Jalen Brunson says winning a championship hasn’t changed the way he sees the work ahead.
The Knicks guard, who helped deliver New York a long-awaited title, told Jared Schwartz of the New York Post that his mindset stays the same even after reaching the top.
“My approach and everything has to be the same,” Brunson said. “Just because I’ve reached the mountaintop of winning an NBA championship doesn’t mean that it’s over with.
I feel like there’s still a lot more to do and a lot more that I can prove. It’s 100 percent always going to be in the mind, I’m just not going to let it define me.”
Brunson is also still working his way back after wrist surgery in early July. The projected recovery window is 6-to-8 weeks, and the expectation is that he’ll be cleared by training camp.
“It’s reminded me a lot about patience, for sure,” Brunson told Schwartz. “But it’s a steady process and it’s something that, honestly, it is what it is.
It’s something I attack every day. Just find a way to continue to improve.”
On the roster side, the Knicks have three players with fewer than three years of NBA experience: Tyler Kolek, Pacôme Dadiet and Mohamed Diawara. James Edwards III of The Athletic считает Diawara the most likely to help next season, pointing to the former second-round pick’s stretch as a rotation player for nearly two months last season.
Dadiet, Edwards writes, looks like the least likely of the three to carve out a rotation spot. The issue is straightforward: he hasn’t shown a consistent 3-point shot, and he also isn’t yet a player who creates much with the ball in his hands.
The Knicks also lost a notable figure over the weekend with the death of Don Nelson. Nelson coached New York for most of the 1995/96 season before being fired in March after the team went 34-25 under him. In a conversation with the New York Post’s Mike Vaccaro a few years ago, Nelson said the job remained one of the biggest disappointments of his career.
“It does bother me that it didn’t work out when I coached the Knicks,” Nelson said. “Coaching that team is one of the platinum jobs in sports, and they entrusted me with a team that had come so close.
I had ideas on how to get them closer. The players had other ideas.”
As for the Nets, Brian Lewis of the New York Post looked at when the franchise might be ready to swing for a superstar trade. His take: internal development has to come first before Brooklyn goes that direction.
Lewis also reported that the Nets never seriously engaged the Celtics in talks about Jaylen Brown, despite some outside reports, before the All-Star forward was dealt to Philadelphia. And once Brooklyn fully committed to its rebuild, Giannis Antetokounmpo no longer fit the timeline, pushing the former MVP off the Nets’ radar.
In Other News...
Nets Fans Are About To Learn How Much Respect This Team Gets
The next few days will give the Nets a much clearer read on where they stand around the league. The NBA is rolling out the full 2026-27 regular season schedule in pieces between Tuesday and Friday, and with it come the dates that tend to say the most about a teams profile: Opening Night, Christmas Day and the NBA Cup slate. Brooklyn has already done most of its offseason shopping, including the addition of Julius Randle, so the attention now shifts from what the roster looks like to how the league chooses to showcase it.
For a team trying to reassert itself, those placement details matter. The Nets are expected to land in East Group A for the NBA Cup, where the competition is slated to include the Pistons, Raptors, Magic and Bucks, a grouping that will offer an early hint at how the league views Brooklyns place in the conference. The schedule release should answer a lot of those questions in short order, even if the final judgment on respect comes later on the floor. [Read more 🡒]
Nets Still Have One Roster Battle That Could Matter More Than Fans Think
With Chaney Johnson and Tyler Bilodeau already locked in, the Brooklyn Nets still have one two-way roster spot to sort out for the 2026-27 season, and the final decision does not look close to being settled yet. Summer League has already given the front office a few names to keep circling, with several players making enough of an impression to stay in the conversation as the team moves toward camp.
Dain Dainja and Ben Humrichous have both put themselves into the mix, while Cam Nelson remains a possibility once healthy after missing Summer League because of injury. The Nets have not made a final call, and training camp could end up being the place where this job is won, which is exactly why a seemingly small roster battle may wind up carrying more weight than it first appears. [Read more 🡒]