The New York Knicks are looking to evolve from fringe contenders to the real deal in 2025-26.

Last summer, New York made two massive trades that it believed were going to help the club do just that in 2024-25. Five-time All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns, now the team’s second-best player behind only two-time All-NBA point guard Jalen Brunson, was acquired from the Minnesota Timberwolves for former three-time New York power forward Julius Randle. All-Defensive Team forward Mikal Bridges was also brought aboard.

Suddenly, a fun, frisky Knicks team that fell apart during a seven-game second-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers had leveraged most of its future draft equity to become a more top-heavy, highly decorated squad.

New York didn’t quite take off as the team’s front office had perhaps hoped, finishing with a good-not-great 51-31 record and the Eastern Conference’s No. 3 seed, but it managed to upset the reigning champion Boston Celtics in the second round of the playoffs and advance all the way to the East Finals — where the team was vanquished once again by Indiana.

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This offseason, New York made some smaller moves to build out its depth, rather than wholly reconfiguring its top talent as it had in 2024. The Knicks signed free agents Guerschon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson, who should help bolster the club’s bench. New York also signed free agents Malcolm Brogdon, Landry Shamet, and Garrison Mathews to non-guaranteed training camp deals, but as of this writing will only be able to sign one without making a trade.

During an appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” earlier this month, Towns reflected on how being moved to New York last offseason rocked his world.

“Minnesota was amazing, the Timberwolves treated me with nothing but love and respect,” Towns said. “To have those years there and finally see some success happening… our team there was awesome and our fans appreciated it a bunch. But obviously it stung. I called that place home for nine years. I built my life there. I’ve had so many memories there. So it’s kinda like that first breakup. It was tough, it was tough absolutely.”

When asked about his reaction to being moved to New York, Towns acknowledged that there are worse franchises to join.

“It was pretty cool,” Towns conceded.

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During his inaugural season calling Madison Square Garden “homecourt,” Towns averaged 24.4 points on a superlative slash line of .526/.420/.829, pulled down 12.8 rebounds, dished out 3.1 dimes, stole 1.0 balls, and rejected 0.7 attempts a night in 72 healthy games.

His defensive shortcomings were generally covered by backup Mitchell Robinson, but it’s been suggested that Robinson could get promoted to a starting role this season — much as he was in parts of the playoffs by now-ex-head coach Tom Thibodeau — to form a jumbo-sized frontcourt.

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