The Knicks haven’t entered a season with this kind of excitement since the days of the Yankees Core Four dynasty.
They enter a new year with NBA Finals expectations, anointed as one of the favorites in the Eastern Conference. A core that reached the Eastern Conference finals is back, bolstered by an improved bench of Jordan Clarkson and Guerschon Yabusele.
But for captain Jalen Brunson, that’s just noise. It doesn’t matter what this group wants to achieve. He does his best to avoid the hype.
“I’m ignoring it because it doesn’t mean anything,” the star point guard said after practice Monday. “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s not for me to worry. My worries are practice, my worries are movies, my worries are getting better every day. I don’t have time to think about what people say about us.”
Karl-Anthony Towns had a similar response. Projections and predictions guarantee nothing.
So while the Knicks and Cavaliers are expected to battle it out in the conference, that doesn’t mean that’s how the 2025-2026 season will play out.
No one expected the Pacers to come out of the East this time last fall.
“All that is is looking at a crystal ball, hoping things work out the way the crystal ball says,” Towns said. “We have to take care of our team and we can’t even think about that.”
It really starts on Wednesday evening at the Garden against, not coincidentally, the Cavaliers and Donovan Mitchell. It will be a fun early challenge for the Knicks under new coach Mike Brown. An early chance to see where they stand against another top prospect, even though Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart might not play.
“It’s a good test. It makes us better,” Towns said. “I think both teams agree with that, and I say the same thing: we have to compete against the best of the best. You get to see where you are and also what you need to work on when you play against teams that are getting a lot of attention this year. So we’re just going to go out there and play our best.”
It will be interesting to see how the Knicks turn out. In the preseason they went 4-1, but were not at full strength. In the final dress rehearsal on Friday against the Hornets, four key players – Towns, Hart, Robinson and OG Anunoby – did not play. Brown has warned that it may take some time for this group to get into this new up-tempo style.
So while many of the same familiar faces are back in orange and blue, raising incredibly high expectations among the fanbase, there’s still some mystery as to what it will look like when the games actually count.
“A lot of things are the same, but some things are different. Yes, we have the same core, but we have some different pieces,” Brunson said. “The voice is different and everything is different, including the coaching aspect of it. But the mentality and the approach must remain the same.”
“It wants to win games and get better, it wants to learn and do what it needs to do. Those other things are different, but they have to be the same.”
A year ago, the Knicks opener was against the Celtics, and they got crushed, which meant nothing as they eliminated Boston in the playoffs. Wednesday night is just the beginning.
“It’s the first step,” Brunson said, “to hopefully go a long way.”
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