Despite Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns recently struggling on offense, the Knicks have enjoyed a strong stretch in recent weeks.
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There’s no looking back now.
The New York Knicks’ core is set with the NBA trade deadline behind us. The goal of winning “championships,” as head coach Mike Brown declared in his introductory press conference, is in full swing. The Knicks must now find what it takes to appease the man who writes the checks.
To examine the final stretch of the season, The Athletic’s Knicks beat writer James L. Edwards III and national writer Fred Katz discussed the franchise’s last 20 games, their thoughts on what’s to come and more.
Did you like what New York did at the NBA trade deadline?
Edwards: I did. All things considered, the Knicks had a good deadline. They got rid of Guerschon Yabusele, their big free-agent signing who wasn’t in the rotation, without giving up any draft capital. We both were told by multiple teams across the league that would be impossible. Leon Rose and his staff found a way. They replaced him with a useful player in Jose Alvarado, who should provide some steady play at backup point guard behind Jalen Brunson.
Beyond that, the Knicks also shed enough salary to immediately hop into the buyout market, as opposed to having to wait until April. That’s good business. I’ll publish a list of interesting buyout candidates later this week.
Now, and I’ll speak more on this later, I thought New York should have made a big trade. I worry about the play of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges this season and projecting forward toward the postseason. I understand that moving off of one of those two players would be a tough sell to owner James Dolan after his comments and what the Knicks gave up to get both players. Part of me just wonders if this version of the Knicks under Brown would be best with Mitchell Robinson manning the center position. I understand the risk there, obviously, but if Towns isn’t going to be the scorer he’s been for a decade, it’s tough to see how this group can be maximized.
But New York recently won eight straight games, so I’ll defer to the suits … for now.
Katz: The minutiae of the trade deadline stood out more than the players, themselves — though Alvarado will of course help, especially with fellow point guard Miles “Deuce” McBride set to miss significant time.
Trading Yabusele, who had a $5.8 million player option for next season, was supposed to require attaching multiple second-round picks. Landing a helping rotation player — such as Alvarado, a feisty guard who fills a need, not just because of the McBride injury but also because the Knicks sought out a secondary ballhandler — should have taken more second-rounders. But the Knicks somehow convinced Yabusele to decline his player option months early, turning down what would have been a life-changing amount of money for the big man. All of a sudden, Yabusele, who rarely played, was on an expiring salary, which changed the calculus.
They didn’t part with their most-valuable second-rounders to trade for Alvarado, either.
The one nitpick of their trade deadline is the money they added. Alvarado has a $4.5 million player option for next season. It’s far less money than a player of his caliber is worth, but the Knicks could find themselves in a financial crunch over the summer, threatening to go into the second apron, a payroll threshold they would prefer to avoid. They just found a way out of Yabusele’s 2026-27 money. Then, they added the possibility of Alvarado’s, though the 27-year-old will have options this summer, too.
He could choose to hit free agency. He could exercise the player option, then negotiate an extension with the Knicks, similar to the move Josh Hart pulled after the Knicks acquired him in 2023. Alvarado’s presence also gives the Knicks insurance for McBride beyond just this season. McBride is extension-eligible this summer, and considering his performance this season, he could justify a high price tag.
Do the Knicks need the No. 1 seed?
Edwards: Do they need it? Not technically. The Pacers got to the NBA Finals last year as the No. 4 seed and didn’t have home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference finals against New York. Anything can happen in the postseason.
Now, I will say that the Knicks need to fight like hell to get the best seeding possible. This season’s group isn’t a very good road team. New York is currently under .500 on the road, while every other team at the top of the East is well above .500 away from home. New York and Detroit are the best teams at home in the East. Long story short: the Knicks need to host as many playoff games as possible at Madison Square Garden. They’re relying heavily on role players this season, and role players tend to shoot better at home.
For example, going into Sunday’s game against Boston, Landry Shamet is shooting 34 percent from 3 on the road and 51 percent at home. OG Anunoby is shooting 33 percent from 3 on the road and 40 percent at home.
Katz: It may not matter what the Knicks need anymore — not after the way the Pistons waxed them Friday for a second time in a little more than a month. Detroit is six games up in the loss column on New York. And now, it owns the tiebreaker.
But while that would give the Pistons an advantage in a playoff series, I’d argue the greater concern is the way the Knicks have lost to Pistons, outscored by 69 points over a couple of games so far this season.
Regular-season results don’t always signal postseason outcomes. New York didn’t have two starters against the Pistons on Friday, though Detroit was without All-Star center Jalen Duren, too. Just last season, the Knicks combined to go 0-10 during the regular season against the NBA’s top-three teams: the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Boston Celtics. Then, they beat the Celtics in the second round anyway.
Funky stuff happens in the playoffs. The Knicks still have the experience and talent to win three playoff series, whether they end up in second or third or fourth place. Last season, the No. 4-seeded Pacers went to the Finals. The year before, the No. 5-seeded Dallas Mavericks represented the other conference. But you’d rather not get run off the court each time you face the top team in the conference.
What have you liked most over the last 20 games?
Edwards: Well, there was a lot to like and a lot to not like as New York went through its worst stretch of basketball to start January and its best stretch of basketball to end January.
For me, getting the defense from horrifically bad to legitimately good caught my eye the most. We know New York has the ability to defend at a high level because of how it guarded for the bulk of the last two and a half weeks.
Brown did make some tweaks – like pushing ballhandlers to the sideline more as opposed to funneling them to the middle. The players have seemed to like that change. Beyond that, though, the give-a-crap level has increased. Anunoby has turned back into the wicked defender we know he can be. Robinson being able to play longer stretches has been key. Also, getting Shamet back from injury has helped.
I’m curious to see if the Knicks can maintain that defensive intensity now that the eight-game win streak is over. Sometimes, a thing goes really well and, when it’s interrupted, then goes back to the norm.
But, yeah, the defensive care as of late has stuck out to me.
Katz: The Knicks have looked like two different teams over the past 20-ish games, dropping nine of 11 and then winning nine of their following 10, most recently wrecking the Boston Celtics on Sunday. Their past week, especially, has been impressive, even while accounting for the loss to the Pistons. A couple of days earlier, they survived a double-overtime to get a victory over the contending Denver Nuggets.
James is correct. The defense has stood out most during the good. The Knicks are allowing fewer points per possession than any other NBA team during this 10-game heater. But I’ll focus on the other side.
The Knicks are scoring well — and they’re doing it while their two offensive leaders, Brunson and Towns, haven’t always been themselves.
Towns is averaging an uncharacteristic 15.0 points over the last 10 games. Brunson’s shooting numbers are unusually low. And yet, heading into Sunday, the Knicks owned the league’s sixth-most-efficient attack during this stretch.
Anunoby isn’t just defending like himself again, he’s also hitting jumpers. The return of Shamet has been a game-changer for the reserves. Towns may not be scoring, but his offensive rebounding has been special, as is Robinson’s always. They’re getting on the break after stops, which occur more often. So, even with Towns and Brunson slumping by their standards, the Knicks are finding ways to score.
Detroit’s Daniss Jenkins celebrates during the third quarter of the Pistons’ 118-80 victory Friday over the Knicks.
Do you put any stock into two big losses to Detroit?
Edwards: Not a ton because last season showed us that the regular season, truly, does not matter. New York lost its season series to both the Celtics and Pistons and defeated both in the postseason. So, it’s hard to make too big of a deal about the two blowout losses to Detroit. I will say, even with Towns and Anunoby out for the game last week (the Pistons were without Duren), the Knicks shouldn’t be losing by 30. Two huge losses to Detroit just shows me that the Pistons care a lot about sending a message to New York, more than New York appears to care about letting Detroit know that it’s not going anywhere.
There’s a little mental, psyche stuff I do wonder about just based on the two results. But, no, I don’t think the Knicks will get swept by the Pistons and lose every game by 30 because of what happened in the regular season. The playoffs are a different beast.
Katz: Earlier this season, I wrote a story about the culture of competition inside the Pistons — not just their locker room but the entire organization. They play other sports against each other. Basketball, soccer, football; those games turn as cutthroat as the ones we see on the court.
I spent the first week of January with the team. And many of them knew I wasn’t long removed from being a Knicks beat writer. It was only natural that an upcoming game against the Knicks became the topic of more than one conversation. I can tell you this: The Pistons had that game, the one against the team that beat them in the playoffs last season, and a team they view as one they’ll have to go through to win the conference this spring, circled.
They played like it when they met in early January. A 31-point destruction of the Knicks. They arrived with the same vibe Friday, when Detroit was on the second night of a back-to-back and reeling from a disappointing loss to the hapless Washington Wizards. This time, 31 points would have been merciful. Detroit won by 38.
Does this project anything for the playoffs? Probably not. The Knicks didn’t have Towns, Anunoby or McBride. The Pistons didn’t have Duren. Both teams could have deemed a defeat a schedule loss, considering the Knicks had gone to double overtime a couple of days earlier.
But I’m also not going to sit here and pretend that not caring about things is cool. The Pistons knew the Knicks were coming to town, went on a mission for revenge and got it.
I’ve seen inexperienced teams, ones that fit the Pistons’ age profile, lose to others in the playoffs, then go on to fear the group that beat them in April or May. This isn’t that. The Pistons aren’t afraid of the Knicks; they welcome them. If these two face each other in the spring, I’d expect another close, contentious series.
Have your thoughts on how far the Knicks can go changed from the beginning of the year?
Edwards: I’ll say this: I do believe the Knicks can still make it to the NBA Finals, which was my prediction to begin the year. With that said, though, I’m not as confident in that pick as I was a few months ago. Detroit is better than I thought it would be. The Celtics are better than I thought they would be and might get Jayson Tatum back. The Cavaliers are rounding into form and just added James Harden. The 76ers are good, and Joel Embiid is healthy.
Ultimately, the competition at the top of the East is tougher than I thought it would be, so that gives me some pause about my early-season prediction. New York still struggles against aggressive defenses. It still isn’t very good on the road. Towns is still struggling to put the ball in the basket. McBride will be out for at least the rest of the regular season.
I still question the chemistry and fit of this roster, but the recent winning streak has shut me up for a little bit.
The Knicks have what it takes to represent the East in the NBA Finals, but so might the Pistons, Celtics, Cavaliers and, dare I say, the 76ers. I didn’t anticipate the East having that many legitimately dangerous teams at the start of the season.
New York can beat any of the top-six seeds in the East in the playoffs, and aside from the Raptors (who I think the Knicks would easily sweep in a series because their offense isn’t too dangerous and plays into New York’s defensive strengths), I think they could lose to any of them, too.
Katz: No. The Knicks can still make the Finals, though I’m in a similar place to James. They’re not the only franchise that can lay such a claim.
The Celtics could make the Finals, especially if Tatum returns from his torn Achilles, which remains possible. The Cavaliers, who just renovated their identity, could do it. The Pistons may lack shooting, but they’ve also dominated the conference all season, which may not change come the playoffs.
The Knicks still have major issues to fix: the inconsistency, the nights when opponents go off from beyond the arc, Towns’ struggles, the point-of-attack defense and the source of non-Brunson creation.
At the beginning of the season, I picked the Knicks to win the Eastern Conference. I will stick with that prediction, but I’m not as confident in it today as I was in October.
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By Fred Katz and James L. Edwards III