The Knicks enter 2026-27 with championship shine still on them, but the margins around a repeat are thin. The roster looks familiar on the surface - four players 6-foot-10 or taller, just like the 2024, 2025 and 2026 teams - yet the biggest question is whether New York can survive the season if its frontcourt depth gets tested.
That concern starts with Mitchell Robinson. Losing Jericho Sims would sting, but Robinson is the kind of absence that can knock a team flat.
Right now, the other bigs on the roster behind Karl-Anthony Towns and Andre Drummond are Drew Eubanks and James Wiseman, both on Exhibit 9 contracts. Robinson has been through 53 playoff games.
Eubanks has six. Wiseman has none.
It’s hard to imagine New York brought in two non-guaranteed preseason signings expecting either one to be a postseason fixture. Ideally, they’re there to push Ariel Hukporti, not replace Robinson.
But if Drummond gets hurt or simply isn’t giving them enough, Eubanks or Wiseman could be forced into real minutes. That would leave the Knicks dangerously thin at center, the way they haven’t been since 2020, when Taj Gibson was their tallest player after Mitch at 6-foot-9.
And if Towns misses time, the damage could be even broader. The offense would lose spacing, the glass would get tougher on both ends, and the Knicks would be giving up more second chances while creating fewer of their own.
The size issue gets sharper when you compare New York to the rest of the East. Cleveland has Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
Boston now has Mitch and Neemias Queta. Detroit, if it sorts things out and lands a deal with Jalen Duren, could roll with him and Paul Reed.
A Drummond-Wiseman combination just doesn’t carry the same weight as the Towns-Robinson pairing did.
That’s why any extended absence from Towns or Drummond would matter so much. It wouldn’t just hurt in the moment; it would mean fewer wins, a worse playoff seed and a tougher path once the postseason arrives.
There’s also the grind of all that basketball. Last season, the Knicks played 101 games.
They played 100 in 2025 and 95 in 2024. Towns played 78 of Minnesota’s 98 games in his final season there.
By comparison, the 76ers played 93 games total last year, the Celtics 89, the Pistons 96 and the Pacers 82. That’s a lot of mileage for a team that has been on the floor constantly.
The minutes tell the same story. Denver won the 2023 title with five players over 2,000 minutes, then four a year later.
Boston won in 2024 with four players above that mark, and in 2025 the same number did, though that season was defined by Jayson Tatum’s Achilles tear. In 2025, three Thunder players hit 2,000-plus minutes; last year it was two.
The Knicks had four starters above that number last season, and Hart was just six minutes short of joining them. A year earlier, that same starting five set a league record for most minutes ever by a starting unit.
New York’s age profile doesn’t offer much relief. Jordan Clarkson, 34, is the only Knick older than 31.
Josh Hart is 31, and Towns turns 31 in November. Bridges and Brunson were born one day apart and are both 30.
The only player younger than 25 expected to see meaningful minutes is Mo Diawara, who is 21 and also one of the team’s most appealing trade candidates, which matters because the payroll is packed tight against the second apron.
That’s the other reality hanging over this team. The league’s current rules are built to make life harder on repeat contenders, and New York is no exception.
Leon Rose assembled this group under a different system, one where veterans might have been more eager to chase a title in New York. This summer’s biggest additions?
Drummond and Bruce Brown.
Pat Riley used to call them “lightning bolts,” the unpredictable blows that hit every season. The Knicks are good enough to believe they can beat the odds. But with the depth chart, the mileage and the cap situation all working against them, 2026-27 could still turn on a few bad breaks.
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