New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) reacts after losing the Indiana Pacers in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals of the NBA Basketball Playoffs in Indianapolis, Saturday 31 May 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
NEW YORK – The New York Knicks went further than they had gone in 25 years, just not as far as they hoped.
They indicated that they were serious to make a run on the NBA title when they traded for Mikal Bridges in the summer and then Karl-Anthony cities in a before season Blockbuster, a top perimeter defender and an All-Star Center added to a line-up that is brunson.
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They just couldn’t get their all-in movements there completely.
The Knicks were eliminated by the Indiana Pacers on Saturday and left them without a championship since 1973. But after they went to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000 after successive second round outputs, they could at least feel that they are getting closer.
“So it’s improvement compared to last year, but in the end it’s not our ultimate goal,” said coach Tom Thibodeau.
After Boston had been rolled to the title of 2024 and brought back all the most important players, the Celtics were considered strong favorites in the east. But after a gradual building since the arrival of Leon Rose as a team resident in 2020, the Knicks did not get anything from the champions.
They have again signed OG Anunoby for the biggest contract in team history and then traded five picks in the first round in the deal to acquire bridges from Brooklyn. Just when they were ready to start with training camp, the Knicks acted two starters in All-Star Julius Randle and Donte Divincenzo, who had just set their 3-point record of one season, to get cities from Minnesota.
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The movements made the Knicks good enough to get to the Celtics in the second round. But it turned out not to be the right selection against the deep and fast pacers, which they hit for the second consecutive season.
“You make the movements to win, so it hurts not to be able to bring the city a chance for a championship,” Towns said. “We have a bunch of great guys in that dressing room and the plan is now just to put ourselves back in this position and to succeed next time.”
First, Rose and the Front Office will have to evaluate how close the knicks are.
Their 51-31 record left them a remote in the east behind Cleveland and Boston, and they went a combined 0-8 against those teams in the regular season before they finished the Celtics in the second round after Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles tendon in game 4.
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With two all-NBA selections in Brunson and Towns, the starting line-up is one of the strongest of the NBA. The bank can use a boost because the Knicks miss the fixed depth of the Cavaliers and Celtics – and certainly of the Pacers.
Yet the Knicks, after usually had been miles for two decades, changed a competition. They won 50 games in back-to-back seasons and made the play-offs in four of the five under Thibodeau. Even after Saturday’s defeat, there was conviction that the Knicks will soon get a chance.
“The most confidence. Reck,” said Brunson when he was asked if he was convinced that the Knicks had a group that could win.
“Seriously. There is no doubt of doubt that I have no confidence in this group.”
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The expansion that their captain had agreed to the last summer that was far below the maximum value could contribute to it. And maybe the Knicks are finally at the point that there is not much to do.
The Knicks will certainly regret that this opportunity will be omitted, unable to recover from their game 1-one deposit at home when they blew a 14-point lead in the last 2:45 of the fourth quarter. So of course there was disappointment.
That is all that had been to New York in the 2000s. Now there is also hope.
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“And so I think the challenge for us is to look at what it is,” said Thibodeau. “And it is, we ended up in the top three, but we are falling short of the ultimate goal, and for us it is to use that for motivation and determination to work the entire summer to prepare ourselves to take the final step and keep improving so that we can achieve our goal.”
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