Jalen Brunson’s game has never looked like something that can be dressed up by circumstance, and that’s exactly why the Knicks believe he can take them right back to the top.
The latest reminder came Tuesday in The Players’ Tribune, when Sandra Brunson published a letter to her son before New York opened its season against the Philadelphia 76ers. Among the many warm details she shared was one from Brunson’s childhood: he apparently had her pack clothes, sneakers and refreshments into a duffel bag before one-on-none battles in the driveway.
That kind of detail fits Brunson. It reads like a player who has always treated competition as a personal matter, and the Knicks are counting on that same edge to carry them through another title chase.
New York enters this season as the league’s reigning champion, and the first offseason of that status brought some inevitable turnover. Mitchell Robinson is gone to the Boston Celtics.
Andre Drummond is in as the best center they could add in response. The structure of the roster has changed some, but the Knicks have already shown since Brunson arrived in the 2022 offseason that they know how to defend what they build.
There are still plenty of familiar pieces around him. Brunson and Mikal Bridges both turned 30 during their first offseason as reigning NBA champions.
OG Anunoby is 29. Karl-Anthony Towns will turn 31 about a month into the 2026-27 season.
Hart is 31. The second apron may have taken a bite out of the championship rotation, but it has not broken up the starting five.
That matters because the Knicks still look like the East’s standard. The 76ers will have to show they have the defenders and overall depth to catch them, and even Nick Nurse said as much before Tuesday night’s game.
Indiana and Toronto are in the conversation too, but both teams come with major questions. Out West, the Thunder lost key pieces because of the same financial pressure that affected New York, while the rest of the conference has mostly stayed put.
San Antonio is coming back with added veteran leadership, but it still has to prove it can get past the Knicks.
Meanwhile, Mike Brown’s team is not disappearing. Even without Robinson, the core that won the title is still wearing blue and orange.
That is why a repeat is right there for the taking. The league’s appetite to avoid the second apron has already started reshaping depth charts across the NBA, and New York’s advantage is that its starting group remains intact and in its athletic prime.
But the real engine is still Brunson. He is the captain again, the player who gives this group its backbone and its calm. If the Knicks are going to become the team that ends the league’s streak of non-repeat champions, it will be because Brunson keeps steering them there.
And if New York gets back to the Finals, he looks poised to do what he did last time: win Finals MVP again.
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It made for a sharp reminder of how much the Garden can still turn into a referendum on star power, especially when James has long talked about the idea of playing and even finishing his career there. But this is also a fan base that has grown more attached to its own team after recent championship success, and the nights hostility did not stop with James, as Philadelphia center Joel Embiid also drew chants from the crowd. [Read more 🡒]