The New York Knicks Are Becoming Exactly What The NBA Was Afraid Of…

The New York Knicks Are Becoming Exactly What The NBA Was Afraid Of…

Did you SEE THE KNICKS? DID YOU SEE JAYLEN PRESTON? DID YOU SEE LJ ANELI? That’s what I’ve been talking about, baby. It’s just a matter of time. It’s just a matter of time before that curse from 19 FROM A CHAMPIONSHIP DROUGHT COMES TO an end. It’s your boy Stephen A. Go New York. Go New York. Last year, the Knicks had the worst bench in basketball. Dead last. Just 21 points per game from their reserves. Their starters were logging 35 plus minutes every night >> with a shot clock inside of 10 and down for three. >> And by the time the playoffs arrived, there was nothing left in the tank. Fast forward to right now, and that same bench just powered a comeback in the NBA Cup finals. So, what the hell happened in New York? To answer that, we’ve got to rewind. The Knicks put together an impressive 24-25 campaign, one that still ended with a bitter aftertaste. They reached the Eastern Conference finals, but the way it ended exposed two glaring flaws, thin depth and defensive limitations that couldn’t be hidden anymore. Under Tom Thibido, New York finished 51 and 31, third in the East and second in their division. It was clear a step forward from the 23-24 season fueled largely by the arrival of Carl Anthony Towns. Towns transformed the offense into a machine. The Knicks averaged 115.8 points per game, ninth in the league with a plus 4.2 net rating. Jaylen Brunson led the way at 26 points and 7.3 assists per night, while Towns added 24.4 points and 12.8 rebounds. Defensively, the season started shaky, but it stabilized. By the end of the year, the Knicks had climbed to ninth in defensive efficiency, allowing 111.7 points per 100 possessions. Still, perimeter breakdowns and nagging injuries kept popping up at the worst possible times. The front office paid a steep price to bring in MueL Bridges, and alongside OG Anobi and Josh Hart, the Knicks finally had real perimeter stoppers. But the Brunson Towns pairing remained a defensive pressure point. One playoff opponents consistently targeted. In the postseason, New York fought past Detroit in the first round, then stunned the defending champion Celtics in six games. But the run ended in the conference finals, a 4-2 loss to Indiana, where fatigue finally caught up with them. The verdict was clear. Too much load on the starters, not enough reliable depth. Still, the 24-25 season marked a true revival. Elite offense, late season defensive growth, and legitimate contender status, but injuries, interior defensive lapses, and over reliance on the same five bodies kept the Knicks from going further. Thibido squeezed every ounce out of the roster, but his dismissal after the season sent a loud message. The front office wanted evolution, not just effort, and maybe someone willing to listen. The Knicks entered the 2025 off season with a clear mandate. Upgrade depth and stability without blowing up their strong core of players. The biggest change came on the sideline with Mike Brown replacing Thibido as head coach. Tibs delivered wins, but he also wore players down physically and decision makers down mentally. He’s relentless, single-minded, and not always open to outside ideas. So, when the Knicks shocked the league by firing the most successful coach the franchise had seen this century, immediately after their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 25 years, it was obvious they were chasing something different. They were looking for someone willing to play ball with the whole organization. >> Dwayne or we can’t talk. >> I don’t think we can either, but it was mainly for Dwayne. Oh, Brunson with a highlight. BLACK TAKES A seat and Jaylen Brunson makes him pay. >> And once Mike Brown sat down with the people in charge, it clicked. Not just someone open to input, someone who actively welcomed it from the front office, from his staff, from his players. Brown still makes the final call, but he’s built an environment where everyone has a voice. During games, players can suggest adjustments. Assistants carry real responsibility. The front office sees it. Ideas reflected on the floor. Trust formed fast. But even with the new voice leading the room, the back of the roster still needed work. The Knicks off season wasn’t flashy. And that was the point. Okay, I’m going to stop you here for a second. If you’re still using those regular sportsbook apps, you’re getting robbed. I’m serious. Delete it. Delete it now because Poly Market have made all of those apps obsolete. And I need to show you why. Okay, let me pull this up. So, right now, Poly Market has Houston sitting at 36% to win tonight. And that feels low to me because Houston is bound to make a run and either tie it up or take the lead at some point. So, I’m taking that trade right now. And done. And here’s what makes this completely different from sports books. Sports books take like $9 of every 100 you win. That’s their cut just for existing. Poly Market 1 cent because you’re trading against other people, not some platform that profits when you lose. And the cash out thing, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Your team goes up 10, you try to lock in your position and they block you, they’ll block you dozens of times a game. And if they let you out, they penalize you like 50%. They’re holding your money hostage. Poly Market is instant. Momentum swings, you react. Houston goes on a run and jumps from 36% to 46%. You cash out right there. No asking permission, no penalty. You’re in control. Poly Market is legal in all 50 states and they’re so confident that you won’t go back to Sports Books that they’re giving you $10 free just to try it. No card, no deposit, nothing. Use my code hoops 10 and follow the link in the description below for exclusive early access. and 10 bucks waiting just for you. Stop letting the sports books take your money. Instead of swinging for risky, highc cost stars, New York made measured financial smart moves targeting value and reliability. Jordan Clarkson and Gershon Yabasale aren’t headline grabbers, but both immediately stabilized the bench. And with Mike Brown in place, the expectation was clearer rotations, better workload management, and more tactical balance. Yes, the Knicks explored the superstar market. Names like Jana Santo and Kevin Durant were discussed, but restraint won out. In a wideopen Eastern Conference, especially with key injuries thinning out rivals, New York didn’t need a seismic move to become a real threat. They already were one. The biggest issue from last season was obvious perimeter defense. The Brunson Towns pairing struggled containing opposing guards and teams made New York pay. Opponents shot 36.8 and 8% from three, the 12th worst mark in the league. And those breakdowns were a major reason Indiana exposed them in the conference finals. Even with a ninth ranked defense by season’s end, injuries and fatigue dull the edge, and the offense felt that strain, too. When Mike Brown took over, one of his first priorities wasn’t defense or rotations. It was how the Knicks play offense. He wanted more pace, more movement, and most importantly, a different usage of Jaylen Brunson. The goal was never to take the ball out of Brunson’s hands. It was to get him off the ball before he goes to work. Instead of walking the ball up, pounding the air out of the ball, and letting defenses load up, Brunson has been giving it up earlier, relocating, and attacking against a defense that already moving. The numbers reflect that shift. Brunson is still an elite pick and roll operator, but his offball usage has climbed significantly. In 24-25, he averaged just 1.9 catch and shoot attempts per game. This season, that number has jumped to over three. The ball is sticking less, too. Last year, Ronson held the ball for 6.06 seconds per touch. This season, it’s down to 5.18. His dribbles per touch have dropped from 6.04 to 4.86. Now, by the league’s definition, the Knicks technically aren’t playing faster. They’re still bottom five in pace and their secondary assists and passes per game haven’t spiked. But if you watch the games, the difference is unmistakable. There’s more motion in the half court, more effort to pull defenses side to side. The ball moves with purpose before the Knicks flow into their actions. Even if it doesn’t always show up on cuts or pace metrics. As the season has gone on, though, there’s been a subtle pivot back toward what works best. Late in games, New York has leaned more heavily into the Brunson Carl Anthony Towns pick and roll and more decisively into their best offensive options overall. That doesn’t feel like a retreat. It feels like Mike Brown learning his personnel in real time. Early on, the offense was faster and more experimental. Now, it’s more tailored, still emphasizing movement and flow, but with a sharper focus on maximizing Brunson and Towns while letting everyone else play off their gravity. One of the biggest byproducts of that approach has been the Knicks three-point profile. They aren’t generating dramatically more paint touches than last season, but the drives they create, especially from Brunson, MueL Bridges, and Josh Hart, are increasingly designed to collapse the defense and spray the ball out. And the numbers back it up. The Knicks rank third in the NBA in open three-point attempts per game, while ranking 25th in wideopen threes. Last season, those rankings were 10th and 29th, respectively. In other words, they’re creating more threes overall, but many of them are coming off movement, closeouts, and quick decisions, not stationary, uncontested looks. Offensive rebounding has played a major role in that shift. Mitchell Robinson has been massive here. When he grabs an offensive board, his instinct isn’t always to go back up. It’s to kick the ball out and reset the advantage. Those extra possessions are turning into clean catch and shoot opportunities on the perimeter. Spacing has improved across the board. The Knicks dribble drive actions now create better angles, more room to attack closeouts, and clearer reads. Brunson still looks like Brunson, but with flow around him. That’s new, and it’s starting to look dangerous. Defensively, Mike Brown has been just as deliberate. He’s instilled a shifting defensive concept, one built around protecting the rim at all costs, even if it means conceding cleaner looks from three. The core philosophy is not new and pretty straightforward. Take away the most efficient shots, speed teams up, and live with the math. That adjustment has been seamless. Mau Bridges has talked openly about how uncomfortable it felt at first. Helping off the strong side corner was essentially a basketball sin for most of his career. now to shut down drives. He and his teammates are being asked to break instincts they’ve relied on for years. But that’s modern NBA. Offenses are too skilled. Old defensive rules are being rewritten in real time. And the Knicks are making a conscious decision about which shots they’re willing to give up and which ones they refuse to allow. On the surface, this team doesn’t look radically different from last season’s group. Through 25 games a year ago, the Knicks rank top five offensively and top 15 defensively. That’s largely true again. The pace hasn’t changed much. Three-point volume is up. Paint touches are down. And yet, the results feel different. At this point in the season, New York is three games better than it was a year ago. A softer Eastern Conference plays a role, sure, but so does the subtle changes Brown has made. leaning into Brunson’s offball game, using more spacing friendly lineups, installing a defensive system that maximizes OG Anobi and Mikuel Bridges instead of asking them to play against their strengths. Talent wins in this league, and the Knicks have plenty of it, but the gap between good and great lives in the details. And this season, Mike Brown looks like a coach still uncovering edges that were hidden in plain sight. The team does feel noticeably different, and the gamble the front office took by moving on from the most successful coach in franchise history is starting to pay off. Players are buying in. Brown is setting a culture built on openness, communication, and accountability. He listens, he adjusts, and he isn’t afraid to admit when he’s wrong. Sound familiar? Roll back the clock to the summer of 2014. Mark Jackson was out in Golden State after pulling a dormant franchise back to relevance, but he was rigid, set in his ways, and increasingly at odds with the front office. In came Steve Kerr. You know how that story ends. Now, I’m not saying the Knicks are winning it all this year, but the parallel is hard to ignore. They might not take the big prize, especially with that machine humming in Oklahoma City, but they already grabbed the second best thing available, and they look damn good doing it. The win in the NBA Cup final marked the Knicks sixth straight victory and their 10th in the last 11 games. And yes, technically it doesn’t count toward the regular season standings, but make no mistake, this mattered. The NBA Cup final against an upand cominging San Antonio squad was a statement that the Knicks belong firmly in the championship conversation and that they might be the most big game tested team near the top of the Eastern Conference. New York entered the NBA Cup quarterfinals just 3 and six away from Madison Square Garden. Then something clicked behind Jaylen Brunson and timely bench contributions. The Knicks flipped the script. They rolled into Toronto and won by 16 in the quarterfinals. They went on to meet Orlando in Vegas and rode Brunson’s season high 40 points to a 12-point semi-final win. And in the final, they outlasted a Spurs team that had just taken down a dominant Oklahoma City squad. San Antonio controlled large stretches of the game, but New York closed anyway. A 35-19 fourth quarter erased any lingering doubts. The Knicks didn’t just survive, they finished like a real contender. Beating San Antonio was about more than lifting a newly created trophy. It was a coming out party. Proof that this team isn’t just built to win in the East. It can go toe-to-toe with the West’s best, too. It was the Knicks first game this season against a top five Western Conference opponent. It’s just one win. It doesn’t show up in the standings, but it absolutely matters. And the way it happened should excite Nick’s fans even more. This wasn’t a topheavy win. Brunson wasn’t the leading scorer. Carl Anthony Towns didn’t take over as the greatest shooting big of his generation. Mikuel Bridges wasn’t dominant on both ends. Josh Hart has had louder nights. The Knicks won because everyone showed up. OG and Anobi set the tone early, scoring efficiently in the first half and later slowing down D’Arren Fox when it mattered most. Jordan Clarkson came off the bench and drilled timely three after timely three. Mitchell Robinson flew over Victor Webama and anyone else San Antonio threw at him, owning the offensive glass. And Tyler Kle, a barely 6′ second round pick, played the game of his life. 14 points, five assists, five rebounds in just 20 minutes. And New York needed all of it. They raised a deficit in a game the Spurs controlled for most of the night because contributions came from everywhere. And yes, Mike Brown deserves credit, too. There was a long stretch in the second half where Brunson, Clarkson, and Kolk shared the floor. On paper, that lineup shouldn’t work, especially defensively. It hadn’t worked in limited minutes before, and if Miles McBride or Landry Shamat were healthy, it might not have existed at all. But Brown needed offense. He experimented and it worked. That trio flipped the game. Brown didn’t coach scared. On the biggest stage of the Knicks tenure so far, he tried something unconventional and trusted his guys to execute. That combination, depth, belief, adaptability is how championship teams are built. The Knicks flirted with the disaster multiple times. Then they closed like elite teams do. This was poise, resilience, and ultimately proof they belong in the title discussion. After trailing by five entering the fourth, New York opened the quarter on an 8 to zero run, sparked by back-to-back threes from Clarkson. Robinson grabbed four offensive rebounds during that stretch, extending possession after possession and helping the Knicks get their first lead since late in the first quarter. And they never gave it back. New York outscored San Antonio by 16 in the final frame, allowing just 19 points after surrendering 94 through 3/4. The unlikely lineup of Brunson, Kolk, Clarkson, Ananobi, and Robinson changed everything. The Knicks depth won them a trophy. Robinson finished with 15 rebounds, 10 offensive, and a plus 9. Clarkson scored 15 and was a plus 15. Kolock added 14, five assists, five boards, and delivered a crucial drive and kick to Anobi for a corner three that pushed the lead to eight with under 2 minutes left. The end result was never in question after that. San Antonio’s backcourt had spent the entire tournament harassing opposing guards. Brown’s adjustment finally broke the pressure. He didn’t ride his starters, he trusted his bench, and it paid off. For years, the Knicks were the team that looked good on paper and folded when it mattered. That version of the Knicks is gone. But here’s the reality check. It’s still December. The real test comes when rotations tighten, scouting sharpens, and pressure suffocates everything. Mike Brown hasn’t won a title as a head coach. New York is the hardest stage in basketball. And there are still teams in East that believe they have answers for this version of the Knicks. The difference, this time, New York looks ready for the questions. So, what do you think? Are these Knicks actually built for a deep playoff run, or do you still need to see more once the postseason pressure hits? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. And if you want to follow this Knicks evolution all season long, hit subscribe and turn on the notification bell so you don’t miss any breakdowns as this story keeps unfolding. And if you enjoyed this video, click on one of these on your screen now.

Get exclusive early access and $10 free on Polymarket when you sign up with my code HOOPS10, no deposit needed!
Hyperlink: https://polymarket-app.onelink.me/S8ac/Hoops

The New York Knicks are no longer the same team. In this NBA analysis, we break down how the Knicks have transformed in the 2025-26 season and why the rest of the league is officially on notice.

Under new head coach Mike Brown, Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns are leading a roster that just captured the NBA Cup championship. We examine the offensive system overhaul, the revitalized bench unit, and the statistical improvements that have turned New York into legitimate title contenders.

From Brunson’s MVP-caliber play to the emergence of a deep rotation, this video explains why the Knicks might be the team nobody wants to face in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

🏀 Subscribe for more NBA analysis and basketball content.

#NBA #NewYorkKnicks #Knicks #JalenBrunson #KarlAnthonyTowns