Steve Popper: Knicks clearly indicate they think they can win with current team
The Knicks' Jalen Brunson drives against the Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo at Fiserv Forum on Oct. 28, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Credit: Getty Images/Patrick McDermott
Shortly after the NBA’s trade deadline passed Thursday afternoon, Giannis Antetokounmpo posted on social media, “Legends don’t chase. They attract,” with emojis tacked onto a video clip depicting a scene from “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a profanity-laden speech that basically declared he’d not be going anywhere.
Funny, but a sad trombone ending to the weeks of trade talk that surrounded the NBA leading up to the deadline.
Since the summer, all signs had pointed to Antetokounmpo moving on. For the Knicks — who were thought to be his preferred destination — this presented a huge decision, one that could shift all the work the front office had done for six years.
The Knicks resisted or — depending on what sources you want to believe — would have gone all in for Antetokounmpo but didn’t have close to the assets needed to satisfy the Milwaukee Bucks’ grudging consideration of dealing away the two-time MVP.
Leon Rose and his front office built this team with a belief that it was ready to contend for a title. Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan voiced that out loud last month when he went on a radio interview.
“I would say yeah, we want to get to the Finals,” Dolan said when asked if anything short of that would be a disappointment. “And we should win the Finals. This is sports and anything can happen. But getting to the Finals we absolutely got to do. Winning the Finals, we should win.”
Rose doesn’t speak about his plans, but at least some in the front office let their views be known when the Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau days after he led them to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in a quarter-century last season.
Now, with the Knicks boasting an eight-game winning streak and a 33-18 record, it’s hard to blame them for believing they can ride this roster to their first NBA championship since 1973.
Built around Jalen Brunson, the Knicks have created an excellent starting five and a roster that is as deep as any in the NBA, with veterans in their prime, and it’s worth giving them a shot to see if they can reach those heights.
They made moves at the edges of the rotation, dealing Guerschon Yabusele for backup point guard Jose Alvarado, providing insurance as Deuce McBride rehabilitates from a procedure to repair a sports hernia on Friday.
But even if Antetokounmpo was difficult to pry from the Bucks, there clearly were players to be had, as evidenced by the more than 20 trades that were swung in the week leading up to the deadline.
If you start with Trae Young’s trade from Atlanta to Washington last month, a huge number of stars — and huge contracts — were shifted around the landscape of the NBA.
Young, Anthony Davis, Jaren Jackson Jr., James Harden and Darius Garland — all headline-type players moved.
For the Knicks, it might be alarming that some of the teams they are expected to battle for Eastern Conference supremacy were among the teams making those moves. Cleveland added Harden, Keon Ellis and Dennis Schroder. Boston, currently tied with the Knicks for second place in the Eastern Conference, got an established center in Nikola Vucevic. The first-place Pistons, who will host the Knicks on Friday night in their first post-deadline test, added shooting in Kevin Huerter and Dario Saric.
Asked about the moves being made by their competitors, Brunson said, “Just focused on us.”
Before the current streak, it might have seemed unlikely that the Knicks would exercise restraint. While team sources were careful to point out that the Knicks had not been shopping Karl-Anthony Towns, league sources acknowledged that there were discussions with the Knicks about the possibility of him being dealt. With nine defeats in 11 games before the winning streak began, including a 121-90 loss the last time they were in Detroit, and Towns struggling to find the offensive production he has provided throughout his career, maybe no one would have blamed the Knicks if they had jumped.
But they resisted, and since the game before the streak started when Brunson said aloud what was clear — “As a team we know what we have to do. Either we do it, we care enough to do it, or we don’t” — they somehow have turned things around. They have defended better than any other team in the NBA. They have shared the ball. And they’ve smiled.
Towns was a solid barometer for that Wednesday night, sharing an interview session with Mitchell Robinson and, when he was asked about the combination of Robinson and his contributions as starter and backup, he corrected the question.
“We are a team. This is a team,” Towns said. “It is a team of 15 guys who are willing to do whatever it takes to win the game. I don’t want to say I am a starter and he is a backup. That is not right. He could be a starter on any other team. We just have a system that has been working during this winning streak, and we are just trying to maximize everyone’s talent.”
They have been doing that. Is it enough to take them all the way? That won’t be answered until the postseason.
And then they might have the chance again, with more assets available, to chase Antetokounmpo in the summer. For now, though, they believe.
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.
