Coming off an incredible 2024-25 season, the New York Knicks look to continue their success heading into the 2025-26 season. The Knicks finished with a record of 51-31 last year and made their first Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 25 years.
Despite the great success, Knicks president Leon Rose was not satisfied and wanted to improve the roster in hopes of reaching and winning the finals in 2025 and I firmly believe that this is Possible.
After losing in the ECF to their bitter rival the Indiana Pacers, Leon Rose quickly realized there were many holes in this roster. The bench was lackluster with guys like Delon Wright, Precious Achiuwa, Cam Payne, and Jericho Sims as the backups. The one bright spot of the bench last year was Deuce McBride who has carried that success into the 2025 season.
Leon Rose wanted to improve the bench and he absolutely kept his word. The Knicks signed guard Jordan Clarkson to a one-year contract and forward Guerschon Yabusele to a two-year contract; these players are expected to make an impact this season.
The biggest move the Knicks made this offseason was firing head coach Tom Thibodeau. This move came as a surprise to many people across the league due to the team’s success since he arrived. Thibodeau had a record of 226-174 during his 5 seasons coaching the team, which was good enough to finish fourth all time in wins among Knicks head coaches.
However, there were still many flaws to Thibodeau’s coaching style, he has been known across the league for years to be one of the worst head coaches to play for due to his rotations. If you are a starter it is very likely that you will be playing 40 minutes per night, and if you’re a bench player, you get very little playing time.
This creates a weird dynamic on the team where the starters play too many minutes leading to fatigue down the stretch of games and an increased risk of potential injuries. It also leads to frustration from the bench players who don’t get to see the floor and impact the team. Last year we saw starting Shooting Guard Mikal Bridges call Thibs out, stating, “We’ve got a good enough team to where our bench guys can come in, and we don’t need to play 48 minutes, 47.”
After the comments from players and people around the league it was best to move on and I believe we hired the ideal coaching candidate in Mike Brown. The Knicks officially signed him to a contract on July 7th , 2025 where he is expected to change the culture of this franchise. Mike Brown is known to be one of the best offensive minded coaches in the league, constantly emphasizing pace and ball movement – the total opposite of former coach Tom Thibodeau.
The Knicks finished dead last in pace under Thibodeau in 2023 and in the bottom five in 2024. Whereas the Kings under Brown finished 12th in 2022 and 14th in 2023. The offense under Brown will have much better flow and ball movement which we have already seen just 8 games into the season. The Knicks have scored a combined 620 points over their last five games and have made three-point shooting a main focus.
It felt like every game under coach Thibs was stagnant and pure isolation basketball which hurt us during the playoffs. Teams would pick up on our offensive game plan, which mainly ran through Brunson on nearly every possession. Now, with Brown coming in, the previous rotation consisting of about seven players has expanded to nine or ten, a massive change. This will keep our players feeling fresh, with plenty of time to rest throughout the game.
With all that being said, by keeping the core of the team together with guys like Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Karl Anthony-Towns while also adding much needed bench pieces and hiring a new head coach, I firmly believe the Knicks will win over 60 games this year and win the Eastern Conference.