The Knicks have spent the opening stretch of free agency mostly keeping their own house in order. Around them, though, the conference has been busy reshaping itself, and a few of those moves deserve a closer look from New York.
Some of them don’t change the balance of power much. Others could matter down the line. Either way, the Knicks are still the team everyone is chasing after winning the championship in dominant fashion, but the rest of the league is not standing still.
Detroit is a good place to start, even if the Pistons are still nowhere near New York right now. Cade Cunnhingham is already one of the league’s best players, and the roster had the flexibility and assets to make a real push toward win-now territory.
Instead, the Pistons let Tobias Harris walk and replaced him with John Collins, a younger player with similar talent. That reads like a sidestep, not a leap.
That decision says plenty about where Detroit sees itself. Maybe the front office didn’t think the right moves were available.
Maybe it still believes the team is a year or two away. Whatever the reason, the Pistons made a lateral move while a lot of other teams in the conference improved.
For the Knicks, that means one less threat to worry about.
Indiana, meanwhile, made a move that could matter more if Kelly Oubre’s shooting gains hold up. Up until last season, calling him a 3-and-D player felt like a stretch.
He was a solid defender, but not the kind of shooter opponents feared. That changed in 2025-26, when he jumped from 29.3% from three the year before to 36%.
If that’s real and not a one-year blip, the Pacers get another useful piece to put around Tyrese Haliburton. New York has seen plenty of Oubre over the years, and he’s never been the kind of player who gave them trouble.
But if Indiana can stay healthy, he and Ivica Zubac could help add more firepower. The Knicks have beaten just about everybody in the playoffs except the Pacers, so any upgrade there is worth noticing.
Cleveland’s move is less about how the Cavaliers look and more about what it means for New York’s own business. The Cavs extended their star guard to a four-year $273 million deal, and while that doesn’t make them a real threat to the Knicks on the court, it does put Jalen Brunson’s situation back in focus.
Brunson has been a bargain compared with Donovan Mitchell. Next season, Mitchell will make over $10 million more than Brunson, and the gap grows to over $20 million the year after that.
From 2022, when Brunson signed with the Knicks, through 2029, he will make approximately $234.4 million. Mitchell will have made $468.7 million between 2022 and 2031.
That kind of number is exactly why New York has to be grateful Brunson took the deal he did. But that won’t last forever.
Brunson has already said publicly that he expects the front office to "do right by [him]". When that day comes, the Knicks are likely looking at a major contract of their own, and Cleveland could offer a useful case study in how to handle paying a player on the wrong side of 30.
San Antonio is another team that doesn’t immediately jump off the page for New York, mostly because the Knicks won’t see the Spurs often unless the stakes are enormous. If the two teams meet in the playoffs, it would be in the Finals. Still, the Spurs are capable of getting back there, and their addition of Tobias Harris could end up mattering.
Harris is not the kind of signing that grabs headlines. His stat lines don’t jump out, and he can disappear in some games.
But teams usually function better with him than without him. He gives you shooting, some self-creation, dependable defense, and rebounding.
In a young Spurs rotation, that also means leadership, and sliding Julian Champagnie down gives them more depth.
On his own, Harris doesn’t scare the Knicks. But he does make San Antonio better, and if both teams are still in the title mix for 2026-27, that move could become relevant.
The biggest swing of the group is the Jaylen Brown-Paul George trade, even if it’s the oldest of the bunch. It’s one of those deals where both sides can make a case that they improved.
Boston may look worse if you judge only raw talent, because Brown is the better player right now. But George fits more cleanly.
He gives the Celtics a better defender, passer, and shooter, and that lines up with what Joe Mazzulla wants to do. They can lean harder into quick decisions, three-point shooting, defense, and squeezing out more possessions.
There are durability questions, of course. If George stays healthy, though, Boston now has a roster that fits Jayson Tatum better and makes more sense overall. That should make them better than they were last season.
Philadelphia presents the opposite kind of puzzle. The 76ers may look better on paper after swapping in an All-NBA player who was in MVP conversations, and his regular-season availability should help them survive the inevitable Joel Embiid injury. But the fit is awkward.
Their starting group is as clunky as ever. It’s talented, sure, but there’s still only one ball.
How Nick Nurse manages three players who are all far better with it in their hands is the real question. It won’t be easy.
The 76ers should be a better regular-season team than they’ve been in recent years, and if Nurse somehow unlocks the offense, they could move from dark horse to true contender.
For the Knicks, the bottom line is simple: they should have the upper hand in both matchups. But both the Celtics and 76ers have a chance to be noticeably better than they were a year ago, and that’s exactly the kind of movement New York has to keep an eye on.
In Other News...
Knicks Reward Landry Shamet With Long Term Deal After Title Run
Landry Shamets value to the Knicks went well beyond the box score during their championship run, where he gave them needed shooting and steady defense at exactly the right time. His best stretch came in the Eastern Conference Finals, when he helped stabilize the rotation and fit neatly into a team that leaned on versatility and timely shot-making all spring.
Now the Knicks have made sure that contribution is part of their longer-term plan. Shamet agreed to a four-year, $24 million contract that gives New York some security without fully locking in every season, and team president Leon Rose made clear the organization views him as more than a short-term piece after the way he helped push the club to the title. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks Fans Just Learned How Much Brunson Was Really Dealing With
Jalen Brunson is headed for offseason surgery on his left wrist, a move the Knicks have been able to put off until now because of how deep their run went. The procedure is expected to keep him on the shelf for about two months, but the bigger point for New York is that the team is finally addressing an issue that had been hanging over its star guard as it pushed through the spring.
Brunson is expected to be ready by the start of next season, which matters as much as anything for a Knicks team built around his availability and steadiness. The surgery is meant to prevent the wrist from getting worse and to protect his long-term health, leaving the organization with a brief offseason concern but no reason to believe its centerpiece will miss opening night. [Read more 🡒]
Knicks May Already Regret This Cost Cutting Draft Decision
The Knicks spent draft night looking for savings, trading back in the 2026 NBA draft to trim rookie costs before bringing back Jose Alvarado and Landry Shamet. On paper, it was a tidy bit of roster management, the kind of move that helps a team preserve flexibility while filling out the back end of the rotation. But the cost-cutting approach also meant passing on a couple of intriguing young players who fit obvious needs for a team trying to balance win-now depth with a little long-term upside.
Cameron Carr and St. John's Zuby Ejiofor have both looked the part early in Summer League, which only sharpens the question of what the Knicks gave up by moving back. New Yorks veteran-heavy roster already leaves little room for developmental mistakes, and the ripple effects of that draft-night decision could reach beyond this summer if the team keeps trying to squeeze in more proven pieces around the edges. [Read more 🡒]