5 questions facing the Knicks as training camp begins
Knicks forward OG Anunoby reacts after scoring during the first half of Game 4 in a first-round NBA playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks on April 25 in Atlanta. Credit: AP/Brynn Anderson
Even when you win an NBA title, you enter the season with questions to answer, and the Knicks have some. As camp kicks off, here are five things to watch this season:
Can they survive the hunger games?
The Knicks had carried the burden of 53 years, the long wait for the franchise to bring a title back to New York. And once that was achieved, it seemed as if a dam burst as the team — and the city — celebrated in a way that seemed to last all the way to the start of camp.
When Tom Thibodeau was running the team, you could count on urgency being an everyday mood, but even without him last season, the players seemed to carry that with them. Now that they’ve won, do they attack the season with the same hunger, the fire needed to win the title and the fire they will need to repeat?
Mike Brown may not approach the season with the same fury that Thibodeau does, but he has been a part of NBA championship squads — and teams that repeated — so he knows better than anyone else in the room what it takes to run it back. And despite all the newfound celebrity, there is no player more likely to host Saturday Night Live and remain grounded than Jalen Brunson.
How much will they miss Mitch?
The Knicks brought back every key rotation piece except for Mitchell Robinson. It certainly made salary-cap sense not to pay the $47.4 million for three years that Robinson got from Boston, given that he is a player who is oft-injured and — despite his importance — a backup to an All-NBA player.
Still, he had a role, and it wasn’t a minor one. He is the best offensive rebounder in the NBA, and he's able to not only defend the rim but to switch onto smaller players and hold his own (take a look back at the “he’s guarding all five guys” possession in the 2025 playoffs against Boston).
The addition to replace him was Andre Drummond, a respected veteran who once was the best offensive rebounder in the game, but age has slowed that production down while he’s transitioned into a center who can pose a threat at the three-point line.
To actually mimic Robinson, the Knicks might have to play small and shift OG Anunoby to minutes at center.
Can they stay healthy again?
One thing about Robinson was his seemingly endless run of injury troubles. The Knicks carefully nursed him through last season, and the team’s medical and training staff was honored as the NBA’s best a year ago.
But there’s still some luck that figures in when you look at the starting lineup that avoided any major issues last season. Mikal Bridges played, as always, every game of the season. Karl-Anthony Towns played 75 games. Brunson played 74. Anunoby was on the floor for 67 and Josh Hart was there for 66. Most importantly, they were all healthy for the postseason run.
The Knicks have depth, but losing any of those key starters for a length of time would be a problem.
Will OG get the recognition he deserves?
I’m going to go out on a limb: Just as he stole the monologue on Saturday Night Live, Anunoby finally is going to be recognized for the player he has been.
It wasn’t just the tip-in to save Game 4 (not to mention the run-down block that preceded it). Anunoby was consistently spectacular in the postseason, averaging 20.1 points per game and seeing his offensive and defensive ratings soar to crazy levels. He upped his three-point shooting from 38.6% in the regular season to 48.9% in the playoffs.
He has never been All-NBA. He somehow was 10th in the Defensive Player of the Year voting and made second-team All-Defense, but doing what he did on the NBA’s biggest stage might change that this season.
How do the Knicks settle the Deuce debate?
With Robinson’s departure, Deuce McBride is the longest-tenured player on the Knicks' roster, but it feels as if he also is the most likely rotation piece to depart.
Like Robinson (and Immanuel Quickley before him), his performance in a backup role doesn’t negate the realities of the salary cap. He might get starting-five money elsewhere, but after excelling on a team-friendly contract that runs out this season, he might have to go somewhere to get what he’s earned.
McBride probably is the most desirable trade chip the Knicks hold with his three-point shooting, his 94-foot defensive pressure and his low-cost expiring contract. He was an electric three-point shooter before suffering a sports hernia that sidelined him for much of the post-trade deadline season and then played hurt in the postseason. But the emergence — and contract — of Landry Shamet makes it hard to see the Knicks holding on to McBride.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
