While the high may still be coming down for Knicks fans experiencing their first championship in 53 years, the rest of the league is back to usual business, re-shuffling their rosters in pursuit of New York’s throne. Opposing fans are already touting their new acquisitions and downplaying the Knicks’ run as flukey, but they may be in for a rude awakening.
With how dominantly and cohesively New York ran through the playoffs, the league should be more fearful they’ll come in even better than they were last season. Here’s why we shouldn’t be surprised if the Knicks continue their tear with a 60-win regular season.
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The manner in which New York steamrolled the playoffs – 12 consecutive wins, only three total losses by a combined six points, massive closeout blowouts and a historic point differential – suggests it wasn’t just a heater, but an all-time great team finding itself. Something clicked that allowed them to elevate to a new level, one that, if sustained, should have a similar impact on the regular season.
Guys playing multiple roles selflessly, committing on defense, and openly moving in and out of the rotation to answer the team’s needs at the moment. This, on top of the standout on-paper talent that’s almost entirely been retained, should make for a standout group.
If this team could sweep the best of the Eastern Conference last year, and walk the Spurs down over five games in the Finals, hitting 60 wins shouldn’t be an especially outsized challenge. They’ve historically dominated lesser teams and had to fight against the league’s top dogs, and so long as they can stay relatively healthy, they’re atop the food chain now.
They will also have less holding them back this year. The weight of trying to secure the city’s first championship in a half-century is lifted, and so are the challenges of figuring out how to be that caliber of team.
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Head coach Mike Brown spent training camp implementing a new offensive system that he had to spend months of the regular season adjusting to his personnel, and the same with the defensive side. At times this caused friction, and it required a lot of trial and error to perfect.
Now they’re coming into his second training camp with the answers to the test already, and won’t need to spend so much of the regular season trying new things. Brown will still dabble in new schemes and rotations as other teams adapt and the Knicks try to further raise their ceiling, but at least now the roster will be used to it and can see the ultimate vision.
This will be year three of this core starting five, so while New York comes into 2026-27 familiar with themselves, the rest of the league will spend some time discovering their identities. Boston, Miami, Philadelphia, Toronto and Indiana all made big trades in the last year and will go through adjustment periods figuring out their new teams.
Oklahoma City and San Antonio are still the behemoths out West, but the rest of the conference is noticeably worse. The Knicks will have an edge right from opening night.
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If they can continue playing at the level they ended last season on, without the pressure or major schematic changes, while the rest of the league needs time to figure itself out – watch out. Their dominance didn’t just end with the 2026 championship, in fact it may be just beginning.
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