The Knicks already did the hard part. Two months after winning Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals and bringing home their first title in 53 years, they’re staring down the next challenge: trying to become the NBA’s first repeat champion since the Warriors in 2017-18.
That alone tells you how rare this kind of run is. The league has been a revolving door for champions, even as other North American sports have seen more back-to-back success in recent years.
The Dodgers are chasing a three-peat this fall, the Panthers won in 2024-25, and the Chiefs did it in 2023-24. In the NBA, though, the list gets thin fast.
Outside of the Stephen Curry Warriors and LeBron James’ Miami teams, repeat title contention has been a much tougher mountain to climb.
The numbers back that up. The NBA has had eight different champions over the last eight seasons: Knicks, Thunder, Celtics, Nuggets, Warriors, Bucks, Lakers, Raptors. And since the Pistons won the 2004 Finals and lost to the Spurs in 2005, no champion without LeBron, Curry or Kobe has made it back to the Finals the next year.
That’s the hurdle in front of New York. Still, the Knicks don’t look like a fluke.
Their title season came with a +8.4 net rating across 102 games, including the NBA Cup Final win. That’s not an absurd number on its face, but it still lands them among the most dominant teams of the last 25 years.
StatMuse says only 23 teams have posted a net rating of +8.0 or better since the start of the 1999-2000 season, and the Knicks are one of them.
The bigger reason for optimism might be how they got there. Mike Brown is in charge now, and that matters. Not just because he just won a championship with the Knicks, but because he’s not the kind of coach who burns his team out over the course of a season.
Josh Hart’s jump from 32.2% from three in 2024-25 to a career-best 41.3% in 2025-26 was tied, at least in part, to a lighter load. Stefan Valdes, Hart’s longtime trainer, told The New York Daily News, “He had fresher legs.”
Hart had led the NBA in minutes per game in 2024-25 at 37.6. In the championship season, that dropped to 30.2.
It wasn’t just Hart. Brown trimmed the workload for the whole core compared to the previous season under Tom Thibodeau.
Mikal Bridges played more than seven fewer minutes per game than he had in the 2025 playoffs. Karl-Anthony Towns dropped to a little over 30 minutes per game in 2026 from 35.5 in 2025.
Jalen Brunson still carried a heavy load in the playoffs at 36.9 minutes per game, but that was down from 37.8 under Thibodeau the year before.
Brown also widened the circle. Landry Shamet went from 7.5 minutes per game in the 2025 postseason to 16.3 in 2026.
Jordan Clarkson and Jose Alvarado both carved out real playoff roles after being on different teams in 2024-25. In Game 5 of the 2026 Finals, Brown used 12 players, with 10 logging at least six minutes and nine reaching double figures.
That kind of flexibility doesn’t happen by accident.
It also means the Knicks can survive stretches that don’t look pretty. Championship hangovers are real, and New York could come out flat at the start of the 2026-27 season.
If that happens, Brown will have even more room to experiment. He already showed that willingness throughout the year with lineups that pushed Tyler Kolek on Christmas Day, Mo Diawara against the Spurs and Celtics, Kevin McCullar Jr. before New Year’s Day against the Hawks, and Pacôme Dadiet getting extended run in a March win over the Pacers when Hart, KAT and McBride were out.
That approach fits the larger plan. Brown and the front office valued both winning and health over the grind of 82 games, especially after the NBA Cup Final, when the team leaned into rest for the long haul. The trust is there now for Brown to manage the season, keep the roster fresh, and then ramp things up when the playoffs are near.
The East won’t be the same road New York cruised through last spring, either. The Sixers added LeBron James and Jaylen Brown.
The Celtics are set to have a fully healthy Jayson Tatum and Paul George. The Pistons brought in more scoring, the Hawks added rotation help, the Raptors are working toward a Kawhi Leonard reunion, and the Heat traded for Giannis Antetokounmpo.
So yes, the second year of Brown’s tenure comes with a different kind of pressure. The championship box is checked.
Now the question is whether the Knicks can keep going and avoid becoming a one-hit wonder. They already made history once.
The next one would be even harder, and maybe even more impressive.
In Other News...
Knicks May Be Misreading Deuce McBrides Real Roster Value
The conversation around Deuce McBride has taken on a familiar Knicks wrinkle: a useful young guard who gets talked about like a potential trade chip before anyone really settles his actual price. McBrides role and usage have made him easy to project into bigger talks, but the latest read on his value suggests New York may be looking at a player whose re-signing number is not as daunting as some around the league have assumed.
Jordan Goodwins three-year, $19 million deal is one of the cleaner reference points for where McBride could fit in the market, and that comparison matters for a Knicks team trying to balance flexibility with keeping workable backcourt depth. Unless a genuinely strong trade offer emerges, the safer play may be to hold onto McBride through next season and let the market sort itself out rather than treat him like a piece that has to be moved before free agency. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Could Soon Face A Costly Josh Hart Decision
Josh Harts next contract is already shaping up to be one of the Knicks more delicate financial conversations. He is eligible for an extension that could run as long as four years and $131.2 million, and even if that number is more ceiling than expectation, it puts New York in a familiar spot: trying to reward a valuable rotation piece without boxing itself into a corner. The team also holds a $22.4 million option on Hart for the 2027-28 season, which only adds another layer to the timing and leverage involved.
The backdrop here is the same one that shadows every contender with a rising payroll, especially in a market like New York where every future dollar matters. Recent deals for players such as Dillon Brooks and Naji Marshall offer a sense of how quickly the price for dependable wing help can climb, and the Knicks are hoping their broader success can help keep Harts next contract from becoming even more expensive. For now, the challenge is less about whether Hart fits than how much that fit will cost. [Read more 🡒]