There are a number of important Knick traditions, like never kicking anything to the curb, acknowledging how big the East is, waiting until the final Media Day before the season begins to say cryptic shit that people can spin multiple different ways, and, of course, everyone at Knickberblogger predicting how many wins we all think that the Knicks will win this season.
Last season, I went big, and said 58, and the Knicks fell seven shy of that total. So, I should totally lower my prediction this season, but………man, the rest of the East freaking SUCKS, man. The only other good team from last season that didn’t get totally decimated was the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they’re missing a number of good players to start the season, so I really don’t see how the Knicks WON’T improve this season, so eff it, I’m sticking with 58 wins.
Okay, that’s my pick, now I’ll open it up to all of you, along with a poll!
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279 replies on “The “How Many Wins Will The Knicks Have In 2025-26?” Prediction Thread”
55-27 in a weakened East, second seed behind Cleveland.
Just as Pennywise the clown returns every 27 years to feast on a new crop of children, Pagliacci emerges from his long offseason slumber!
I predict 48 wins as we figure to have worse injury luck than last year. Mitch has already started on missing 60+ games and we’re unlikely to get 72+ again from all of OG, Towns, and Hart.
There’s also the (likely overall net positive) factor that Mike Brown will not be redlining the starters to pull out every last win.
The East is not nearly as soft as it looks with ATL/ORL/DET all having very good shots to overtake us with their developing young talent and added pieces. Come playoff time we might see Tatum and Haliburton back in action, all of which adds up to a 2nd round playoff ceiling.
dagnabbit, E swiped my guess…
Swackhammer Danger, you’re dealin’ with official hoop-bangers
With hang time like a coat hanger
Jump with thunderous 360 degree type dunks
What up doc? The Monstar Funk
51
I’m coming in scorching hot with the bold prediction of… 54 wins. I think we’ll see some gains due to better schemes, a deeper roster and a weaker East, but we’ll also see less Thibs-style running the starters into the ground to win meaningless games in November.
I said 51 so I am sticking with 51. Maybe 52.
49 wins, slow adaptation to MB’s schemes and Mitch load management( wise to save him for playoffs). Agree that the East not as soft as depicted. Embid back with a vengeance, Orlando better than expected. That said, Knicks will make the ECFs( they gel post ASB) and…… ( I have no clue).
56. I was a bit pessimistic last year and went under by a couple wins, first time in three years I missed. I may be overcorrecting, but the East really does stink.
I’ll have to do my East rankings tonight, too… Think that went pretty well last year, but the proof (or lack thereof) is out there…
I went with 53 wins last season and the Knicks screwed me the final week blowing 3 double digit 2nd half leads in a row which lead to my pessimistic meltdown that Z-man rightfully often reprimanded me about during the playoffs.
Gun to my head I’ll go with 54 wins although I chose 55-57 wins in the poll cause it would be pretty awesome to watch a Knicks team win that many regular season games for the first time since the 1996-97 season.
But reality is doesn’t really matter if Knicks only win even just 48 games the key is to finish with a Top 3 seed again and if they accomplish that and are healthy come playoff time I’ll still expect them to reach the NBA Finals.
I think we probably win low 50’s for some of the reasons that others enumerated here. We seem to be a very similar team to last year with a new coach who seems like kind of a lateral move– he brings some much needed change, as things had gotten stale under Thibs, but Brown is not really a higher caliber coach than Thibs. So to me that’s sort of a push.
You probably get more minutes from Mitch, which will probably be offset by fewer minutes from some of the other rotation guys just to sheer injury luck. Again, probably kind of a push. We don’t seem to have any players who are capable of some sort of leap. Mikal could play better, I guess, but does anybody expect to see a radically different and more productive Mikal? I know I don’t.
The guys who put this team together did a solid job of getting it to the top of the conference, but they used up all of the flexibility, and now it’s very difficult to make marginal upgrades. The most glass-half-full take I can manage is that we have some continuity, some of the players might feel some relief to no longer be playing with Thibs, and that Thibs was not a good fit for the KAT-era personnel, so maybe we get some improved synergy and win more in the mid-to-high 50’s. In this scenario, everybody stays relatively healthy, Clarkson/Yabu gives you what you hope they give you, Hukporti steps up and becomes a useful rotation piece, and the team min/maxes three point shooting better and plays a defensive scheme that is a better fit with the personnel.
Some of those things will probably happen, and some won’t. Or maybe none of those things will happen. I’ll split the difference and say we win 51 games again.
Big years for Brunson, Bridges, & KAT (all three much better than last year) lead to 58 wins, the 1 seed in the East, and a puncher’s chance in the NBA Finals.
Cleveland disappoints; we face Orlando in the ECF.
Fuck it. 60 wins. And I’ll throw in coach-of-the-year for Mike Brown, first team all NBA for Brunson, 2nd team for KAT, and even a first-time-ever All Defense for OG.
My “outlier” prediction is that there’s a materially non-zero chance Mike Brown doesn’t last the year. Whether through naivete, or intentionally, he’s already pointed fingers twice at a particular department (“performance team”), revealed how the sausage is made, and made them potentially look bad. Dolan doesn’t take well to such things and I’m frankly quite surprised at Brown’s framing of his answers. Nor was Brown even close to the FO’s preferred choice for this job.
It will take things not working as well as projected on the pure basketball side for this to happen, but if things go a bit south, don’t be shocked if there’s a new coach prior to the playoffs. Far stranger things have happened in Knick-ville.
53.
I’d go higher if you could guarantee me ~55 healthy Mitch games, but I’m pretty spooked about the fact that we’re apparently talking about “load managing” him for the season opener. Without him, cobbling together a good defense will be tough. Clarkson and Yabu help us in important ways offensively, but they, um, don’t do that defensively. I still like the idea of bringing in DSJ if he’s still available when we can sign a 15th man (or earlier if there’s a trade).
But the offense should let them coast through a lot of the East, and Huk might be decent enough to not let the bottom fall out of the defense when Mitch is out.
I’ll say the offense finishes 3rd, with it getting off to a rough-ish start while we iron out Brown’s DHO heavy system but finishing strong.
13th for the defense, with a comical Mitch on/off. We really, really should seek to generate more turnovers, which is largely on Mikal. A better season from him can make this look unduly pessimistic. Make it happen!
In re the last post, I hope for his sake Mike Brown doesn’t actually think he has a lot of wiggle room to punt on regular season wins, and not “chase” them like Thibs did — because he really doesn’t have all that much wiggle room. He doesn’t remotely have the stature or resume, and his ownership is much too flighty, for him to get away with any kind of significant “Oh, don’t you worry, I’m getting them ready for the playoffs” stuff.
52 wins. It’s a transition / gap year for a couple of teams but I don’t think the East sucks that bad, and I don’t think coach Brown would make a huge positive difference. Betting on a healthier Mitch.
55wins wo much thinking
Instinctively
51. We could in theory perform better due to Brown’s greater flexibility on both ends of the floor, but that in turn could be offset by Brown and/or the FO clearly desiring to do more load managing than Thibs was willing to do. Between that and injury luck, I can see us doing well again, but not top of the league/conference in W-L.
54 wins
also adam silver got the web guy to update the injury report page to the current season and updated all of the links to todays
I’ll go for 52 wins. The starters play better than last year, lineups are a bit more reasonable, but the defensive issues prove hard to overcome against good teams, Mitch misses too many games, and the bench disappoints, is my guess.
I’ll go with 55 wins, but not confidently.
Mitch and Hart not at practice today.
I wonder if we are going to load manage them until the all-star break?
Transparency is apparently not Brown’s strong suit or maybe it was until he became the Knick’s coach.
I think everyone is too optimistic. I’m going with 49 wins. I don’t think the conference you’re in makes as much difference as people think and I basically just don’t trust the Knicks to be great. I also don’t trust Yabusele. That said, the starters played very little overall in preseason so it is hard to know what the team will actuallly look like.
I think there’s a couple potential boosts to the defense:
* Playing more aggressively with the wings when they have (allegedly) 2 of the best wing defenders
* Letting Mikal play off ball more often should help. His improved defense against Boston, and better stock numbers in the playoffs overall, was him playing off the ball.
* Mixing coverages should shave a couple points here and there (assuming KAT can learn more than one scheme)
* Huk looks better than Sims… maybe Jemison too.
* Mitch only needs 291 minutes to surpass his total from last season
espn’s “experts” picks for finals
Bontemps: Thunder over Cavaliers in 5
Collier: Thunder over Knicks in 6
Goodwill: Thunder over Knicks in 5
Holmes: Thunder over Knicks in 5
Kram: Thunder over Knicks in 6
MacMahon: Thunder over Cavaliers in 6
Marks: Nuggets over Knicks in 6
McMenamin: Mavericks over Cavaliers in 6
Pelton: Thunder over Knicks in 6
Shelburne: Rockets over Cavaliers in 6
Slater: Thunder over Knicks in 5
Spears: Cavaliers over Nuggets in 6
Wright: Thunder over Cavaliers in 7
Youngmisuk: Nuggets over Knicks in 6
anyone else think its weird that all 14 experts pick the western conference team to win no matter which teams they picked that kind of consensus is unheard of
Does McMenamin know about the Luka trade?
and i think mcmenamin is the lakers guy which makes it even more odd
or maybe not
i like you skepticism KfniNJ…
if not only for the fact that there’s just a lot of stuff that can go wrong, and the team may not be prepared to overcome…plus it is always wise to temper your expectations…feels so good to be pleasantly surprised…way worth the price of living with a bit of cynicism…
just curious – where abouts in jersey where you from/lived? spent some time in monmouth, nice old town – with a racetrack, how cool is that, life regret though that i never went, passed it a bunch walking towards the water, ocean over racetrack i guess…some real pretty places in jersey…
Doogie, read the predictions list again. The results might surprise you.
geo i grew up in monmouth county great place to live
interesting how some of our more ummmmm pessimistic posters have chosen to assume a higher number of wins…interesting indeed…
since i started that intermittent fasting stuff i have jowles like memory, just sayin’, so yeah, i do kind of remember most everyone’s posts…in particular maybe the tone and mood of the poster at the time of posting…often what is being said is much less relevant to thinking about for my interests…
good to see though even some of our more critical leaning thinkers start off in a positive mindset…that’s a good thing…if you think i’m thinking about you – you are probably correct 😛
like-minded, so i get it…
at least pags though can consistently stay in character…
oh yeah, biggest hard lesson learned to date on controlling what goes in, fiber supplement is very necessary…
Off to a flying start!
I understand the skepticism that the Knicks won’t win many more games than last season but there really is no justification to expect they win less games unless there are a ton of injuries.
Knicks won 51 games last year with a barely average defense and really should’ve won more games if it wasn’t for a bunch of games they blew in the 4th quarter especially late in the season. Whatever you think of the new bench players you can’t argue they don’t have more depth and even if Mitch only plays half the games that’s still a huge upgrade from last season.
My predictions for this year:
EAST
———–
CLE 61-21
NYK 56-26
ORL 52-30
ATL 45-37
BOS 43-39
MIL 43-39
————–
MIA 38-44
DET 38-44
TOR 36-46
IND 33-49
————–
CHI 32-50
PHI 32-50
CHO 31-51
BRK 24-58
WAS 14-68
==============
WEST
———–
OKC 69-13
DEN 61-21
MIN 53-29
LAL 53-29
GSW 48-34
LAC 48-34
HOU 44-38
————–
SAS 43-39
SAC 41-41
DAL 40-42
MEM 36-46
————–
NOP 33-49
PHO 30-52
POR 28-54
UTA 25-57
55. Keep hope alive.
So…. Rotation for tomorrow???
PG: Brunson 36 / Clarkson 12
SG: Mikal 12 / Deuce 24 / Clarkson 12
SF: OG 24 / Mikal 24
PF: KAT 12 / Yabu 24 / OG 12
C: Huk 24 / KAT 24
Or maybe play Yabu at C and cut Huk’s minutes down a bit?
Mitch is injured. It might not be serious, but it’s obviously the case, at least in the sense of the word all sports fans are familiar with.
Leon Rose has made many positive changes to the New York Knicks, but I’m not a fan of the bizarre communications and don’t understand what he thinks they accomplish even from a purely self-interested perspective.
maybe that’s why yabu weighed in at a slim sumo 300 plus or so…
was told he’d need to play center, defend other centers…maybe he’s super-hyrdated…maybe he just likes to eat…
It’s possible Mitch is fine and the Knicks are “punting” this game to play Mitch in a game they have a better chance of winning. I feel like I see teams taking this tactic rather than resting against easy teams.
He’s already said publicly that it’s entirely “performance management’s” area. Washed his hands of it.
I guess technically my 55 was premised on full good health a la last year or something closely resembling same. If that doesn’t happen, they aren’t winning 55.
I love that E’s already pushing a Machiavellian clash of egos narrative the day before game one.
I bet they go Brunson/Deuce/Mikal/OG/KAT for the opening night starting lineup.
KAT is also questionable. For the Cavs Garland and Strus are out plus Hunter is questionable.
Time for another poll, Brian!
So you disagree with Edwards III that Brown’s style will be to plug Hukporti into Mitch’s slot when he’s out?
I think Edwards would predict Huk to start and Shamet to take some of Hart’s minutes.
EDIT: Some sources are listing KAT as questionable and OG as probable.
Playing our 4 best guys with either Deuce or Yabu might actually be our best lineup. I’m kind of excited to see it from the jump.
I’m going to go optimistic and say 57 wins, 1st in the East. More games from Mitch, a better bench, more coaching creativity, a weaker East, and a year to gel should lead to a better year than last year. I don’t think a six game improvement seems out of line.
57 wins – Win the East lose to OKC in 6. That matchup seems particularly bad for us. I think if Denver can beat OKC we have a shot at winning it all.
I can’t even remember what I voted, but I say 54 wins.
Although I’m not liking how this is going already…
If Thibs were still there he’d definitely start Huk for rim protection. I lean there too, given the Cav’s size up front. Am I secretly Thibs?
Oh yeah, and the Mariners suck.
Geo, Monmouth sounds very nice, bu5 I live far from there in a place called Whitehouse Station which just south of Interstate 78 and west of Somerville. Of course, I work in Beijing, so I spend most of my time here, 12 or 13 hours ahead of New Jersey.
If we start Ariel Hukporti tomorrow I’m taking back my coach-of-the-year prediction for Mike Brown.
you don’t live in jersey – that’s pennsylvania…
just kidding, sort of, didn’t know though jersey had that type of terrain…that’s a pretty rural looking area…beautiful spot…
3rd place. Rise of Math. Nuff said.
I don’t. People are focusing too much on the 5-10 guys. In the regular season approximately 90% of your success is attributable to how good your 4 best players are. The Cavs didn’t jump to 64 wins last year bc of Ty Jerome; it was bc Garland and Mobley played much better. If we get better seasons from Brunson, Bridges, and KAT we’ll win a lot more games even if Mitch & Hart miss half the season.
I don’t know what he will do, but imo that’s the correct lineup. If he does the right thing, he’ll already be one step ahead of Thibs.
Brown has said when Mitch is out the starting lineup would most likely be matchup dependant so I could see Huk starting tomorrow but against Boston Deuce starting instead. Of course this is hoping that KAT plays.
Roundball Rock Returns…
PG: Brunson 34 / Clarkson 14
SG: Deuce 32 / Clarkson 8 / Shamet 8
SF: Mikal 32 / OG 16
PF: OG 16 / Yabu 32
C: KAT 32 / Huk 16
alan already said today at 11:34 am that roundball rock is back/returning
Mike Woodson must be so happy to see how big this Houston lineup is, even if they play in the West.
I really dislike this new development of allowing NFL-style blocks when setting picks.
Geo, it’s definitely rural. And about a 40 minute drive to PA on the interstate.
Best NBC can do is to put Mike tirico as play by play…has to be a better option
My prediction is 48-49 wins. Honestly, I am not sold on Mike Brown to steer the ship in hard times. I hope I am wrong, of course. I will believe it when I see it.
Ok, EC standings:
Cavs
Magic
Knicks
Bucks
Pistons
Hawks
Sixers
Raps
Bulls
Heat
Celtics
Hornets
Pacers
Nets
Wizards
Missing game one of the season because of “load management” seems like some bullshit. We’ll be lucky to get 1000 minutes of Mitch this year.
Revising down to 48 wins.
“Revising down to 48 wins.”
Just wondering, why would you revise wins down to 48 when the team won 51 last year with Mitch not playing the vast majority of the season? Have you reconsidered your opinion on the efficacy of Precious Achiuwa?
I guess Leon isn’t the only one who is mum about player’s availability. The great Presti concurs:
From my POV, Mitch is a huge asset, but he boxes you in to playing a limited variety of offensive sets. We’re better with him, but the team needs to learn how to play without him on the court, and not just because he might get hurt.
“I guess Leon isn’t the only one who is mum about player’s availability. the great Presti concurs…”
Really poor comparison. JDub had wrist surgery this summer and is stil recovering. Mitch was healthy until the first half of the third preseason game and hasn’t practiced since, with no specific reason given.
Revising down to 48 wins because we’re not likely to have the same injury luck as we had last year. We’re going to have a hobbled Mitch playing limited minutes and a hobbled Hart, and we’ll be lucky if the other guys stay healthy.
The 51 win prediction was based on a healthy-ish Mitch offsetting the rest of the roster being generally less available because of injury regressions to the mean. Healthy-ish Mitch doesn’t seem to really be a thing though.
Barring injuries, 55 wins. Improved offense, better lineup management, and the east being in shambles all have me leaning heavily on the over.
It definitely makes a big difference. NBA schedules are unevenly weights so teams play 30 games against the other conference and 52 games against their own conference. Just last season, we went 34-18 (a 53 win pace) in the East and 17-14 (a 45 win pace) against the West. If we assume those winning percentages remained the same, we won 3 extra games last season because we play in the Eastern Conference instead of the Western Conference.
Brunson missed 17 games last season, KAT missed 10…
realized that whoever loses this houston okc game is going to be 0-1 and that could be considered a disappointing start for two teams with championship aspirations but i bet you wouldnt hear complaining from their fans because they still know that they have good teams if we are somehow 0-1 tomorrow night lets take a lesson from that we have a really good team in the upper echelons of the league and we should be happy to be able to say that
38 wins.
He had surgery 4 months ago and Presti is giving zero information on when he will be ready… tomorrow or 3 months from now.
Bottom line, nothing is gained by being transparent.
Forgot how much I fucking hate late game ref reviews on foul calls.
SGA isn’t bad
Hell of a game, and I’m mostly enjoying the NBA broadcast.
55
Not a good sign with the health on opening night..
OKC refusing to put iHart on Sengun.
Refs were paid off to not call that time out
Glad that sanity prevailed and an excellent ballgame is not being decided by a technicality.
SGA using his immense talent in a technically totally valid but deeply unsatisfying way? On brand.
Great opening game, Silver must be delighted!
Luka looks terrific!
If Sengun is going to shoot 8 threes a game instead of his career average of 1.3/27% and shoot fts like he did tonight vs his career 70% the league is going to be in big trouble.
I guess 23 yr olds can get better.
Dirty foul by Smart… what a shock!
how come bronny isn’t getting any run?
50 wins.
and the kevin durant curse continues ever since warriors great individual player but zero leadership skills to carry his teams to actual wins
im seeing this projected lineup for tomorrow night from various outlets:
PG Jalen Brunson
SG Mikal Bridges
SF O. Anunoby Prob
PF K. Towns Ques
C G. Yabusele
that would be in line with what weve heard about mb
I was going for 55 because I thought getting off to a flying start was a real possibility–new coach, fully healthy roster. We don’t have the latter. Pairing it down to 52.
54 wins. Mikal will play better. Dude just hated Thibs. Diawara is a gem, though it will take a while for him to fully blossom. Too much Josh Hart was too much, but now we will see what too little Josh Hart brings – most likely fewer rebounds, fewer energy plays. KAT is the best ok player in the league. He is more than fine offensively, though he ends up on the floor constantly and is already gimpy. His defensive footwork sucks and that’s not improving. Without a healthy Mitch, big men will tear us apart. Hukporti is improving, but he focuses on blocks and is out of position to stop scoring. If the core and the bench play to expectations- the wins will come.
So this may surprise people but I’m feeling slightly pessimistic this season. Maybe it’s just the early injury reports but so much depends on Mitch being healthy and him not playing in the opener is really disturbing. Hart was huge for us last year too.
But I do also think Mikal is going to be much better. Captain Clutch will do his thing although it’s going to look different in this offense. And I do think we might have a hidden gem in Diawara.
So I’m going to say….51 wins. Same as last year. I think we are going to miss some things Thibs did and I’m worried Brown’s offense is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
I think there’s going to be some bumps early. I think the east will be more competitive than we think. But end of hte day we have a top 10 player (Brunson), a top 20 player (KAT) and OG and Mikal, who are both top 50. That goes a long way and we will beat up on the dregs of the league like we did last year.
But seriously….Hart. Just get the damn finger surgery and come back after the new year. Rest up that back. You put a lot of miles on the tires last year. Take the extended break and come back and give us that extra boost to propel us into the playoffs. Diawara and/or Dadiet can use the early season to get some experience. It will make us stronger in the end.
Yeah, I really thought we turned the corner with our medical staff last year. Injuries happen and I get that—but between Yabu being overweight and not explicitly being acknowledged, Mitch neither being injured nor load managed but “injury managed” which seems to indicate not playing more than 44minutes in a 3 week period, and the Josh decision to forestall further surgery even while he’s likely out for a week.
I don’t really understand how folks are basing their wins predictions on injury worries, specifically for Mitch. The Knicks won 51 games last year despite not playing a single game with a fully healthy and recovered Mitch! Furthermore, Precious Achiuwa missed the first 22 games with a hammy. So for all of those games, the only backup big to play significant minutes (Huk played sporadically, mostly in garbage time) was Jericho Sims. And guess what? They went 14-8 in those games! That’s a 51-win pace! They also didn’t have Landry Shamet for a single game during that stretch.
Sure, Thibs accomplished this by playing an 8-man rotation. He sort of had to! Beyond Deuce, Payne, and Sims, his bench had 3 rookies (Kolek, Dadiet, Huk), one vet’s minimum scrub (Ryan) and a two-way guy (Toppin).
By the time Mitch came back, the team was already 38-20…a 53.7 win pace!
They were well on their way to a 55-win season from that point on, until Brunson got hurt. Deuce was also out for 8 games during that stretch, meaning that Cam Payne was playing big minutes and rookie Kolek was backing him up.
So it seems pretty obvious to me that the 53.5 wins line already has a significant injury buffer built in to it. Meaning that if you are taking the under, it should be for reasons other than Mitch being unavailable. Also meaning that if the injury luck is actually good, this should be something like a 60-win team.
The main “logical” reason to go for the under is the switch from Thibs to Brown. The roster is significantly better than it was last year, and has a year of cohesion under its belt. The bench is objectively deeper going into the season than it was going into last season because Yabu, while fat, is available, and Shamet, while scrubby, is available…and the rookies are no longer rookies.
I do think the “Brown is a downgrade” concern is quite valid, and will cost the team some theoretical regular season wins. But it’s a player’s league and this team has enough good players to win on 3 out of 4 nights no matter who is coaching. At least, that’s how I see it.
Past few years we’ve had a ton of complaints about the Knicks not load managing and resting guys since the regular season isn’t that important yet now most people are going ape shit and panicking because Mitch and Hart are out tonight…
I’m just realizing that my League Pass subscription is probably a waste of money. The squad is on TV a lot..a whole lot this season. Good problem to have in a sense. I guess?
53 wins
We got 51 last season with basically no Mitch and we added high level bench pieces in Clarkson and Yabusele. We don’t make it to at least 53, it means we had considerably worse injury luck than last season
Load Management is for the second game of a back to back on the road. Load management is for the middle of the season when you have 6 games in 8 days and need to give guys a night off.
It’s not panic. It’s concern. Like if you’re sitting someone out for “load management” reasons on opening night…it just looks bad.
If they played tonight and then had to miss games because they aggravated their injuries every single person on here would be going fucking crazy about why did they force injured players to play the 1st game of the season when it’s essentially meaningless in the big picture.
I don’t think Mitch should be starting in the first place, and all last year I thought Josh was cannibalizing Bridges & OG on offense. These developments don’t concern me at all. I’m actually excited to get a real look at how our top 4 guys look without Josh being left open for 38 minutes.
Fat Yabu is a little worrisome, though. I am counting on him being as good as last year.
I don’t really understand how folks are basing their wins predictions on injury worries, specifically for Mitch
Z-man, my baseline case was that Mitch gets injured for a chunk of the season, the roster is better in depth, Brown and Thibs probably a net even, and as I mentioned earlier we are likely to come out of the gate strong. That put me at 55.
The Mitch injury news concerns me in 2 ways for my prediction-we are less likely to come out strong and more importantly, the injury is so chronic that Mitch may never be able to play meaningful minutes prior to the playoffs per medical load management. And, btw, I nailed the last 2 seasons wins prediction!
Poindexter I’m with you, Knicks I believe play 34 games not on League Pass! Since I live in Miami I need League Pass to watch the Knicks and considering all the extra national games now with Peacock and Prime I was hoping it would lower the price of League Pass but no dice. Although I did get a 20% off promo to pay the full season price upfront.
league pass is already pretty inexpensive as it is i thought it was roughly 15 a month
Yea..I hate it AL
Happy 2025-2026 season! cgreene back for what I believe is my 18th season on KB.
KAT out tonight too! Small ball baby.
I have a deep pit in my stomach about this season. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Probably means 60 wins and a title because I m terrible at predictions.
If I’m correct then Leon will sell the farm for Giannis in Jan.
Past few years I’d get League Pass thru YouTube TV for i think it was 17 bucks a month but they no longer offer League Pass so this year I just ordered it thru the NBA website and paid the yearly price upfront with the 20% promo code.
I am not suggesting they play if they are injured. I’m suggesting that them being injured before the season starts does not bode well for the season.
Not sure why this needs to be spelled out.
And call me Mr. Thibs if you want but every game is meaningful.
It’s objectively better to go 8-2 your first 10 games than to go 2-8. Sure, you can turn it around, get healthier, etc…but there is a direct correlation between teams that start the season strong and winning a title.
It’s much easier to load manage and deal with injuries in the middle of the season if you’re 10 games over 500 vs. 10 games under 500. There are always teams (like the pacers last year) that get stronger as the season wears on but, in general, I would much rather us start strong than not start strong. It gives you so much more breathing room.
I’d rather have tough games early in the season. Then late in the season you may have more games against teams that are in tanking mode.
According to Windhorst, the Knicks “could’ve had Giannis if they wanted.”
Yes cryptic, but if true, that could end up being a huge fumble.
Interesting start to the season, finally looked and tonight is probably our most problematic game through the first seven. After the Cavs we have the Celtics and then Miami, both games to me being as interesting about what they put out on the floor as to how we do, then Bucks (kind of ditto), and then Bulls-Bulls-Wizards, so absolute worst case wheels-coming-off we’d be 3-4 when we hit the Timberwolves, who some writer recently hot-took the finals as the Wolves beating the Knicks, for what it’s worth (very, very little in my book).
So we win this game we could easily be 7-0 to start, 6-1 being very reasonable.
If KAT’s actually out tonight, together with the Mitch weirdness, I’m throwing out another outlier prediction, unlikely but materially non-zero, that a trade for Giannis is in the works.
cgreene reporting that kat is out tonight too but that is not the case he is listed as questionable and og is listed as probable only hart and mitch are already marked as out
I’m hearing from a reliable twitter source he’s out
okey doke i believe you for sure just saying that i havent seen it anywhere myself i kinda trust the official nba injury report rotowire and underdog nba twitter also still show him as questionable
what e is saying is indeed interesting about giannis i would have mixed feelings about that depending on what the trade would be but i definitely would not love the timing
Yeah, if they had traded Brunson. That wouldn’t have made any sense, though, right?
I know, Giannis is a lot better than Brunson, of course, but, well, come on, no one does trades like that.
Brunson & Hart for Giannis would be a great trade for us but Danny Ainge is the only GM that cut throat.
This team, tho…
1 Deuce
2 Bridges
3 OG
4 Giannis
5 KAT
Giannis with 4 shooters and KAT w 4 defenders… damn
That is one strong lineup. But Milwaukee probably wanted OG as well.
“I know, Giannis is a lot better than Brunson, of course, but, well, come on, no one does trades like that.”
The Dallas Mavericks would like to differ with you…
The Knicks could have traded for Giannis click bait might be real, but it likely would have involved gutting the team (worse than Brunson and Hart) and dropping out of serious contention. So I think it’s a nothing burger. Maybe someday in the future…
Something feels off about what’s going on with the Knicks.
Aside from that, I’ll probably be watching The Diplomat by halftime. Between injuries and the new systems I think we are going to get spanked tonight.
I’m going with 54 wins. Slightly better because Mitch will ultimately play more than last season and I’m kinda convinced he’s our 3rd best player.
Didn’t we just see Anthony Davis traded for Luka?
It’s not “load management” if you’re sitting him out for game one of the season. It’s an injury. Meaning he made it zero games without missing time due to injury. Maybe it’s a minor injury and he’s back soon, but this guy is not exactly the Cal Ripken of basketball, and we kind of need him.
I agree. It’s hard to put my finger on it but it’s kind of how like last season you could just tell something was “off” with Mikal from the get go, but now it feels like it’s the whole team?
I don’t know. Captain LOVED Thibs. So did Hart. And those 2 have been the heart of the team the last few years. Despite his short comings, we got to the ECF for the first time in 25 years and the coach was then summarily fired. I know the reasons given for the lack of creativity on the offense, but I’m just worried Thibs got canned bc Mikal was unhappy and Leon spent 5 first round picks to acquire him. The minutes thing last year was partly because the bench was so thin. What would we look like now if we had gotten Clarkson and Yabu and strengthened the bench and had thibs back in tow with a full year of experience under the core’s belt and a deep playoff run?
Maybe that is all just fear of the unknown. I admit Thibs was a security blanket to some degree but it’s hard for me to fully accept that we fired the guy who made us relevant again and that maybe, the culture has started to change again for the worst.
To be frank, it’s giving me 2013-2014 season vibes all over again. A season following a very successful one that ended in disappointment. We lost Kidd and Camby and Kurt but hey, we got Ron Artest….we’ll be good again, right?
Athletic reported today that Brunson blessed moving on from Thibs
Wow, we’re 0-0 and there’s an awful lot of angst flowing through this site
Let’s see how we look tonight. If we get spanked and KAT plays and looks unhappy then I guess we can push the 0-1 panic button. If we kick the Cavs ass then all’s right in Knicks land.
Either way, I’m going tonight and can’t wait to see the Mike Brown Knicks!
You guys remember how the Knicks played last season on opening night…
Berman doing his best troll job predicting Knicks going 45-37! He’s been trolling the Knicks really hard since Thibs was fired.
“1 Deuce
2 Bridges
3 OG
4 Giannis
5 KAT
Giannis with 4 shooters and KAT w 4 defenders… damn”
wait now mikal is considered a “defender”?
Where’s Pagliacci when he’s actually needed?
Most likely, Mitch’s surgically-repaired ankle will never be fully right for basketball purposes again. All of the predictive signs are poor and that was the case even before this recent setback.
I am totally unconcerned about tonight’s game for all kinds of reasons. Brown means the team is somewhat equivalent to brand new (at least to the system), the starters played very little during the pre-season (hopefully lots of practice, but that’s a mystery), and a bunch of important players out or questionable. I’ll do my best to try and enjoy everyone else freaking out if we lose, but I won’t be one of them.
I say again, where is Pagliacci?!!?
Towns is now doubtful
https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/1981049106580852746
Count me among those who feel that this is a blessing in disguise.
Many in Knicksland (and specifically, here) have opined that Mitch and Hart, for all their gifts, kill spacing. Mitch is in a contract year, and Josh is probably our closest thing to “salary filler” that we have on the roster.
So let’s find out what we have in the absence of those two as soon as possible. You obviously can’t keep Hart off the floor for more than 20mpg if he’s healthy, and if you start benching him in critical 4th quarter minutes when he’s fuly healthy, he’s not going to be happy. So let’s see if the team can adjust to not having them on the floor in those minutes. Let’s also see how deep the bench actually is while there’s still time to make moves. Throw one or more of Dadiet/Diawara/McCullar/Tosan and Jemison into the fire and see what they got.
KAT’s quad is a bit more worrisome in the short run, obviously there is no visible path to a winning team with all 3 of these guys off the floor. Yet turning a sore quad into a pulled quad by forcing KAT into action is something to be concerned about. I’m guessing that KAT plays but that Huk and Yabu see a lot of time and that OG, sees very extended minutes tonight (barring a first-half blowout), like over 40, and probably Brunson and Mikal as well.
I don’t think the medical staff is going to win an award this year
for better or worse its yabu time lets make sure he can handle it
What in god’s name is this starting lineup gonna look like?
I’m guessing Huk-Yabu-OG-Mikal-Brunson, with Deuce playing over 30 minutes and Clarkson, and Shamet each playing 20+ minutes. I think there’s a good chance that Jemison and either Dadiet or Diawara seeing some meaningful (i.e. non-garbage time) action.
Brunson/Clarkson
Deuce/Clarkson/Shamet
Mikal/OG/Shamet
OG/Yabu
Huk???/Jemison
Huk as starter. I don’t think you can play Yabu at C without KAT & Hart, you will never get a rebound. Yabu gets 30min off the bench.
Curious to see how far up the depth chart Diawara is. Do you go with Diawara/Yabu over Yabu/Jemison?
How much Shamet do we see and how does he look now that he’s presumably healthier than he was much of last season?
Is there an off chance McCullar get minutes at the 3 over Shamet in non-blowout minutes to match size?
The reason I think Yabu will start over Deuce is because of CLE’s twin towers. I guess you could play Huk and OG on Allen and Mobley, but I expect the Cavs to start De’Andre Hunter and Sam Merrill, which makes them pretty big vs. a Brunson-Deuce backcourt. But starting Deuce is certainly a plausible way to go.
Right here, Alan! Missed ya.
I did chime in at the #2 post in this thread estimating our wins on the low end (48) due to regression to our mean in terms of injury look. Looking good on that one so far!
I go with 48. I love the knicks I can’t help filling there’s something missing in this team and I can’t put my finger on it, but I hope that goes away and the team clicks steam rolls everything its way
Knicks did go 4-1 in preseason!
wow new expected lineup is out:
PG Jalen Brunson
SG J. Clarkson
SF Mikal Bridges
PF O. Anunoby Prob
C G. Yabusele
hunter is questionable to play z-man
but then there is this:
Stefan Bondy
@SbondyNBA
21m
Despite being downgraded to doubtful, I’m hearing Karl-Anthony Towns will indeed play for the Knicks in tonight’s season opener.
We may well finally be good, but we will never, ever be normal.
Begone, Pags! Return on another, darker day!
Knicks waging psychological warfare against their fans that would violate the Geneva convention
Expected Lineup
PG Jalen Brunson
SG J. Clarkson
SF Mikal Bridges
PF O. Anunoby Prob
C K. Towns Ques
I’m not yet worried about Mitch’s health.
Maybe the idea is to keep him off the floor unless he feels 100% or “has no tenderness” or whatever euphemism. This would be the opposite of Thibs’s “every game is game 7” and would track with the team firing him.
People making a big symbolic deal about game 1 should consider that game 1 is worth no more than game 37. If this cautious approach keeps Mitch available when it does count — playoffs — I’m all for it. If we can win some games without him, as we did last year, then that’s great.
Brown himself is quoted: “If we deemed it necessary, could he possibly go? Yeah, he could possibly go.” Sure the coach might be withholding bad news, but if the team is just keeping Mitch out when he doesn’t feel right, I’m fine.
Towns’s injury designation is in a state of quantum uncertainty. Schrodinger’s KAT, if you will.
I said it before but its seeming even more pressing that we need to switch Shamet out for more big-man depth. Mitch is out, Hart is out, Towns and OG are both likely in but on the injury report. We need more depth at the 4 and 5.
Robinson-Earl, Bamba, Precious, Bol. All of them are at least as good as Shamet and give us more depth where we need it. As a bonus all but Precious can shoot the 3.
Any of them would be a great help in case Diawara or Jemison aren’t ready to get meaningful minutes or if Huk disappoints or if Yabusele’s weight is indeed an issue.
Also Kai Jones or Trey Lyles, both have outs in their contract to come back to the NBA.
Wow… the opening is here, at last! 😊
So much to read, but first things first, i’m going with 58 wins. It won’t be easy, but i think we can do it. We have a great chance to be in the ECF again and being a repeat we’ll fight even harder than last season to be in the Finals. I hope the players know that the NBA landscape is always changing, so we must not waste an opportunity like the one we have this season.
Let’s gooooo Knicks! 🧡💙
I didn’t see that one coming.
Brogdon retiring, Hart and Mitch to potentially miss real time, Towns hurting, Yabu needing Ozempic…. Not a great start to the season.
Is it too soon to tank? 😉
EB with the thread win.
KAT now listed as questionable, doubtful, uncertain, tentative, dubious, improbable, unlikely and undecided
I’d go a little easy on Yabusele’s BMI via eyeballometric guestimation.
The man lit it up un the Euro Championships in September FFS. He didn’t become a slob in 4 weeks.
I just picked up one of these bad boys from the NBA Store:
https://store.nba.com/new-york-knicks/jerseys/unisex-new-york-knicks-jalen-brunson-jordan-brand-black-swingman-jersey-statement-edition/t-25694153+d-5694405205+f-2428371141+z-9-3720981627?utm_medium=cse&_s=ak1944nba-pla&sku=209603774&targetid=targetid&utm_campaign=21835927898_172299183554&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21835927898&gbraid=0AAAAADwsNmENVYMe7lZHiznHu-dZc1HEU&gclid=CjwKCAjwgeLHBhBuEiwAL5gNEfePUuqDIJFCOQeSy-KACO4McQo8KXdG5eWOTHlr-G07Vt0sORQV1RoCC5gQAvD_BwE
Looks like it’s just you and me on Team Optimist this year, Cyber. Apparently our GM gutted the team to acquire me.
KAT’s status is the basketball equivalent of the suburban Milwaukee voter who gets to decide who wins the electoral college every 4 years.
no politics im told
Hey, Hubert, I didn’t walk back my 56…though I was sorry tempted to….
Predicting a slow start over the next 20 games. Thinking we hover around .500 before turning on the jets.
54 wins.
Let’s goooooo
You have us 3rd in the East, though, Rama, so you can’t quite make the team. You’re the Malcolm Brogdon of Team Optimist.
Let it not be said that there was no warning ….
Popping in to say that I predict 55 wins, second in the East, and a loss tonight (which will be a large contributor to our losing the conference to Cleveland, who won’t break 60 wins this year imo.)
That said, I’m excited to see what Brown does with all the lineup combinations, especially in light of the KAT maybe-injury. Bring it on!
kat is playing no longer on injury report
Expected Lineup
PG Jalen Brunson
SG Mikal Bridges
SF O. Anunoby Ques
PF K. Towns
C A. Hukporti
@UnderdogNBA
16m
Karl-Anthony Towns (quad) will play Wednesday barring “unforeseen circumstance”, per
@IanBegley
@UnderdogNBA
16m
Lineup alert: Ariel Hukporti expected to start in place of Mitchell Robinson on Wednesday, per
@IanBegley
@UnderdogNBA
7m
Status alert: OG Anunoby (ankle) a game-time decision Wednesday, per coach Brown.
An unsurprising amount of pessimism to start off the season on this site.
If you were to tell me 5 years ago that we would be a serious contender in a wide open Eastern conference in which the projected #1 team’s success is built entirely around 1 player (Garland) being healthy, we’d be very excited.
52 wins. We have a better team than last year.
Last year our entire offense was based around Brunson who was out for 17 games. We got this. I’m expecting a finals appearance, a huge year from Bridges/KAT outside of a MVP year for JB.
LFG NYK
deandre hunter out
@UnderdogNBA
2m
Lineup alert: Knicks will start Brunson, Bridges, Anunoby, Towns, Hukporti on Wednesday.
I didn’t like the numbers once I ran them, Hubie, but I couldn’t get around thinking that Orlando is gonna win 56 as well, and will hold the tiebreaker. Health is always a factor, and they’ve got to be healthier this year. And their defense prevents as much variance as we may experience.
Thanks for manually making these threads, seems like this is the game thread right?
Huk Huk
it’s coming BJ…just building a little anticipation…
thinking of 56 wins for the magic seems even sketchier than the knicks getting to 56…
magic have their own health concerns…
Man that video was hype
Huk huk
hope huk is a good jumper…
oh well…
Damn, first game of the season and we don’t even get a game thread? Bad juju to start the season.
The way your post began I thought you’d be starting alongside me, Cyber, and Cronin but at 52 wins you ended up being the Delon Wright of Team Optimism.
Good start for the Huk and Chuck offense
Game thread?
Nice ball movement after somebody helped Mikal out
early start most likely…
this huk is almost too good to be true…
Well Huk is certainly active….
OG’s been really active so far, too…
I’m getting dangerously Huxporti pilled.
(Sorry Doogie, that’s his name now)
OG with some ugly passes
Mitch is no longer the starter
mobley is such a tough cover…
you don’t really mean that EB…
I’m all for Mobley taking every shot instead of Mitchell.
If this version of Huk scales, Knicks in good shape
The offense looks nice.
Two bigs against this team makes a lot of sense, but it really makes me antsy to see the second unit.
Not bad so far
Yabu reminds me of a big spider on D, with his arms and legs and giant butt just swinging around every which way…
Missing a ton of open 3s but love the ball movement.
Jemison in early. So far my bigs prediction is coming true..
Hopefully alot of people here are going to owe Bridges an apology by the end of this season….
Bridges in most improved mode
I’ve seen enough: hang the fucking banner
Look at Bridges doing things.
Getting up 3s seems to be an area of focus, and whattya know, it works
65 wins
Hukporti looks good.
OG looks like OG, which is very good.
The defense looks active and good.
Bridges looks great. I’m glad I never left the fan club!
Jemison is very high energy but he kinda looks like he’s constantly on the verge of spazzing out
It’s extremely early but this team looks PRETTY GOOD!
Defense looks ok mostly, but too many 3PAs allowed.
I’m a huge Lonzo Ball fan. It’s such a shame he’s been hurt. He’s hugely impactful.
Lonzo lefts his jumper in chitown
I change my mind. 82 wins. Mikal wins the MVP award.
Up 10 after 1 quarter despite Brunson playing like shit is a good sign.
High 3PA? Lineup experimentation? Am I in heaven?
So far Cavs are having an issue with our size and strength (just like old times!) and can’t seem to get any penetration so their whole offense is hoisting 3s. Great first quarter!
Man, Mikal REALLY hated Thibs.
WOW Quarter!
Gimme 3 more like that mrBrown!
Still the prediction thread, so it counts when I revise my total up 10 more
The only thing that I didn’t like about that quarter is that we haven’t seen a possession without Jalen on the floor. Hopefully that means JC and Kay are in
11 man rotation!
Kolek starting the second quarter was not on my bingo card…
12 3PAs in the quarter. So good to see, even if they aren’t making too many of those. They were really good looks.
Ummm..Jordan Clarkson, anyone? What in the world?
We’re welcoming people back to Team
Optimist but just a heads up it’s called Team Hubie now.
I love when opposing teams call a timeout one play into the quarter.
KOLEK!!!!
KOLEK!!!
Defense is not this 2nd units strong suit…
Clarkson has annoyed me twice so far. Overdribbling the play before, then that stupid shot.
…did Kolek hate Thibs too?
Nonzero chance we get Dadiet & Diawarra tonight in a 4Q blowout.
KOLEK looking so dreamy out there
Hello all! So good to have the season here!
Yabu and Clarkson, not a great defensive tandem
Are other people seeing why I hated Yabusele so much in the preseason?
clyde would have definetly said stumbling and bumbling re: kat just then.
Phuck…the Larry nance Jr game
Ah yes the get a big lead and immediately start allowing a bunch of open fucking 3s crap is back.
MVP Larry Nance
What did Deuce do wrong? Not entirely sure that a Kolek-Clarkson backcourt can cut it defensively.
That was actually Kolek’s fault. Pass was low, at the knees of the roll man. That isn’t going to go well.
I’ll take this version of Clarkson tbh, he’s looking for open teammates and is attacking when the offense needs a release valve
I was on record as wanting Nance at least. (I may not cop to it when he misses 40 games, though.)
I don’t know if it will continue, but so far our own draft picks are impressing more than our key off season acquisitions.
Yeah ok no more of these weird stupid experimental lineups please.
My bad. Got a little carried away.
at least we can rely on deuce to hit a 3
Mikal looks like a completely different player with how aggressive he is defensively
OG at the 5!
Thibs mind imploding seeing the current Knicks lineup
OG is pretty good
This is weird watching all these constant lineup changes…
how is og at the 5 with kat in there
And now THE lineup.
He was there for a few possessions before KAT checked in.
Also, he was guarding Mobley once KAT came in, KAT was on Tyson.
Using OG as a trailer like that seems like an obvious weapon yet I don’t recall us doing it once last year
got it marechal thanks
The game tells you what to do
I know we’re taking a lot of 3s and they have been relatively open, but I’m kinda worried how sustainable it is… in my head I know it’s the right strategy but it just doesn’t feel safe 🤦🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️
Mikal is SO good at racing to the rack way too fast and somehow slowing down the actual layup so it’s so soft…
So many stupid turnovers…
Feeling good about my prediction that our offense will be top 5 and we’re gonna increase our TO rate.
The in-game ads that relegate, you know, the game to 15% of the screen degrade the viewing experience an almost impressive amount
They executed a 2-for-1, I could cry.
Up 15 at halftime yet it feels slightly disappointing, I’ll take it though!
Meanwhile, in the Thibs timeline…
the Knicks trail 45-42, Mikal Bridges played all 24 minutes, an injured Josh Hart played 22, and 80% of the plays run have involved Hart setting a screen for Brunson while everyone else stands still. Some folks are concerned bc Mitch left the game in the 1Q after seeming to re-aggrevate his injury. Nevertheless, a lazy journalist just tweeted that Thibs is “maximizing winning” bc only 8 players have entered the game. And someone on KB is calling everyone a ghoul for thinking it could be better.
6 rebounds for OG
Game thread up
I know it’s a small sample size, but Jalen really seems to be forcing passes in these end of quarter possessions. Which is definitely different from last year, but I think when the clock is running out we want the ball in his hands.
I haven’t been able to watch but I should be able to catch most of the second half. We have a 19-5 edge in FTA, which seems like the story of the game
Also out rebounding them 2:1. They are winning the possession game by a lot.
Well, that was a very exciting first half of the first game of the season. Some takeaways:
Huk is definitely NBA ready. Another fantastic late second-round pick. A reasonable facsimile of Mitch while he’s out.
Bridges clearly was not happy last year. A totally different player on both ends. This guy was worth…well, at least a few picks.
I would HATE to be guarded by OG.
KAT apparently prepared to commit 2 dumb fouls every game, not willing to shed that label yet.
Kolek maybe isn’t totally terrible after all? We now know why Brogdan retired.
Most important: Brown not disappointing so far. First, he played 11 guys. 11 guys! My brain nearly exploded seeing Jemisen in there with Kolek, Shamet, and Yabu. Just wow. Tbh, I think it was one guy too many, but still, our main players are gonna be so much fresher. And we took so many 3s… Very nice to see. I’m hoping we stop throwing it to the other team – dumb TOs are the only reason we’re not up 20. Ok, that and the open 3s we keep giving up. But this early in the season, it’s about process, not results, and the process looks good.
KAT, please take the 3 instead of driving into the defense.
I didn’t have 14 rebounds for OG on my BINGO card.