The Knicks’ starting five are all getting plenty of respect in NBA 2K27, and that starts at the very top with Jalen Brunson.
Fresh off the 2026 NBA Championship, New York’s first five all landed in the game’s initial top-100 player rankings, and none of them checked in lower than 79th. With the new release set to arrive in the coming weeks, NBA 2K has begun rolling out ratings to stir the usual summer debate.
Brunson leads the way at 96 overall, putting the Knicks’ captain and reigning NBA Finals MVP behind only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, and Nikola Jokic, who are all at 97. He’s tied at 96 with Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, which is about as strong a start as Knicks fans could hope for.
Karl-Anthony Towns comes next at 93 overall. That lines up with how Mike Brown framed the roster during the regular season, when he made it clear that New York’s depth was a strength but Towns was the team’s second option.
The big man’s playoff run backed that up, too. He emerged as a playmaker for teammates and kept showing he could handle the league’s biggest frontcourt names, bothering Jokic in his Minnesota days and then outdueling Wembanyama in the 2026 NBA Finals.
That puts him 14th overall in the game.
OG Anunoby lands at 88 overall, which places him 23rd in the league. He’s another Knick starter who got a strong bump in this first batch of ratings.
Anunoby’s value has always been obvious on both ends: he can guard across the floor and finish efficiently around the rim or from deep. Pairing him between Brunson and Towns also helped open up more of his offense.
His most memorable postseason moment came in Game 4 against the San Antonio Spurs, when he tipped in a missed Brunson 3-pointer at the buzzer to finish New York’s 29-point comeback.
Mikal Bridges is rated 84 overall, and that feels fair on one level while still looking a little low when you see where he sits leaguewide. He’s 68th overall.
The Knicks’ “iron man” is exactly the kind of wing every team wants: a player who can bother offenses on one end and keep pressure on defenses on the other. He didn’t stack up as many dramatic playoff moments this year as he did the season before, but New York also didn’t have to deal with the Boston Celtics on its way to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Josh Hart rounds out the starting group at 82 overall, which makes him the lowest-rated starter on the roster and 79th in the league. Whether he’d argue with that is another matter, especially given his recent tweets.
Still, Hart was a major piece of the championship run, including Game 2 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, when he helped New York adjust to Kenny Atkinson’s response after Brunson repeatedly scored on James Harden at the end of Game 1. Hart’s missed layup also became part of the chaos in New York’s 29-point comeback in the next round, but his value to the title run was never in doubt.
In Other News...
Knicks Center Search Just Got More Urgent Because Of Miami
The Knicks search for center help has taken on a little more urgency with the season approaching, and Miami is a big reason why. The Heat are reportedly weighing big men Nick Richards and Keshad Johnson for their two open roster spots, a development that could ripple through New Yorks own plans as it continues to evaluate depth options behind its frontcourt.
New York has not yet signed Richards, even though he remains one of the clearer immediate fits on the market for a team that still needs size. With Miami showing interest and the Knicks still sorting through alternatives, there is a real sense that the next move may come sooner rather than later, even if additional centers could shake loose after roster cuts. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Face A New Pressure Their Title Team Can't Ignore
The Knicks spent last season ending a 53-year championship drought, and now the challenge is no longer getting to the top but staying there. In a league that has turned title defense into a rare privilege, New York returns much of the roster that delivered the 2026 NBA crown, giving the franchise a chance to build something the city has not seen in generations.
There is still a subtle shift inside the rotation, with the backup center spot changing hands as the Knicks move into the new season. It is the kind of detail that usually gets lost beneath the bigger headline, but on a team trying to do something nearly no one in the modern NBA has managed, even the smallest changes can carry outsized weight. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Fans May Need To Rethink What OG Anunoby Is Worth
The Knicks made their biggest financial commitment to date when they locked up OG Anunoby last summer, betting that his value would be measured less by splashy award hardware than by the way he fit into a winning roster. He has not landed on an All-Star or All-NBA team, but his two-way presence was a major part of New Yorks postseason success, which is why the debate around him keeps circling back to a simple question: what is a player like that really worth?
Anunobys deal also sits in the middle of a broader conversation about how teams pay for impact that does not always show up in the usual star-player categories. Comparisons to other high-end contracts, including Devin Bookers, only sharpen that argument, because the last years of those deals can look very different depending on the player option, the ceiling of the roster around them, and whether a front office sees a complementary piece as essential enough to pay like a centerpiece. [Read more 🡒]