Gilbert Arenas isn’t buying the idea of a New York Knicks repeat, and he said so in no uncertain terms.
The Knicks entered the 2026 Playoffs as far from the title favorite, but they turned into the best team in the field midway through their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks. After dropping the first two games to Atlanta, New York lost only one more time the rest of the postseason, with that defeat coming much later in the NBA Finals. Now, as they head into their championship defense, the focus shifts to whether they can keep that run going.
The challenge is simple enough on paper: no team has gone back-to-back since 2018, when the Golden State Warriors did it with their superteam. That means eight straight seasons have ended with a different champion, and the Knicks are trying to be the team that changes that pattern.
Arenas doesn’t see it happening.
"Nobody went back-to-back in 8 seasons? Make it 9.
Because what I do know is when you beat someone, they load up. So, the whole theory of we won it, let's run it back the same, pretending that we have the number one guard, number one shooting guard, the number one small forward so we don’t have to upgrade while everybody else is upgrading is the reason they don’t make it back," Arenas said on his Gils Arena show.
New York will enter the 2026-27 season viewed as one of the league’s top teams, but not necessarily as the favorite to win it all again. That might be exactly the kind of spot the Knicks want, because they’ve already shown they can turn doubters into believers. Now the question is whether they can do it again with everyone aiming at them.
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The larger question now is where he fits once the season gets rolling, because the Hawks frontcourt picture has created room for someone to seize. Analysts have already started circling Newell as a breakout candidate, and it is easy to see why: the profile is there, the opportunity is there, and Atlanta does not have a lot of obvious answers waiting in reserve. The only real mystery is how big that role becomes once the rotation tightens. [Read more 🡒]
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Hawks Face One Big Test After Their Quiet Offseason
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Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Dyson Daniels sit near the center of that conversation, even if the biggest question is how much more offense they can supply as the season unfolds. Atlanta does not need a wholesale overhaul to stay competitive, but it does need those two to keep expanding their games while the teams quiet summer choices are judged against the standard of what comes next. [Read more 🡒]