21 replies on “Poll: Knicks’ Regular Season Wins 2026-2027”
I’m going low. 1)I think we’re going to be doing even more load management. 2)I don’t think our injury luck will be quite as good. 3)We’ll have a target on our backs every night. 4)Only two teams in the whole league have any incentive to tank.
We’ll be good, but I don’t see us as a regular season juggernaut. 51-52.
1
Two other bits of news:
1)Katz is back on the Knicks beat fulltime, sharing it with Edwards. Which means we’ll get even more coverage in The Athletic.
2)Stein says there’s a “real possibility” that the Mavs waive Cisse in order to keep Powell. He then mentioned several teams that would rush to try to sign Cisse to a two-way deal. My questions are these: I know we’re not allowed to trade with Dallas for him, but could we sign him to an NBA deal if he’s waived? And what are the odds another team could/would claim him before he cleared waivers?
1
And Fred’s first story back on the beat offers a bit of a tease of what’s to come in his book, since he talks about the players-only meeting after Atlanta Game 3:
I’m going 55. I think the Knicks will have an added level of confidence going into the regular season. Additionally I think KAT will have a chip on his shoulder given his contract talks & his improvement last year during the playoffs. Finally I’ll tack on a few wins to Mike Brown having a year under his belt will give him better insight on how to utilize the scheme/lineup against some teams during the season.
I’m going with 55 wins, although frankly, I’d rather we didn’t win that many. I’d be perfectly happy seeing us coast through the regular season at half speed, even if it meant finishing as the 4 or 5 seed.
I think the impact of tanking reform on our record is being overstated. Even before tanking became egregious, the bottom third of the league rarely beat the top teams. And we’re not a try-hard team like Detroit. We went 14-0 against the Nets, Wizards, Grizzlies, Pelicans, and Jazz because we were vastly more talented, not because they were deliberately losing. I don’t see us suddenly going 9-5 against those teams just because they’re motivated to win.
And there’s a flip side to the whole “everyone is gunning for you” argument. Being the champs comes with a psychological advantage. Some games are effectively won before tipoff because you expect to win and your opponent expects to lose.
If we’re healthy, I think we win the East. But I think this is OKC’s year. This team is better than either of their last two, and after the injury luck they had last season (which no one is paying attention to while they anoint the Spurs), I think they’re due.
Elsewhere, I have a huge postseason short on the Spurs. They may be the 1 seed but I think they go down hard in the playoffs, and not even against the Thunder.
And I’m very long Boston. With a healthy year from Tatum and a bounce back season from White, they will be the 1 seed in the East and have the #1 offense in the league. Combining the amount of threes they shoot with the extra possessions Mitch gains is a cheat code.
I’m in the 57-win camp. Health permitting, we are just too talented. Can see multiple long streaks where everything clicks.
I’ve tend to be overly conservative on wins for the Knicks. True to fashion I’m going to say 48. I think the rest of the east has either improved or has a significant player coming back from a long term injury. I think the east is going to be a lot more balanced, but I haven’t made any bets in either direction yet.
Someone on my timeline made an intersting point that all the analysis of the second apron, tax bills, frozen picks etc… is assuming the CBA doesn’t change in a couple of years. If it changes (seems likely to me), a lot of the potential problems change with it.
I think I’ve picked in the 53 win range each of the last 2 seasons so no reason to change this year. Would love to get into the upper 50 win total but I assume there’ll be a decent amount of nights where the Knicks interest in playing any sort of defense will be non existent and teams will hit a shitload of 3s.
In the end the goal should be a Top 3 seed which I believe Knicks will still have no problems achieving.
I saw the Stein report about Cisse, and I’m annoyed the Mavs didn’t just let us have him if they truly place a higher value on Dwight Powell.
Since we signed Wiseman to a vet-min, we’re in the same position with Cisse that we were with OAKAAK Bruce Brown. We can’t sign Cisse to a minimum without going into the second apron unless we trade Dadiet or Kolek (or someone else). I also doubt he clears waivers anywa.
This is one of the toughest win handicapping years I can remember. You’re dealing with:
1) the team looking much, much better in the playoffs than they did in the regular season
2) a Drummond/Mitch swap that absolutely made the team worse but might provide a regular season boost just due to availability
3) the tankers of yore becoming ~30 win try hards
I’ll go with 54. We’ll retain much of what we saw in the playoffs when it counts–using KAT as an offensive hub in particular will get a lot more run. The defense will be there when it needs to be, but having hung a banner, will take some nights off in February.
Going with 51 mostly for the reasons Alan stated. In addition, last year’s playoff run will allow Knicks to ease off the gas pedal during the regular season ( in addition to load management) and give some significant minutes to players who might be needed in the playoffs like Mo D and Wiseman. If Wiseman is unable to show that he is a viable option in playoffs, I see Leon making an Alvarado like move for a more competent center. I see OG becoming a more significant contributor on offense and perhaps becoming the second to most valuable player to Brunson. Hopefully, the Knicks have similar good fortune with injuries. I do think they make it to the finals again.
Due to the roster construction KAT will always be the 2nd most valuable Knick and I don’t think it’s particularly close.
Mavs are waiving Powell after all.
I think Philly is/would be hot on Cisse’s trail with the loss of Huk.
Hubert, #4 seed is OK, but not the #5 seed. Still want home court advantage in the first round.
If the whole league is truly better and there are fewer tanking teams, logically you’d need fewer wins to gain a high seed.
The Knicks got the #3 seed last year with 53 wins, which underperformed their Pythag, which was 56 wins. I think you’ll see something similar this year. Mid-50’s wins and a first round bye.
Well, not an *actual* bye. It would be cool if the NBA had those.
52 wins. I think they could start with a motivation to get 60, but Brown will experiment and give time to the end of bench players, and overall it’s an older team that will pace itself.
Mavs are waiving Powell after all.
He could compete for minutes on the Knicks, no?
Predicting our win total this year is tricky…
On the one hand the East does appear to be tougher, at least on paper. I think anti-tanking measures are also overstated and the bad teams are still going to be pretty bad, but maybe a bad team tries a bit harder all season and that means 1 or 2 upset games.
I also do think teams will be gunning for us some, too. And we probably don’t have the same injury luck we did last season. Plus, no Mitch.
But, on the other hand…no Mitch means no load management for Andre. I also don’t see us going through a 14 game slide mid-season like we did last year and losing 9 in a row.
The team knows their roles and what it takes to win. There will be some confidence as the defending champs that might offset teams gunning for us. And I truly think point KAT is gonna fuck up a lot of shitty teams. Only 4 teams have experienced that so far.
But then again, maybe Mike load manages even more?
So I’m gonna say…54 wins. I think we win a few more than last year just based off of experience, continuity and championship swagger. But I don’t think we go for much more than that nor should we.
21 replies on “Poll: Knicks’ Regular Season Wins 2026-2027”
I’m going low. 1)I think we’re going to be doing even more load management. 2)I don’t think our injury luck will be quite as good. 3)We’ll have a target on our backs every night. 4)Only two teams in the whole league have any incentive to tank.
We’ll be good, but I don’t see us as a regular season juggernaut. 51-52.
Two other bits of news:
1)Katz is back on the Knicks beat fulltime, sharing it with Edwards. Which means we’ll get even more coverage in The Athletic.
2)Stein says there’s a “real possibility” that the Mavs waive Cisse in order to keep Powell. He then mentioned several teams that would rush to try to sign Cisse to a two-way deal. My questions are these: I know we’re not allowed to trade with Dallas for him, but could we sign him to an NBA deal if he’s waived? And what are the odds another team could/would claim him before he cleared waivers?
And Fred’s first story back on the beat offers a bit of a tease of what’s to come in his book, since he talks about the players-only meeting after Atlanta Game 3:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7698380/2026/10/19/knicks-season-opener-76ers-jalen-brunson/
I’m going 55. I think the Knicks will have an added level of confidence going into the regular season. Additionally I think KAT will have a chip on his shoulder given his contract talks & his improvement last year during the playoffs. Finally I’ll tack on a few wins to Mike Brown having a year under his belt will give him better insight on how to utilize the scheme/lineup against some teams during the season.
I’m going with 55 wins, although frankly, I’d rather we didn’t win that many. I’d be perfectly happy seeing us coast through the regular season at half speed, even if it meant finishing as the 4 or 5 seed.
I think the impact of tanking reform on our record is being overstated. Even before tanking became egregious, the bottom third of the league rarely beat the top teams. And we’re not a try-hard team like Detroit. We went 14-0 against the Nets, Wizards, Grizzlies, Pelicans, and Jazz because we were vastly more talented, not because they were deliberately losing. I don’t see us suddenly going 9-5 against those teams just because they’re motivated to win.
And there’s a flip side to the whole “everyone is gunning for you” argument. Being the champs comes with a psychological advantage. Some games are effectively won before tipoff because you expect to win and your opponent expects to lose.
If we’re healthy, I think we win the East. But I think this is OKC’s year. This team is better than either of their last two, and after the injury luck they had last season (which no one is paying attention to while they anoint the Spurs), I think they’re due.
Elsewhere, I have a huge postseason short on the Spurs. They may be the 1 seed but I think they go down hard in the playoffs, and not even against the Thunder.
And I’m very long Boston. With a healthy year from Tatum and a bounce back season from White, they will be the 1 seed in the East and have the #1 offense in the league. Combining the amount of threes they shoot with the extra possessions Mitch gains is a cheat code.
I’m in the 57-win camp. Health permitting, we are just too talented. Can see multiple long streaks where everything clicks.
I’ve tend to be overly conservative on wins for the Knicks. True to fashion I’m going to say 48. I think the rest of the east has either improved or has a significant player coming back from a long term injury. I think the east is going to be a lot more balanced, but I haven’t made any bets in either direction yet.
Someone on my timeline made an intersting point that all the analysis of the second apron, tax bills, frozen picks etc… is assuming the CBA doesn’t change in a couple of years. If it changes (seems likely to me), a lot of the potential problems change with it.
I think I’ve picked in the 53 win range each of the last 2 seasons so no reason to change this year. Would love to get into the upper 50 win total but I assume there’ll be a decent amount of nights where the Knicks interest in playing any sort of defense will be non existent and teams will hit a shitload of 3s.
In the end the goal should be a Top 3 seed which I believe Knicks will still have no problems achieving.
I saw the Stein report about Cisse, and I’m annoyed the Mavs didn’t just let us have him if they truly place a higher value on Dwight Powell.
Since we signed Wiseman to a vet-min, we’re in the same position with Cisse that we were with OAKAAK Bruce Brown. We can’t sign Cisse to a minimum without going into the second apron unless we trade Dadiet or Kolek (or someone else). I also doubt he clears waivers anywa.
This is one of the toughest win handicapping years I can remember. You’re dealing with:
1) the team looking much, much better in the playoffs than they did in the regular season
2) a Drummond/Mitch swap that absolutely made the team worse but might provide a regular season boost just due to availability
3) the tankers of yore becoming ~30 win try hards
I’ll go with 54. We’ll retain much of what we saw in the playoffs when it counts–using KAT as an offensive hub in particular will get a lot more run. The defense will be there when it needs to be, but having hung a banner, will take some nights off in February.
Going with 51 mostly for the reasons Alan stated. In addition, last year’s playoff run will allow Knicks to ease off the gas pedal during the regular season ( in addition to load management) and give some significant minutes to players who might be needed in the playoffs like Mo D and Wiseman. If Wiseman is unable to show that he is a viable option in playoffs, I see Leon making an Alvarado like move for a more competent center. I see OG becoming a more significant contributor on offense and perhaps becoming the second to most valuable player to Brunson. Hopefully, the Knicks have similar good fortune with injuries. I do think they make it to the finals again.
Due to the roster construction KAT will always be the 2nd most valuable Knick and I don’t think it’s particularly close.
Mavs are waiving Powell after all.
I think Philly is/would be hot on Cisse’s trail with the loss of Huk.
Hubert, #4 seed is OK, but not the #5 seed. Still want home court advantage in the first round.
If the whole league is truly better and there are fewer tanking teams, logically you’d need fewer wins to gain a high seed.
The Knicks got the #3 seed last year with 53 wins, which underperformed their Pythag, which was 56 wins. I think you’ll see something similar this year. Mid-50’s wins and a first round bye.
Well, not an *actual* bye. It would be cool if the NBA had those.
52 wins. I think they could start with a motivation to get 60, but Brown will experiment and give time to the end of bench players, and overall it’s an older team that will pace itself.
He could compete for minutes on the Knicks, no?
Predicting our win total this year is tricky…
On the one hand the East does appear to be tougher, at least on paper. I think anti-tanking measures are also overstated and the bad teams are still going to be pretty bad, but maybe a bad team tries a bit harder all season and that means 1 or 2 upset games.
I also do think teams will be gunning for us some, too. And we probably don’t have the same injury luck we did last season. Plus, no Mitch.
But, on the other hand…no Mitch means no load management for Andre. I also don’t see us going through a 14 game slide mid-season like we did last year and losing 9 in a row.
The team knows their roles and what it takes to win. There will be some confidence as the defending champs that might offset teams gunning for us. And I truly think point KAT is gonna fuck up a lot of shitty teams. Only 4 teams have experienced that so far.
But then again, maybe Mike load manages even more?
So I’m gonna say…54 wins. I think we win a few more than last year just based off of experience, continuity and championship swagger. But I don’t think we go for much more than that nor should we.
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