The Knicks are 0-2 to open the regular season and sit 12th in the East. The first loss came October 20, 100-106 at home to the 76ers. Drummond had 10 points and 12 rebounds, and Brunson scored 7. On October 23 they lost 103-107 at the Celtics. Towns had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and McBride added 20. Both games were close, and both were losses. The Knicks were 14th in the East after the first game and moved up to 12th by October 25.
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The power rankings have not been kind. New York fell from 5th to 20th in a week, then showed 18th on October 23 and 20th again on October 24.
The roster churn from preseason is settled for now. Pate, whose status was unclear on October 17 after conflicting reports, left the Knicks on October 18. Bruce Brown also left that day, a day after being placed on waivers. Eubanks, Bradley and Agbaji were gone by October 16, and the Jazz claimed Bradley. The newest departure is McCullar, who left on October 24. A Knicks Notes report that day was headlined "Robinson, Brown, Bridges, Ring Fiasco," and an October 23 report mentioned "Ring Night." Neither report gives detail here.
The Knicks are also adding. On October 22, Ian Begley reported the team was interested in Dalton Knecht. The next day, Michael Scotto reported that Knecht would sign a two-way deal with New York. No signing has been confirmed.
Health is mostly quiet. Hart was cleared on October 19 after his ankle and undisclosed listings in preseason. On October 24, Alvarado was listed day-to-day with a left ankle issue. He had been cleared of a left knee issue on October 8, so this is a new problem.
The extension story has not moved. The Knicks announced October 9 that they were pausing all extension negotiations. Towns was called "very disappointed" on October 11, and Hart reacted to the decision on October 10. An October 22 Atlantic Notes item listed Towns and the Knicks together with no detail. Towns then led the team in scoring and rebounding against Boston with 22 points and 10 rebounds.
The center picture is unchanged on paper. With Bradley gone, Wiseman, Drummond and Towns are the centers left. Drummond has been the one producing, with 10 points and 12 rebounds in the opener.
Open storylines
as of Sun, Oct 25Towns was "very disappointed" on October 11 after the Knicks paused all extension talks on October 9, and no new decision has been reported.
Scotto reported October 23 that Dalton Knecht will sign a two-way deal, but no signing has been confirmed.
Alvarado was listed day-to-day with a left ankle problem on October 24.
New York is 0-2 and 12th in the East after losing 106-100 and 107-103 margins of six and four points.
Knicks Notes on October 23 and 24 mentioned "Ring Night" and "Ring Fiasco," with no detail on what happened.
The projection
all 30 teams →The season depends most on OG Anunoby (8.5 wins without him), Karl-Anthony Towns (2.8 wins without him), Jose Alvarado (2.7 wins without him) and Landry Shamet (1.6 wins without him): on/off from 2026-27, details under Injuries. Computed Sun, Oct 25; the method is on the methods page.
The race
Eastern Conference · 80 games leftNext 5: vs Magic0%vs Pistons100%at Bulls33%at 76ers100%vs Nets0%opponents win 47% of their games on average
Standings and games back are from the official table; the pace is the current record carried over 82 games, nothing more.
Day by day
42 days on the recordEarlier on the record38 more days · back to Sat, Sep 12
The franchise
Every season since the start →Public record →Nowupdated 2026-10-19
Mike Brown enters his second season as head coach, hired on July 7, 2025 after the Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau on June 3, 2025. The core is built around Jalen Brunson, signed as a free agent in July 2022, alongside OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, Karl-Anthony Towns — acquired in a 2024 trade that sent Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo and Keita Bates-Diop to Minnesota — and Josh Hart, Miles McBride, Landry Shamet and Jose Alvarado. Last season New York went 53-29, third in the Eastern Conference, ranked third in offense and seventh in defense, won the 2025 NBA Cup with Brunson as Cup MVP, then ran through the playoffs and beat San Antonio in the Finals for the franchise's first title in 53 years, with Brunson named Finals MVP. Payroll sits at $227.7 million across 17 contracts, above the second apron ($221.7 million), with Towns ($57.1M), Anunoby ($42.5M), Brunson ($37.7M) and Bridges ($33.5M) the biggest numbers. New York owes its 2027 and 2029 first-round picks to Brooklyn and has pick swaps in 2028 and 2029. The summer and fall news has been about trimming the roster toward the apron: Drew Eubanks (torn pectoral), Tony Bradley and Ochai Agbaji were waived and gone by October 16, Bradley claimed by the Jazz, and Bruce Brown and Dink Pate both came and went in October.
Identity and rivalries132 words
New York prides itself on toughness and depth, leaning on a top-three offense and a defense that ranked seventh last season, with a net rating of positive 6.4 that was fifth in the league, built from two-way wings in Anunoby and Bridges around Brunson's scoring and Towns' inside-outside game. The biggest rival remains Brooklyn, the crosstown Nets, long the team's measuring stick in a shared city. Indiana carries just as much weight: the Pacers eliminated the Knicks from the playoffs in 2021, in 2024, and again in the 2025 Eastern Conference finals, a run of losses New York only answered by sweeping Cleveland in the 2026 conference finals. Boston matters too — the Knicks ended the defending champion Celtics' season in the 2025 conference semifinals on the way to last season's run.
Home, owners and numbers103 words
The Knicks play at Madison Square Garden in New York. Fans were kept out of the building by an executive order from Governor Andrew Cuomo until the Garden reopened to spectators on February 23, 2021, the same building where Carmelo Anthony once set the franchise and arena scoring record with 62 points against the Charlotte Bobcats. James Dolan has overseen the team for years as chairman of Madison Square Garden, which owns the franchise. New York has also long ranked among the league's most valuable franchises: Forbes valued the Knicks at $1.4 billion in 2014, well clear of the crosstown Nets' $780 million.
What they are chasing97 words
Having finally broken the title drought, New York's chase now is for a second straight championship — the first repeat test for this core. The open question fans argue most is Karl-Anthony Towns' extension: talks were paused, and on October 11 Towns said he was very disappointed by that, with nothing resolved since. There's also a smaller debate over center depth, since Wiseman and Drummond are the only options left in that rotation entering the season, plus confusion over Dink Pate, who joined the team and was also reported signed and waived on the same October day.
The long view384 words
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.