move on<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With New York likely needing to fill the back of their roster with minimum-salary deals, James Nnaji may be an option for the Knicks.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Soobum Im-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Karl-Anthony Towns trade payed dividends for the New York Knicks (the Minnesota Timberwolves as well) in its first year. The 29-year-old center wasn\u2019t perfect, particularly on defense. Towns\u2019 work on the offensive end though helped him earn Third Team All-NBA honors, and the Knicks made their first Eastern Conference Finals since 2000. Towns wasn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":145816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12,3],"tags":[4770,1224],"class_list":["post-145796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","category-news","tag-james-nnaji","tag-nba-summer-league"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145796"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145833,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145796\/revisions\/145833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}