By Michael Phillips | Sports & Whatever | NBA
New York opens the season on October 20 against LeBron James and a new-look Philadelphia team many are already calling the favorite to win it all in 2027. That’s the kind of opening night only a defending champion gets — a title-defense banner going up and an immediate reminder that nobody’s circling the wagons to protect you this year. Everybody’s coming for the crown.
Here are three bold calls for how the Knicks’ 2026-27 season actually plays out.
1. Jalen Brunson has his best statistical season as a Knick — in the regular season, not the playoffs.
Brunson’s 2025-26 regular season was quietly a step down: efficiency dipped, playmaking numbers slipped, and it was obvious he was still adjusting to Mike Brown’s system. Then the playoffs happened, and Brunson turned into a Finals MVP on an 11-game winning streak that ended a 53-year title drought. That gap — a shaky regular season, a historic postseason — was about system integration, not decline. A full training camp and offseason under Brown changes that. Bet on Brunson opening the year playing like the guy from the Finals, not the guy from October.
2. The center rotation becomes the single biggest storyline of the first two months.
Everyone already knows this is the roster’s soft spot. What nobody’s fully priced in is how fast it becomes urgent — New York’s NBA Cup group includes Cleveland (Nov. 25) and a Giannis-led Miami team (Nov. 27) back to back, both units that will punish thin frontcourt depth. If the front office doesn’t add a body before opening night, expect a minutes crunch on Karl-Anthony Towns by Thanksgiving that becomes a weekly talking point on every Knicks broadcast.
3. New York doesn’t just make the Finals again — they enter the playoffs as the 1-seed.
Bold, but not crazy. A team that got better under its coach as the season went on, that returns its championship internal core largely intact, and that faces a conference where no other roster made a move as dramatic as Miami’s Giannis trade or Philadelphia’s LeBron addition — but where both of those teams are still figuring out chemistry — has a real path to the top seed. The Knicks know exactly who they are. Not everyone chasing them can say the same in November.
Whether all three hit or not, one thing’s certain: this isn’t a team playing out the string on a good story. This is a team that knows it’s the one everybody else is building a season around beating.
Michael Phillips covers the Knicks and NBA for Sports & Whatever.
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