SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell, who along with the excellent James Dator comprise about 100% of the site’s NBA “staff,” wrote about seven teams he expects to be much improved this season. The Knicks are not one of the seven; their only mention in the piece is to say Philadelphia can match up with anyone in the East now, including New York. Usually that sorta schtick angries up my blood.
I want to hear my favorite team is better than I think, than anyone thinks, better than any anything in the history of everything. Don’t tell me Jalen Brunson isn’t the best player alive. Don’t gimme that “OG Anunoby never turned water into wine” blasphemy. Now that the Knicks are on top of the basketball world, I figure let them stay there. I want constant coronation. Endless adoration. Give them the key to the city. And the keys to Atlanta, Philadelphia, Cleveland and San Antonio. They owned them joints, too.
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O’Donnell’s piece centers on who he thinks will show the greatest leap from last year to this, all teams who added All-NBA talent(s) this summer or a top-three draft pick — and also the Nets, likely to level up by finally fielding an actual professional team. As far as games won in 2027 versus 2026, the Knicks are unlikely to improve dramatically on 53 wins (if they do, they’ll make history). And what could they possibly do for an encore after the title run they just staged, anyway?
And yet — what if they are a lot better?
Why not?
Think of all the lessons the 2025 team learned that benefited the 2026 team. Last year’s squad won together and learned together, and everyone from that team is back this year minus Mitch. The better defenses around the league will spend the offseason preparing for the offense the Knicks unleashed starting with Game 4 in Atlanta. But nearly half the league doesn’t even make the playoffs. Opponents may have a better idea what the Knicks will throw at them, but that doesn’t mean there’s much they can do about it. And the Knicks will have had an offseason to work some new wrinkles into their play style.
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What if last spring was only the beginning? Odds and evens fit together; odds and logic, not so much. The odds are against the Knicks, if only because the last seven teams to win it all failed to defend their crown. Maybe the Knicks don’t repeat as champs. Probably not, even. But there’s logic that says they can.
Of those prior seven champions, only one, the 2025 Celtics, had continuity at the top of their rotation for their title defense: the five players who led them in minutes in ’25 also did in ’26. The other six champs all lost a top-five player from one year to the next. Four lost two. From Kawhi leaving the Raptors to the Bucks shipping Donte DiVincenzo to Sacramento to the Thunder’s Jalen Williams’ year-long injury struggles, the group tasked with repeating usually isn’t the same one that peated in the first place.
Every championship team is freakish in some way. The Heatles were freakishly athletic. The Warriors went on freakish scoring runs. The Bubble Lakers were freakishly big. The Bucks were led by a literal Freak. The five Knicks who led them in minutes in 2025 did so again last season. Is it asking too much for them to threepeat? If there’s a lineup that can, it’d be the New York Five. And while title-winners usually empty the tank in their pursuit, the Knicks took their foot off the gas, relatively.
In Tom Thibodeau’s last year in charge, that quintet averaged a combined 181.6 minutes per game. Last year Mike Brown cut it to 162.2, an 11% drop. Presumably his years with defending champs in San Antonio and Golden State clued him in to the benefits of load management, even as the owners continue to insist the sun revolves around the Earth. One would expect the Knicks to be as mindful of the big picture this year as last.
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Just like we knew 12 months ago the roster wasn’t finished, what we see today is not the end-product. The last time we saw the Knicks best lineup — after two years of plus/minus angst — they were freakishly dominant against the best the league had to offer. They’re freakishly resilient, with more 20-point comebacks the past two postseasons than the other 30 playoff teams combined. They won the most lauded, longed-for championship possible in the Association, in the most impressive way possible. And their top-seven in minutes and 11 of their top-12 are back. What if they are a lot better?
Why not?
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