The Knicks may have lost Mitchell Robinson and Ariel Hukporti from a center group that still looks unfinished, but the offseason has otherwise gone well for a New York team that is only a month removed from winning a championship.
Leon Rose brought back Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado, Jordan Clarkson and Mohamed Diawara, whom the Knicks see as a key piece of their future. But the most important win of the summer might not be a player at all.
Keeping associate head coach Chris Jent could end up mattering just as much as retaining any of those names.
During the Finals, Mike Brown made it clear how highly he thinks of Jent. At the podium, Brown said, "Jent, my associate head coach, I’m surprised he hasn’t gotten an interview.
He’s our offensive coordinator. He’s been around for a long time.
Somebody needs to give him an interview because he’ll help your team win at the highest level.”
The Trail Blazers took that seriously and interviewed Jent for their then-vacant head coaching job, a development that had plenty of Knicks fans uneasy. In the end, though, he was not a finalist and will be back in New York, where he’ll again have a major role in helping push the Knicks toward another Finals run.
That’s the hard part now: repeating. Winning one title is one thing.
Doing it again is something else entirely, and the Knicks are going to spend the season with the kind of target that comes with being the defending champions. If they’re going to get back to the top, Jent has to keep squeezing every last bit out of this roster.
His biggest task is on the offensive side, where the Knicks need to build on what worked in the postseason. For much of the regular season, the team bounced between trying to force Karl-Anthony Towns into a role that didn’t suit him and leaning too heavily on a heliocentric attack built around Jalen Brunson isolations.
The playoffs brought a cleaner answer. The offense became more versatile and more connected than it had been all year.
New York simplified things for Towns so he could play more naturally. He became more efficient and, at the same time, showed a level of passing consistency the league had never seen from him.
That change also opened the door for OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges to thrive together. And when the Knicks needed a bailout, Brunson was still there as the ultimate safety net.
The whole staff will be involved, but Jent’s job is to make sure that offense doesn’t just survive - it grows. He has to get Towns to embrace that version of himself over an 82-game season. He also has to find a way to keep Bridges more confident and more engaged offensively the way he was in the postseason.
And the work isn’t limited to the starters. Finding different ways to fold in Deuce McBride and Mohamed Diawara could raise the ceiling of the unit, and having a full season of Jose Alvarado to work with gives the Knicks more room to experiment as they try to defend their title. Those are the kinds of details Jent can use to help turn a magical 2026 Finals run into something even bigger.
In Other News...
Knicks Fans Finally Get A Look At One Intriguing Newcomer
The first real look at Jack Kayil has been a little slower in coming than Knicks fans probably hoped after New York took the Alba Berlin guard with the 39th pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Kayil sat out the clubs first Summer League game because of a delay tied to his team in Germany, but the wait appears close to ending, giving the Knicks a chance to see the kind of newcomer they added after trading down and stockpiling second-round picks in a draft shaped by their salary cap realities.
Kayils arrival also comes with the usual questions that follow an international pick in this spot. He does not have an obvious opening on the big club right now, and the Knicks may ultimately leave him in Germany next season as a draft-and-stash option. For now, though, the more immediate intrigue is simply getting him on the floor, with his debut expected soon and a matchup against the Spurs looming as the next chance for New York to evaluate what it has. [Read more 🡒]
Jordan Clarksons Return Just Put More Heat On Tyler Kolek
Jordan Clarksons return gives the Knicks another experienced guard option and, in the process, tightens an already crowded backcourt picture. For Tyler Kolek, that means the margin for error keeps shrinking as he tries to carve out a real role in a rotation that already has Deuce McBride, Landry Shamet and Jose Alvarado ahead of him.
Kolek still has time to change the conversation, but the path back into meaningful minutes looks anything but straightforward. Unless the Knicks make a move that reshapes the guard group or injuries open a lane, he is left waiting for an opening that may not come quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks May Have Made Their Smartest Summer Move Without Fixing Center
The Knicks spent part of the summer adding familiar depth pieces in Jose Alvarado, Landry Shamet and Andre Drummond, but the quieter move may have come in the draft-pick column. New York has also picked up four future second-rounders in recent trades, a stash of low-cost assets that gives the front office more ways to keep tinkering without touching the top of the roster.
That matters because the center spot still looks like the area most worth watching, even after the Drummond addition. The Knicks have been linked to other frontcourt possibilities, including Kyle Filipowski, and the extra picks could give them a path to chase another big or package together a broader trade if they decide the current group still needs one more answer inside. [Read more 🡒]