Knicks: the offseason so far
the record
The desk keeps a day-by-day record of everything that happens to the New York Knicks: results with the players who decided them, injury changes, roster moves, reports, milestones and the schedule ahead. The story of the offseason is written from that record every week; the timeline below is the record itself, each line linked to the page that proves it.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on OG Anunoby (8.4 wins without him), Karl-Anthony Towns (2.8 wins without him) and Landry Shamet (1.7 wins without him): on/off from 2025-26, details under Injuries. Computed Thu, Sep 10; the method is on the methods page.
Day by day
the record starts with the first news of the seasonThe franchise today
Updated 2026-09-09Now
Mike Brown enters his second season as head coach, hired on July 7, 2025, after New York fired Tom Thibodeau on June 3. The core returns Jalen Brunson, signed as a free agent in July 2022, alongside OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, Miles McBride, Landry Shamet and Jose Alvarado; Towns arrived in the 2024 trade that sent Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and Keita Bates-Diop to Minnesota. Last season New York went 53-29, third in the East, with the league's third-ranked offense and seventh-ranked defense, a net rating of 6.4 that ranked fifth, at a pace of 97.71. Brunson was named 2025 NBA Cup MVP, then Finals MVP after the Knicks beat San Antonio in five games to win their first title in 53 years. Payroll runs $217.9 million across 13 contracts, above the $209.0 million first apron and the $200.4 million tax line against a $165.0 million cap, with the $221.7 million second apron looming; Towns ($57.1M), Anunoby ($42.5M), Brunson ($37.7M) and Bridges ($33.5M) carry the biggest numbers. New York owes its 2027 and 2029 first-round picks to Brooklyn, its 2028 second to Detroit and its 2030 second to Atlanta, keeps swap rights in 2028 and 2029, and holds its own 2027 second and 2030 first outright. The summer's lone roster move was parting with Dillon Jones, while September talk has centered on which of the core could be next for a contract extension.
Identity and rivalries
New York's identity starts with Jalen Brunson, who averaged 26.0 points and 6.8 assists last season and directs an offense that leans on ball movement and closing games late. The Pacers are the rivalry that still stings: Indiana eliminated the Knicks in the first round in 2021, the conference semifinals in 2024 and the Eastern Conference finals in 2025, and this year's championship finally came without having to go through them. Miami, which ousted the Knicks in the 2023 second round, remains unfinished business too. And Boston, the team New York dethroned as defending champion in a prior postseason run, is the measuring stick now that the Knicks wear the crown themselves in a conference both teams still expect to win.
Home, owners and numbers
The Knicks play at Madison Square Garden in New York City, the arena whose lighting the team's black 2025-26 statement uniform is designed to echo with its orange-and-blue gradient stripes. The franchise operates under Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan. Every Knicks uniform carries the phrase "Once A Knick, Always A Knick" stitched into the collar, the franchise's own reminder that no player who wears it is ever fully finished with it. Fans were shut out of the Garden for most of the 2020-21 season under a state executive order before the building reopened to spectators on February 23, 2021, a reminder of how central a full house is to the way this team is watched and felt.
What they are chasing
Fresh off the franchise's first championship in 53 years, the Knicks are chasing a repeat, now the team every other Eastern Conference contender is built to catch. The core is aging into its thirties, and Mike Brown's job this year is proving that last season's group can win again rather than just once. Fans argue over how many more runs this exact roster has left before money and age force changes, and whether New York can keep Brunson, Towns, Anunoby and Bridges all in place for one more title chase before any of them has to go.
The Knicks were founded in 1946 by Ned Irish as one of the original members of the Basketball Association of America, which merged with the National Basketball League in 1949 to form the NBA. The name comes from Washington Irving's pen name Knickerbocker. They play in Manhattan at Madison Square Garden, shared with the NHL's New York Rangers, in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. New York holds two NBA teams, the Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets, and along with the Boston Celtics the Knicks are one of two original-city NBA franchises still in place. The first game was a 68-66 win over the Toronto Huskies on November 1, 1946, with Leo Gottlieb scoring 14 points.
Joe Lapchick took over as coach in 1947 and built a playoff regular, reaching three straight NBA Finals from 1951 to 1953, losing to the Rochester Royals and then twice to the Minneapolis Lakers. After Lapchick resigned in 1956 the team collapsed, making the playoffs only once through 1966. The nadir came on March 2, 1962, when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points against the Knicks in a 169-147 Philadelphia Warriors win.
The turnaround began after Willis Reed was drafted in 1964 and won Rookie of the Year, and accelerated when Red Holzman took over during the 1967-68 season. Behind Reed, Walt Frazier, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Barnett, and Phil Jackson, the Knicks won their first NBA championships in 1970 and 1973. Carl Braun, an earlier standout, had retired as the franchise's leading scorer with 10,449 points.
The 1980s brought six playoff appearances but no Finals trip. The 1990s were defined by center Patrick Ewing and a defense-first style under coaches Pat Riley and Jeff Van Gundy, taking the Knicks to the Finals in 1994 and 1999 without a title. After Ewing left, the team fell into another long playoff drought. Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire led a division title in 2013, the franchise's first in 19 years, but the Knicks then posted their worst-ever regular season records.
The rebuild started with the 2022 signing of Jalen Brunson, followed by the additions of Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Karl-Anthony Towns between 2023 and 2024. That group returned the Knicks to playoff contention and delivered the 2026 NBA championship, ending a 53-year title drought dating back to 1973.