BOSTON — When the Celtics rotated their bench into the game against the 76ers in the preseason, Jayson Tatum stayed on the TD Garden parquet joined by Baylor Scheierman, Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard and Neemias Queta — a lineup that could easily stand as Boston’s starters.

While the regular rotation players sat out the preseason opener in Cleveland, third-string center Luka Garza, the depth wings and training camp invite Devin Carter led the team to a win over the Cavs’ starters (minus James Harden). In Philadelphia, a group of G-Leaguers and Boston’s bench defeated four of the vaunted five Sixers starters this upcoming season.

The Celtics look prepared, again, to win games no matter who’s available.

“I’m really interested to see how the depth not only is utilized [but] as an advantage,” Brad Stevens said to begin training camp. “But there is gonna have to be some sacrificing at that level for guys that have tasted a little bit of success at different times throughout the year. But the one thing that I know about Joe (Mazzulla), and the one thing I know about our players, is they all know their opportunities will be plentiful. If they’re not coming today, they’re coming down the road.”

Mazzulla leaned into that mantra by allowing assistants D.J. MacLeay and Tony Dobbins to handle the Cleveland game, spending the night in the film rooms. When Mike Conley, who started that night, exited for the first time and went to the bathroom, Mazzulla greeted him with three clips in the locker room. Jordan Walsh received another start against Philadelphia, and Sam Cassell took over the sidelines in the preseason finale. Three centers who have all shown capable of starting have also bought into a by-committee approach at the position.

That bodes well for a Celtics team that features more health concerns to begin the season than last year. Jayson Tatum begins his first full season since his Achilles tear joined by Paul George, who averaged 48.8 games played per year over his last six, and Mitchell Robinson, who only played 20.7 minutes per night across an average 36 appearances in each of the last three seasons. All three players began camp feeling good, while Tatum and Robinson both told 98.5 The Sports Hub that they’re available for back-to-backs, which wasn’t the case in 2026.

“It’s been a struggle, offensively for me, just getting rhythm, getting my legs under me, getting conditioning down,” George said on Monday. “But I think the beauty in it is I’m healthy. That’s stuff that I can iron out as the season goes on, as the practices go on and so I think that’s the positive out of all of it.”

Teammates also see a rejuvenated Tatum, who looked closer to his former self and seasoned by the nearly one year spent watching the game from the sideline. His return to MVP candidacy would massively lift the team’s ceiling, but he’ll need a secondary scorer to emerge, whether that’s Pritchard, Derrick White, George, or a committee of all three. The challenge for an array of young wings who showed growth during the preseason, Hugo González, Baylor Scheierman and Walsh among them, will become shifting between smaller and larger roles on any given night and eventually translating their impact to the postseason.

There’s little doubt this group can play the numbers game all season and rack up wins through shooting volume, offensive rebounding and an intriguing ability to force turnovers driven by George, Scheierman and others in the preseason. Boston won the shot margin in Cleveland by seven, by 13 and 16 in the two Philadelphia games, and by 17 to beat Charlotte in what started as a dreadful shooting game. Before it began, Mazzulla described weighing the prospect of one great shot versus three quality shots, and sounded like he preferred the latter.

“There are a bunch of different ways to be top-five,” Mazzulla said. “If people could pick their poison, they’d pick to be the best shot selection team in the league, but you have to ask yourself what’s more feasible? … we probably had guys that were better at crashing the glass than we have guys that are better at creating better shots. So that gives us the best chance to do it. This year, it might be different … you also have to ask yourself entering a season how much do you want to make your strengths better or leverage your weaknesses? You probably have to do a little bit of both, but … we were able to be at the top of the list offensively because we hammered down on our strengths, which was our ability to get a decent first shot more times than not, but our ability to create more shots for ourselves. That’s an interesting question. Would you rather have one good shot or three average shots? I know a guy in our organization who wants three average shots.”

If this Celtics team does what last year’s did in an enhanced way, we’ll be watching both fun night-to-night basketball and they can surpass last season’s total. Then, the playoffs loom, featuring seasoned conference champions like New York or Indiana, or stars who have won championships before like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kawhi Leonard. The Sixers will become a point of comparison for years to come, and a scary out if they’re fully loaded in any given playoff round. The Celtics will need to show, before then, an increased proficiency at creating quality shots, or make the roster maneuvers to get there that Stevens has teased since the Jaylen Brown trade.

In a world beyond that deal, the comparisons to Philadelphia, a search for a second star and the likely reality that the Celtics aren’t quite in that championship conversation yet will remain in the backdrop of however fun this regular season proves. Yet, development matters, culture does too, and you’d rather be a group that’s almost expected to win even when three starters sit out than one whose fortunes would become doomed by an injury. Last year’s Celtics achieved remarkable health, Tatum’s absence aside, which is a big point to set aside, and for all the optimism they’ve gained going into this year with him back, it’s worth remembering how much of that built on how well they played without him.

It’s a different league, though, and a conference in particular that’s expected to be far more competitive. Mazzulla himself recalls the 0-3 start to last season, how much they needed to overhaul the defense and his ability to identify where they needed to shift the rotation on the fly cemented his status as Coach of the Year. If veterans move in-and-out of the lineup, especially for extended periods, that could create instability the 2026 team didn’t deal with. But with everyone intact, defenders swarming and balanced lineups knocking opponents down in waves, the Celtics are excited about this season — it is a new year after all for all the similarities.

Mazzulla, true to form, is cautiously optimistic.

“I do love this team,” he said. “I do want to see who we are when it doesn’t go our way. So I want to say ok, I love our team, but what are we gonna be, after a winning streak, after a losing streak, after four games in five nights. All those things. I love this team. I love who we can become, but I’m also excited … to go through all the s*** that the NBA season gives you. I’m excited to lose with this team, I’m excited to win with this team … do all those things to see who we become on the other side of it.”

The NBA scheduling powers that be are doing the Dallas Mavericks zero favors to start the 2026-27 season.

The Mavericks’ first six opponents of the year sport a combined record from last year of 292-200. Dallas faces the Rockets (52-30) twice, the NBA finalist San Antonio Spurs (62-20) once and the only team in the West that had a better record than the Spurs, the Oklahoma City Thunder (64-18), once in that span.

The Indiana Pacers are the one team the Mavs face in that span that had a losing record a year ago (19-63) — and they are a popular pick this year to have the biggest turnaround in the league, with Tyrese Halliburton working his way back to health after tearing his Achilles in the 2025 NBA Finals. That, along with the additions of Ivica Zubac and Kelly Oubre Jr. could put Indiana back in the catbird seat in the Eastern Conference.

Not to mention, the Miami Heat, also one of the Mavericks’ early opponents, netted the biggest catch of the 2026 offseason after a 43-39 campaign a year ago. Giannis Antetokounmpo now resides in South Beach, seated at the helm of a remade Heat roster that also harbors the likes of Bam Adebayo, Davion Mitchell, and former Mavericks Tim Hardaway Jr. and Klay Thompson. So, if nothing else, that game will be an interesting one lumped in with a bunch of tough tests to start the year.

The Mavericks started last season with a 2-4 record, and it only got worse from there. Then-General Manager Nico Harrison was fired as the sour stretch to start 2025-26 dragged to 3-8. Then it got to 3-10 after losses to the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers. It would be easy to see another 2-4 start to this year, or perhaps even 1-5. Another 3-8 start is definitely on the table this year.

If the Mavericks are going to take a significant step forward this year, that would mean bouncing back to play something close to .500 basketball the rest of the way. Is that asking too much from a cobbled-together roster led by a first-year coach coming to the NBA from the college ranks? As currently constructed, the Dallas roster still has one foot stuck in a previous iteration while also looking forward with something of a youth movement after team president Masai Ujiri’s first offseason at the controls.

You’d have to think that Cooper Flagg’s second-year maturation, plus the addition of a healthy Kyrie Irving, could help the Mavs improve upon the 23-46 mark they recorded after that 3-10 start a year ago. If the team gets a little injury luck, which has not been granted in either of the last two seasons, Dallas could be one of the surprise teams in the league this year.

There are a lot of “ifs.” There are a lot of possibilities. But one thing to watch out for will be how the Mavericks meet the challenge the first six games of the year present.

If Dallas goes 2-4 or 1-5 to start the year, don’t lose hope. A bumpy start may always have been built in here. But if they can somehow start the year 3-3 or, heaven forbid, better, watch out. It may be the first sign that this team could possibly, just maybe, be, better than average? Bordering on good?

I don’t know if I can quite squint and see that vision. But I’m willing to be shown the way.

It’s finally here! After a shorter-than-we’ve-gotten-used-to offseason thanks to the Spurs making it to the NBA Finals last season, they are back in action and ready for a re-match of the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Last season’s match-up represented a rivalry reborn from 10 years prior, and what a rivalry it is becoming. The two teams now stand a clear tier above the rest of West — which, while still deep, may be falling behind the East in terms of number of contenders — with both teams knowing that anything less than another Conference Finals appearance will be a major disappointment.

The question now is, will the chip the Thunder are carrying on their shoulders from the loss to the Spurs in the WCF outweigh the chip the Spurs are carrying from their loss to the Knicks in the Finals, or will their quest for Redemption 2.0 reign supreme? We’ll find out starting tonight!

San Antonio Spurs (0-0) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (0-0)

October 20, 2026 | 8:30 PM CT

Watch: NBC/Peacock | Listen: WOAI (1200 AM)

Spurs Injuries: Tobias Harris — out (calf); Jayden Quaintance — out (knee)

Thunder Injuries: Thomas Sorber — out (knee); Nikola Topic — out (back); Otega Oweh — out (Achilles)

What to watch for

Dynamic Guard Trio

Spurs Coach Mitch Johnson said at media day that they would play the guard trio of De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper more than last season, although he couldn’t say how much. Well, he’s throwing them right into the fire as part of the starting line-up on opening night, with Tobias Harris’ calf injury offering the opportunity to experiment a bit. What makes this approach even more interesting is despite losing some size with three guards, Johnson is sticking with Devin Vassell as the fourth starter instead of going back to last year’s starting PF, Julian Champagnie.

Of course, this is in line with their preseason approach after Harris was ruled out, and in the final two games when all three guards were available, they faired well, albeit against a Suns team sitting all their starters and a completely inept Kings team. This will be their first real test, and it will be interesting to see how what is a essentially a four-guard lineup does against a much taller Thunder squad, with the 6’5” Vassell matching up against 7’1” Chet Holmgren. Speaking of which…

Chet vs. Wemby round bajillion, or is it Mara time?

The Thunder will be entering this season with a purpose after the Spurs embarrassed them in the regular season last year, then rallied from a 3-2 deficit to win the Western Conference Finals. Wemby certainly got his revenge on Holmgren for many defeats dating back to childhood, and Chet didn’t seem to want any part of that match-up, as Isaiah Hartenstein mostly covered Wemby unless he and Holgren got switched onto each other. Now, with Vassell at the four, Holgren may find more ways to attack on offense.

That being said, OKC is probably hoping it drafted a new future Wemby stopper in Aday Mara: a 7’3”, 255 lb Spanish big man with a 7-6” wing span and reigning NCAA champion and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Of course that is nothing like the Alien’s 8-foot reach, but if Holmgren isn’t up for the challenge, Mara may get thrown into the fire early to see how he matches up. It wouldn’t be fair to expect him to be a Wemby stopper in the first NBA game of his career, and he is expected to be a work-in-progress for a season or two, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Mark Daigneault wants to see what he was right away just for reference. Afterall, similar to the Spurs, the Thunder may eventually have to start considering if they can handle three players on max contracts, and there will be a very heavy burden on Holmgren to prove himself against Wemby this season if he doesn’t want to be the odd man out.

“Most importantly, I just want to be myself … I’m not a savior in any way shape or form. I just want to be able to contribute to the team and try to help this team win games.”

Jalen Brunson said the quote above shortly before his first regular season game with the Knicks. Tonight, he’ll play his 285th regular season game in New York. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Brunson still wouldn’t call himself a savior.

But the ring on his finger and the banner hanging above his head Tuesday night will say it for him.

Brunson is a forever athlete in New York. He will be celebrated as a savior for the rest of his career and long after that.

Tonight will be a chance for fans to celebrate what he and the Knicks accomplished last spring.

And after the celebration, Brunson and the group will be ready to turn the page on the pomp, circumstance and parties. They all understand what’s ahead.

But hopefully they can all take one moment Tuesday to soak in the adulation from fans in the building.

It will be pouring out of the Garden rafters as players/coaches/execs get their rings and the banner is raised.

“You’re going to have a lot of people in there that are shocked, still can’t believe it actually happened,” Carmelo Anthony said in an interview with SNY at an American Express Tip Off event in Manhattan on Monday night. “I think it’s going to be very emotional. I think you’ll see a lot of tears in there.”

You probably won’t see Brunson overly emotional tonight. He’ll get his ring, watch the ceremony and then get ready to play LeBron and the Sixers. On to another season full of challenges and adversity.

Brunson and his team are ready for the challenge. Hopefully they can take a few moments to soak in the moment before they get down to business.

"I think it's having a real plan, a real strategy. Being able to have a vision on what type of team you want" At the AMEX Tip-Off event, Carmelo Anthony joined @IanBegley to discuss why the Knicks were able to achieve success under Leon Rose https://t.co/AjbvL4zHkO

— SNY Knicks (@sny_knicks) October 20, 2026

AKINS ALRIGHT

Something worth noting from preseason/training camp: the Knicks have been impressed by two-way guard Jaden Akins. His play and approach to his craft have not gone unnoticed by the organization. The Knicks are optimistic about his future. Something to keep an eye on as the team navigates the second apron. New York will not spend above the second apron threshold in team salary, per owner James Dolan. Unless that stance changes, the club will need to find young players on team-friendly deals who can impact winning. Based on early feedback, it sounds like they think Akins has a chance to be one of those guys.

DUREN WAS DUG IN

Detroit and Jalen Duren eventually agreed to a $200 million contract in the offseason. But it took a while to get there.

There was speculation that Duren would take the qualifying offer this season for $9.6 million and become an unrestricted free agent next season. Some analysts questioned whether Duren would actually pass up the $200 million offer from Detroit and take the risk of playing this season out on the qualifying offer. But it turns out that Duren’s stance was not an empty threat.

According to league sources familiar with the matter, certain steps were taken over the summer for Duren to take the qualifying offer; those steps included the purchase of a sizeable insurance policy against potential injury. Obviously, things ended well for Detroit and Duren. But he was certainly preparing to play the coming season on that qualifying offer.

It’s Opening Night. The Knicks will play meaningful basketball tonight for the first time in four months.

But, more importantly, they will see the fruits of their labor realized. They will receive their championship rings from Commissioner Adam Silver and watch as a new championship banner is raised at Madison Square Garden to hang for the rest of eternity.

Maybe the gravity of what they’ve done will be fully realized as they watch it raised to the ceiling. Maybe the weight of 53 years of pain and misery can finally leave their shoulders too, if it hasn’t already.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve spent the preseason recounting the horrid details of the 53-year drought. All the moments when we were ashamed of our team. All the moments when it hurt to be a Knicks fan. All the moments that made the championship drought really sting more and more.

If you want to read all of this at once, for some reason, here’s the other four parts before we get into it:

Part I (1974-89)

Part II (1990-01)

Part III (2001-10)

Part IV (2010-20)

When we last left off, the world was mired in the COVID-19 pandemic. The Knicks had a new executive in Leon Rose, who would soon hire a new culture-changing coach, Tom Thibodeau. Together, they were tasked with first breaking the cycle of mediocrity and humiliation that had plagued the franchise for 20 years, and once they accomplished that, they were tasked with somehow ending the near-five-decade drought that seemed like an impenetrable cloud around the franchise.

What’s different about this part is that there are very few (if any) front-office decisions or real drama. The Leon Rose era has been as drama-free as any executive tenure in basketball history, and none of his moves have been as head-scratching as some in the past. Did some age terribly? Absolutely, but we can’t call picking Obi Toppin or signing Evan Fournier and Kemba Walker a traditionally “dumb” move when everyone was excited about it. The benefit of it being so recent is hindsight.

Instead, it’s all in-game experiences. The highs and lows. The injuries. The playoff heartbreak. The slow rise from plucky underdog to dominant champion.

Sit back and enjoy. None of this can hurt you anymore.

Mitchell Robinson’s Season-Ending Foot Injury (March 2021)

Since we’re only covering the bad moments, we’re going to be jumping around a bit here, starting with that magical 2021 season.

I’ll get into it more in a bit, but the Knicks emerged out of nowhere to go from a perennial loser to an actual playoff team over the course of the 2020-21 season. It was a smattering of unlikely heroes along the way that made it so special.

There were some bad subplots to the season, though, namely with Mitchell Robinson.

Back when he wasn’t the only homegrown Knick, Robinson dealt with his first challenging series of injuries in 2020-21.

In early February, while he was firmly establishing himself as a foundational big man, he fractured his fourth metacarpal in his right hand. He missed 15 games and returned in mid-March, but it would only last four games before he came down awkwardly on his right foot while on defense against the Bucks on March 27.

A fractured fifth metatarsal in his foot ended his season. It would be a gigantic blow to a Knicks team who was sitting at a competitive 24-22 and firmly in the playoff hunt.

While they survived and even thrived with Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson down the stretch, they would miss their young big in the playoffs.

Trae Young Becomes A New York Villain (2021 1st Round, Game 1)

That season truly was magical. A ragtag group of misfit toys, from journeyman veterans to underperforming young guys, all stepped up en route to a 41-31 season that brought hope and belief back to a city that was hit harder by COVID-19 than any in the U.S.

An incredible regular season saw them go 41-31 and take the No. 4 seed. That meant home-court advantage in the first playoff series at Madison Square Garden in eight years. COVID restrictions be damned, the powers that be drastically relaxed restrictions on public gatherings right before the playoffs. As such, after only allowing 2,000 fans per game in the regular season, over 15,000 (including yours truly) packed MSG for Game 1.

That electric atmosphere was the awakening of a sleeping giant, not to be undone by the forced masks, vaccine cards, and all the drama that happened in the world.

For a while, it looked like they’d all get to celebrate. The Knicks woke up from a truly awful first quarter to hold the lead for much of the fourth quarter.

With a minute to go, they led 103-100 and seemed to force a turnover on the baseline, but the ball bounced off the chest of RJ Barrett and somehow landed right in the lap of Bogdan Bogdanovic, who nailed a game-tying three. That shot honestly haunts me more than what comes next, because if it didn’t happen, he never gets the chance.

He in question, is Trae Young.

I really don’t know why, but the F— Trae Young chants were prevalent well before the final seconds where he would immortalize himself. Maybe we couldn’t help ourselves from giving life to a new New York villain after years in the darkness.

Tied at 105 in the final 10 seconds, Thibodeau inserted an ice-cold Frank Ntilikina into the game to defend Young. As the team’s best defender, it made sense in a vacuum, but it clearly didn’t go well.

Young cooked Ntilikina and drew Gibson out of the paint for an ill-advised double team. There was no containment on the right side, allowing the floater maestro to get downhill and put up an easy go-ahead floater with 0.9 seconds to go to cap a 32-point night for the win.

His villainous persona would only grow over the coming days and weeks. Knicks fans got their cathartic playoff win two nights later, but midnight struck on this Cinderella run in a hurry, as they lost in five games. It turns out that injury to Robinson was crucial, as Clint Capela bullied the Knicks’ backup bigs into submission.

There are all sorts of humiliating moments in this series. Reggie Bullock’s infamous tweet, the pumpkin that All-NBA and MVP candidate Julius Randle turned into, and Trae’s bow to end the series at the Garden.

It wasn’t the way anyone wanted it to end, but there was hope for the first time in a long time. But as is customary with the Knicks, hope is immediately met with hardship, as we saw in the following season.

The 2021-22 Disaster

When a team overachieves with a young roster, the front office is given a few different decisions. They can either ignore the season that happened and continue to stay the course, even if it means a backslide, or accelerate the rebuild.

Leon Rose chose the second option, going all-in on surrounding a nucleus of Randle, Robinson, and RJ Barrett with veteran talent. They re-signed Alec Burks, Derrick Rose, and Nerlens Noel. They gave Evan Fournier $72 million in free agency. They even brought home hometown hero Kemba Walker after he was bought out by OKC to stabilize the point guard position.

There were few teams with better vibes when the 2021-22 season began than the Knicks, especially after they beat the Celtics to open the season. Just look at the Sidetalk crowd!

A 5-1 start had everyone dreaming of a steady ascent, but this season got bad fast.

The Knicks hoped that Thibodeau’s scheme, coupled with the hard-nosed defensive identity from the season prior, could at least balance out the bad defenders added to the roster. That was a hard no, as the team fell to 11th in defensive rating. The team also got a hard regression from Randle, injuries to Derrick Rose and Nerlens Noel, and the drama with the repeated benching of Walker after it was clear he was well past effectiveness.

The vibes turned sour fast, as we’ll get into. By the end of the season, they spiraled to 37-45, missing the play-in tournament altogether. It was a weirdly strong East that year, and the Knicks fell so far behind.

Julius Randle Gives Fans A Thumbs Down (2022)

On January 6, 2022, the Knicks were sitting at just 18-20. There was still time to preserve the season, but with how rancid the vibes were getting, they needed a spark and fast.

They thought they’d get that with Barrett’s improbable game-winner over Jayson Tatum that night, but that was not the thing that was talked about in the media the next day.

In the midst of a miserable down season where he looked a lot more like the player who vanished in the playoffs than the All-NBA stud he was in the regular season, Randle had enough of the boos from a hostile Garden crowd and started booing them back. What was with New York athletes booing the fans in 2021???

This only torpedoed the vibes from that season even more, turning a man who briefly became one of New York’s most beloved athletes into one that fans would never fully get behind again. A rocky offseason would follow, where a large portion of fans and media called on Leon Rose to trade him to pave the way for Obi Toppin to get a real opportunity he was denied by Randle’s breakout in 2021. Randle would stay and even become an All-Star again, but fans’ resentment continued.

Throughout his next few years as a Knick, even as he rebounded as a player, he would be blamed for their failure. It would last until he was traded to Minnesota in September 2024, with his PR as a Knick never quite rebounding from that day in January 2022.

A Sampler Of Inexplicable Losses And Chokes (2021-22)

What was honestly the worst part of that entire season was the fact that the team embarrassed themselves on a nightly basis, blowing historic levels of big leads as part of a complete collapse. After the team got to 22-21 in mid-January, they lost 17 of their next 21 games in embarrassing fashion.

January 18 vs. MIN: Knicks lead in the final four minutes, but fall behind after an and-one by Karl-Anthony Towns. Randle misses a free throw with 24 seconds that would’ve tied it. Down two at the buzzer, Burks misses a three.

February 5 @ LAL: Knicks lead by 21 in the first half, but after going up 68-47, they concede a 33-11 run in eight minutes. A miraculous rally from Barrett got them to overtime, but the Knicks go 2-for-11 with two turnovers in the next five minutes to lose.

February 14 vs. OKC: Knicks lead by four in the final minute, but commit a pair of fouls that allow OKC to tie it. Quentin Grimes hits a go-ahead layup with 15 seconds left, but Darius Bazley matches it with a game-tying layup with five seconds to go. Randle missed a shot at the buzzer, and the Knicks got dominated in OT, but they had a chance with a game-tying three-point attempt by Immanuel Quickley at the death… which missed.

February 16 @ BKN: Against an injured Nets team that was starting Patty Mills, Seth Curry, and James Johnson, the Knicks built a 28-point lead in the second quarter and led by as much as 19 in the fourth. They blew that lead, as Cam Thomas exploded for 16 off the bench to stun the Knicks on a game-ending 38-15 run. After the biggest choke in franchise history, the Knicks went into the All-Star break an extremely demoralized 25-34.

March 4 @ PHX: Randle loses his temper in the third quarter with a 10-point lead late in the third and gets ejected. The Suns go on a ferocious comeback against an undermanned Knicks team, rallying from 14 down in the fourth to stun them at the buzzer with a Cam Johnson buzzer-beater.

This would be the low water mark of the season, as the Knicks began a strong 12-7 finish to the season two nights later against the Clippers. They would get one more embarrassment after the season was already done for when they blew a 23-point lead to a healthy Nets team in April, being outscored 60-31 in the second half.

In all, the Knicks blew 19 fourth-quarter leads and 15 double-digit leads in 2021-22. They blew four 20-point leads. In the four years since, they’ve blown two total (November 2022 vs. ATL, April 2024 vs. CLE).

Mavericks Embarrass New-Look Knicks At MSG (December 2022)

We didn’t know it at the time, but signing Jalen Brunson in the summer of 2022 would be unimaginably franchise-changing for the Knicks.

What is sometimes hard to remember is that it didn’t start well.

The Knicks were once again downtrodden to start the 2022-23 season. They’d trade big wins with ridiculous losses, and would usually save the most embarrassing stretches for Sunday matinees at MSG. Three weeks before this game against Dallas, the Knicks scored 48 in the first quarter and still lost to OKC after allowing a ridiculous 145 points.

On December 3, 2022, the Knicks once again jumped out to a big lead at home against a Western Conference foe, using a late burst to go up 32-20 after one. That lead expanded to 15 early in the second quarter, leading 38-23.

Then… they didn’t score another point for five minutes. The Mavericks came back to tie it, but the Knicks snapped out of it to go up 59-52 at halftime. What could go wrong?

Well, that Mavericks team was pretty dangerous with Luka Doncic. Over the next 17 minutes, they blitzed the Knicks to an unbelievable degree to take a 30-point lead. In less than 17 minutes of game action, they outscored the hapless ‘Bockers 61-24, turning what was a fine Sunday afternoon in the Garden to a loud, hostile environment for the home team.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Knicks had fallen to 10-13, a continuation of the previous season’s drama. At this point, with the memories of that magical 2020-21 season seeming further and further away, the team reached an inflection point.

Under previous executives or with a more hands-on James Dolan, this would’ve been the time for a big trade or a firing to shake things up. Hell, the Knicks were extremely close to firing Thibodeau during this time as his seat got hotter and hotter. Would the Knicks make the same mistake that they had made in the previous 20 years to throw them back into incompetence?

Leon was not quite willing to go there yet. The Knicks won the next day against the Cavaliers and wound up winning eight in a row after benching Evan Fournier, D-Rose, and Cam Reddish. By allowing Thibodeau to rein in his culture instead of ditching him like previous regimes would do, Leon might’ve saved this era of Knicks basketball before it even began.

Brunson Turns It Over, Ends Season (2023 ECSF, Game 6)

After starting 10-13, the Knicks exploded into becoming what they were destined to be. With an extremely deep bench of young talent surrounding veteran All-Stars Randle and Brunson, the Knicks soared to a 47-35 record and a No. 5 seed in the East, permanently washing away the bad vibes of last season.

They cleared the first barrier to contention by dominating the Cavaliers in five games in the first round, and got a stroke of luck when the powerhouse Milwaukee Bucks lost in the first round to the No. 8 seed, but while the Knicks would get home-court advantage in the second round for the first time in a generation, they’d be doing it against Jimmy Butler and Erik Spolestra.

As such, it didn’t go well as experience met youth. The Knicks fell behind 3-1 before a heroic 48-minute performance from Brunson extended the season in Game 5, forcing a pivotal in Game 6 in South Beach.

As he continued to bud into a superstar, Brunson was on fire that night, carrying the Knicks offense.

The problem was, nobody was helping him.

Quickley was hurt, Barrett was struggling, and Randle was both. The one time they sat Brunson, they conceded an 8-0 run in 1:53 that took away an early seven-point lead and momentum that they would never quite regain.

Still, as the game grew tighter and tighter down the stretch, the Knicks had a chance to force a Game 7 at MSG. 26 years after the Knicks blew a 3-1 lead to the Heat, they had a chance to rectify a decades-old injustice.

A four-point sequence in the final minute after a flagrant foul cut the deficit to two. After the Knicks got the stop, they had the ball with 30 seconds left.

Brunson had 39 points, the rest of the team had 51. He was the only choice to take the shot. He drove on Butler into the help, ultimately trapping him in a double team. With his teammates clearing out the right side, he was all alone.

Instead of taking the shot or kicking it out to Josh Hart behind him, he tried to shovel the ball to a cutting Randle.

And turned it over.

The ghosts from 1997 were just too strong to overcome. The Heat would hit two free throws on the other end, Grimes would airball a three, and that was that. The best season in two decades ended in a whimper.

Mavericks Tank Away A Lottery Pick (2023)

A subplot around that time caused a lot of controversy, and it dates back to the Kristaps Porzingis trade.

The Knicks received two first-round picks in that massive January 2019 trade, one of which was unprotected in 2021 and become Grimes, and the other was top-10 protected in 2023. With how promising the young duo of Doncic and Porzingis was, nobody thought the 2023 pick would be close to not conveying.

That was until the 2022-23 season completely fell apart for the Mavericks. Injuries to key role players, a lack of gelling between Luka and Kyrie, and a myriad of other factors had the Mavs on the cusp of missing the play-in tournament.

Dallas lost nine of their last 11 games, including a shameless mid-April tank job that saw them pull Luka after just 11 minutes in Game 81 in a loss to the Bulls. It not only ensured they’d miss the play-in, but also ensured that they would jump to 10th in the lottery odds. As long as Adam Silver didn’t screw them, they’d get to keep their pick.

Which is exactly what happened. The Knicks would have their pick deferred to 2024, where it would fall to No. 25 because the man that the Mavs picked in the lottery, Dereck Lively II, helped stabilize their frontcourt en route to an NBA Finals appearance. Funny how that works.

Julius Randle’s Knicks Tenure Comes To A Sudden End (January 2024)

Back to things the Knicks can actually control, they were once again teetering on the edge to start the 2023-24 season. Sitting at just 17-14 on December 30, 2023, they made a bold move, dealing Barrett and Quickley for OG Anunoby in the first of three all-in trades that would complete the infinity gauntlet of a roster they would eventually possess.

For that one month in January 2024, the Knicks were unstoppable. The lineup of Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, Anunoby, Randle, and Isaiah Hartenstein was historically good. They produced one of the best months in franchise history, going 16-2 and going from a team that would struggle to stay out of the play-in to a team that could rise up to the juggernaut Celtics and go toe-to-toe with them

Unfortunately, we never got to see that battle.

On January 27, the Knicks were rolling to their sixth consecutive win, up double digits late against the very Heat team that knocked them out a year prior.

With 4:3o to go and the starters still in, Randle drove to the basket. Jaime Jaquez Jr. attempted to draw a charge, undercutting the rising 6’8” forward and leaving him vulnerable in midair.

By the time he came down, he had dislocated his shoulder.

Nobody knew it at the time, but it would be the last time Randle wore the orange and blue. He would attempt to return for the playoffs, but shut it down after a setback in April. He would fully heal, but would be traded to Minnesota ahead of training camp that September.

This would be just one of the several mind-numbing injuries that would derail the 2024 Knicks.

Tyrese Maxey Steals The Joy (2024 1st Round, Game 5)

Despite missing Randle and even Anunoby for stretches, the Knicks won 50 games and took the No. 2 seed in the East, thanks to heroic work from Brunson. In classic Knicks fashion, they were rewarded by playing the criminally underseeded Sixers, who stumbled into the play-in due to injuries and were considered one of the best teams in the East. Go figure.

That first-round series was an instant classic. Every game was a war. Josh Hart’s Game 1 dagger, the miracle at the end of Game 2, Precious Achiuwa’s grit in Game 4, all of it was awesome.

It looked like this war of attrition was won by the Knicks in five games. Deuce McBride splashed a mid-range jumper to go up six with 29 seconds left. MSG was in celebration mode.

Then, Tyrese Maxey pulled them back from the depths.

He baited Robinson into jumping on a three-point attempt, burying it to eventually complete a four-point play. After Hart was fouled with 15 seconds left, he split bot free throws, keeping it a one-possession game.

At this point, you can see Thibodeau yelling for a foul from the sideline. The Sixers know that’s likely the plan, so with no timeouts, they go quickly up the floor.

Embiid does a give-and-go at halfcourt with Maxey, who decides to fire from 35 feet… and bury it.

With two timeouts, the Knicks decide to just play it out with eight seconds left, ultimately generating a rushed floater from Brunson that was blocked by Nic Batum. Overtime.

In overtime, the Knicks led for much of the first two minutes, but things changed when a fastbreak layup for Hart didn’t go down, and Maxey hit Kelly Oubre Jr. on an outlet for a go-ahead layup. The offense short-circuited, but Brunson bailed them out with a game-tying three with one minute to go.

The Sixers went ahead on an Oubre layup, but the Knicks had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead with 25 seconds left.

Brunson sized up Batum and fired… into the crowd. At the last second, he decided to pass instead of shoot, and threw it away as Hartenstein cut for the basket. For the second year in a row, a playoff loss would end with indecision from the captain.

The Knicks would wind up picking themselves up off the mat to win Game 6 and close out the series, but it reinforced something that remains an issue even after the title. In the last 25 years, the Knicks have only closed out one playoff series at home, in 2025 against Boston. That’s it.

Andrew Nembhard’s Miracle Shot (2024 ECSF, Game 3)

That 2024 team was a dead man walking. The injuries continued to pile up, but even then, they led 2-0 on the Pacers in the second round. They were two wins away from a date with the Celtics, where sure, they were likely to be pummeled, but it would be progress for a downtrodden organization.

The Knicks led Game 3 by nine in the fourth. It’s sometimes hard to forget that it looked like a 3-0 lead was happening for a lot of that game, but it did. The Pacers did what they always did, riding incredible offense back into the game over and over again. It was tied with six minutes left.

The next six minutes would be a grudge match. The two teams would trade clutch buckets, stops, and physicality. The Pacers pulled ahead by three late, only for Brunson to drive a stake into their hearts with 41 seconds left to tie it. (Side note: 2024 Brunson was the best player I’ve ever watched. Period).

Indiana got the ball on the next possession, but it was 23 seconds of defensive brilliance from the Knicks. The Pacers were rigid, motionless, and indecisive. For maybe the only time in those two series did they look afraid offensively. Some great rotations forced the ball out of Tyrese Haliburton’s hands late in the shot clock and into Andrew Nembhard’s.

Nembhard touched the ball with four on the clock and 35 feet from the basket. He took a few dribbles, then stepped back. He was five feet behind the three-point line and heaving out of desperation after being handed a grenade. In all of NBA history, this shot almost never goes in.

The key word is almost, because it went in.

In another life, that shot doesn’t go in, and the Knicks win Game 3 and the series. They grow up a lot sooner. Maybe they don’t make the trade for KAT, seeing DiVincenzo as too crucial and Randle as the missing piece to get over the top. While heartbreaking to remember, maybe it was for the best.

As was what came next.

Death By A Million Injuries (2024 Postseason)

The Pacers were the better team in 2025. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.

Now 2024? They absolutely weren’t. That was a seven-game series that the Pacers won because the entire Knicks roster fell apart.

In case you forgot, let’s do a roll call of the injuries, shall we?

Julius Randle: dislocates shoulder in late January, out for the season.

Mitchell Robinson: Already on the mend from ankle injuries earlier in the season, he was pulled down by Joel Embiid while rising for a layup in Game 3 vs. Philly, landing awkwardly on the ankle with a stress fracture. He would miss Game 4, return for the next few games, and ultimately undergo surgery after Game 1 against Indiana due to that same ankle. He wouldn’t play again until February 2025.

Bojan Bogdanovic: Had the ball at the top of the key early in Game 4, when it was stripped by Batum. While pursuing the ball, Batum fell and landed on the 35-year-old’s left ankle with his full body weight. He would miss the remainder of the postseason with a foot/ankle injury and would wind up suffering setback after setback. The injury would ultimately end his career.

OG Anunoby: After months of being heavily relied on, the oft-injured Anunoby suffered a left hamstring strain while on a fast break in Game 2 against Indiana. He would try his hardest to return, ultimately playing five minutes in Game 7 with a severe hamstring issue before shutting it down.

Josh Hart: While he never missed time, the Knicks’ glue guy was suffering from serious abdominal soreness in Game 6, to the point where he was a game-time decision in Game 7.

Isaiah Hartenstein: In a similar vein, Hartenstein suffered a left shoulder pinched-nerve issue in Game 4 against Indiana. He never missed time, but played significantly worse that series than he had all season.

Jalen Brunson: As the icing on the cake, a man who would routinely turn his ankle and cause scares across the Tri-State Area, would wind up suffering a completely different injury. While Game 7 continued to get further and further away from the Knicks, Brunson fractured his hand on Haliburton’s kneecap in the third quarter, ending his season.

This mountain of issues was too much to overcome and would officially mark the end of this core after a historically awful defensive showing in Game 7. The all-in push that would come would bring the Knicks to glory. but not without countless drama and failure.

Opening Night Humiliation Ritual In Boston (October 2024)

Those all-in moves brought in Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns at the expense of fan favorites and a plethora of draft picks. It was the completion of the master plan. While there were more moves on the margins to be made, this was the core that they pushed all the chips in for. They had no choice.

The big thing with this team was that they were built to beat the reigning champions. They had assembled a pair of elite defensive wings to match Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, a plethora of shooters up and down the roster to beat them, and a stretch-five who could drag out their rim protectors. That matchup with Boston would be emphasized all year.

Well, the schedule makers sent the new-look Knicks for a trial by fire in Boston on their Ring Night. There would be no championship hangover (yet) for the C’s that night, as they took it right to the Knicks all night long.

They looked like a team that had never played together against a fully healthy juggernaut on the other side. It was an embarrassment on national television. They allowed 43 points in the first quarter, they were down 22 just 15 minutes into the game, and they would trail by as much as 35 in a game that was never competitive.

On that note, the Knicks were never competitive against Boston all season long. The two met again in February, and this time there was no excuse for inexperience, with a 27-point beatdown. Two weeks later, it happened again. The fourth meeting would be the most competitive, but the Knicks blew a late lead in regulation before faltering in overtime.

0-4 and outscored by 64 points. Yet, it didn’t wind up mattering. They got smoked again in the first halves of Game 1 and Game 2 of that second-round playoff series and they learned the lessons from a terrible regular season to come back in both. Their resilience was unbelievable, but eventually, they’d encounter something they can’t overcome.

The Choke (2025 ECF, Game 1)

Those ghosts are mighty heavy.

One of the big ghosts that have haunted the Knicks for generations is the inability to get past the Pacers. While the 90s rivalry was more 50/50 than the media would like you to believe, the pain from Reggie Miller to the Ewing finger roll to Roy Hibbert’s block to the entire team falling apart in 2024 hurt.

It also created a mountain of ghosts.

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. It’s the first time in 25 years that the Knicks are at this stage. A quarter of a century. They have home-court advantage too. This had to be the year.

For a lot of Game 1, it looked like it was going to be.

They led by 17 after a KAT three with 6:26 to go.

They led by 15 after a Mikal jumper with 4:55 to go.

They led by 14 after a Brunson three with 2:51 to go.

They led by 8 after a KAT layup with 41 seconds to go.

And somehow, someway, they blew it.

Aaron Nesmith, silent all game long, started to catch fire. He made one three after another three after another three.

The Knicks melted down. They missed free throws, they turned it over, and they completely broke down defensively.

It seemed so ridiculous to watch in real time. You shrugged it off at first, for getting just how rough the history of the franchise was, but slowly, your eyes start to widen in horror.

Leading by one with seven seconds left, Anunoby went to the line. He missed one of the two free throws, meaning the Knicks only led by two. With no timeouts, Haliburton ran up the floor, charged into the paint, and ran back out to the three-point line.

As if the basketball gods were intentionally trying to play another sick joke, Haliburton seemed to move like he was being controlled by a joystick, to then fire a shot at the buzzer that would clank off the back of the rim and somehow drop perfectly through the net.

He could retry that shot 1,000,000 times and would never do that again. The most insane, improbable thing ever on a basketball court just forced overtime, but the Knicks were already mentally defeated.

Even funnier was the fact that the Knicks dragged you back in to start overtime to take an early lead to make you believe again.

The Knicks led by four with just under three minutes to go in OT. They forced a turnover and ran up the court. Brunson received the ball under the basket and laid it up off the glass… only for it to be blocked by Myles Turner in an obvious goaltend that was uncalled. The immediate momentum of the play swung back for a Nembhard three.

That five-point swing decided the game. By the time the final whistle blew, the Knicks were dead.

They’d have a huge 20-point comeback in Game 3 and have an inspiring Game 5 win, but they were dead. Year 52 had come and gone. The drought continues.

It would cost Tom Thibodeau his job, but ultimately usher in the final piece of the puzzle.

The PR Nightmare Of A Coaching Search (2025)

Hiring Mike Brown would prove to be an awesome decision for Leon Rose and company, but the process to get there was a PR nightmare.

Firing Thibodeau created a media storm by itself in the sense that many believed that the Knicks were scapegoating him for bad roster construction and were ungrateful for the man who helped restore them to relevancy, but the month-long process that it took to find a replacement made it worse.

Now, nothing the Knicks did was actually bad. They were the only vacancy when they fired Thibs, which allowed them to do what they wanted, but it was the way it was reported. They called about a bunch of currently established coaches before being obviously rejected. Looking back, it reminds me of how Penn State football conducted their recent coaching search. Odd stuff.

The rumors about convincing Jay Wright to come back to the Jason Kidd saga to the constant clowning on social media all culminated in the hiring of Brown, who would unlock the Knicks in a way that nobody thought he could.

2-9 Stretch From Hell (Jan-Feb 2026)

The regular season was fine, for the most part.

The Knicks never reached that next gear, but they won 53 games in a solid campaign that included an NBA Cup title.

Immediately following that NBA Cup title, though, the Knicks fell apart as a team, both injury-wise and play-wise.

Sitting at 23-9 on New Year’s Eve, the Knicks led by 17 early on the road against the Spurs and by double digits when Victor Wembanyama left due to injury in the fourth. They still blew it, thanks to an all-time heater from Julian Champagnie.

That sparked an unbelievably awful 2-9 stretch, one that would lead to a ridiciulous amount of discourse at the worst time of year.

As part of his 2-9 skid, the Knicks battled injuries to Hart and Landry Shamet while they got smoked by the Hawks and Sixers. A monthly embarrassment at the hands of the Pistons followed, as did a late struggle against the Suns in Phoenix.

There was the Brunson injury in Sacramento and the subsequent 17-point blown first-quarter lead to the Warriors in San Francisco. When the Knicks returned home from the West Coast, they were greeted by boos in another loss to the Suns.

Two days later, in a Monday matinee on MLK Day against the Mavericks, rock bottom.

The Knicks had their largest halftime deficit in 11 years. They were thrown around, humiliated, and utterly embarrassed by a severely shorthanded and terrible Mavericks team in an eerily similar manner to the inflection point that happened in December 2022.

After this game, the discourse was toxic. The hostility toward Mike Brown, Mikal Bridges, and Karl-Anthony Towns was at an all-time high. There were real talks about disassembling the core before they would even complete their second season.

With pressure mounting on Leon Rose and the entire organization, they decided not to do anything drastic before the trade deadline. Once again, patience was rewarded.

CJ McCollum Pushes The Core To The Brink (2026 1st Round, Games 2-3)

If you haven’t already, I recommend watching the new hour-long documentary on the championship run produced by MSG. I’ll link it here.

Anyway, they provided such a great perspective about the opportunity that the Knicks had going into this postseason, and one they knew they were blowing through Game 3 of the Hawks series.

They were coasting with a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter of Game 2, but Jose Alvarado poked the bear in CJ McCollum, who embraced his inner Trae to score 32 points in a miraculous comeback effort for the Hawks, one that ended in a missed game-winner by Bridges at the buzzer that only increased the scrutiny on him.

Three nights later in Atlanta, the Hawks led by as much as 18 in a blitz of a first half, but the Knicks rallied all the way back to take the lead late.

Once again, we hit another brutal break in a playoff game against Atlanta, just like Game 1 in 2021.

The Knicks led 108-105 in the final minute when Jalen Johnson drove to the cup. Towns, who would have his incredible breakthrough two days after this, blocked him at the rim, but the ball ricocheted off the bottom of the backboard and into his lap for a layup. Instead of having the ball with a three-point lead and 50 seconds left, it was a one-point game.

Fast forward to a tie game in the final 20 seconds. McCollum gets the inbound, sizes up the formidable McBride, and buries a mid-range jumper in his face.

On the other end, Brunson would isolate, as he always does. He would dribble, drive, stop, pump… and throw it away.

Just like Game 6 against Miami in 2023 and Game 5 against Philly in 2024.

The ghosts of the past struck again and handed the Knicks another unbelievably awful playoff heartbreak. They were now two losses away from a humiliating first-round exit and an offseason that would likely see massive changes.

They had to figure it out here. They had no choice anymore.

Adversity Strikes Again Against Cleveland (2026 ECF, Game 1)

They responded. They’d win the final three games of the Atlanta series by a total of 96 points- historic dominance.

They’d completely bulldoze the Sixers in a sweep, destroying them to smithereens in Games 1 and 4 to humiliate them so much they’d have to beg and plead for a 41-year-old who was dreaming of the Big Apple to come save them.

Once again, it was Game 1 of the ECF. At home. This time against a Cavs team they decimated three years ago.

It was a sluggish first half, mainly charged by the Knicks’ rusty shooting, but they still had a double-digit lead in the second quarter.

That fell apart in a hurry. After the Knicks took a 38-27 lead, the Cavs went on a prolonged 66-33 run to take a 22-point lead with 7:50 to go.

It was happening again. One year after the Haliburton embarrassment, the Knicks were being run out of the gym just when they seemed to be making progress. The ghosts were burying them even more than the bricks from their ice-cold shooting.

Honestly, it’s a shame what happened next would be mostly forgotten because of Game 4 of the Finals. This was the significantly harder comeback, it was just in a much lower leverage game.

The 29-Point Deficit (2026 NBA Finals, Game 4)

At this point, it was hard to really do anything to shake this Knicks team. They had made the NBA Finals for the first time in 27 years, they had won a pair of road games in said Finals, they had overcome a million improbable deficits over the last few years. What more could they overcome?

Well, how about an unpopular president murdering the vibes of the first Finals home game of the 21st century and the Spurs completely blitzing the Knicks to start Game 4, taking a near-30-point lead in the second half on the backs of hot shooting.

Barring a ridiculous collapse, the Spurs were going to even up the series and head back to San Antonio needing to just defend home court twice to win the Finals. The Knicks had spoiled an unbelievable opportunity in winning the first two on the road, only to give home court right back.

It was the last gasps of those ghosts, who had almost completely been defeated to this point. The only ones that seemed to be left were the ones from 1994 and 1999, from when the Knicks finished one Hakeem finger-tip away from a title in the former and fell to these very Spurs in the latter.

The agony of coming so close had haunted the Ewings and Starks of the world for 30 years, as did many fans. But at this point? The only choice that this team had to was to overcome the odds once again.

Epilogue

This will be the second consecutive part that goes over 7,000 words. I’ve written over 20,000 about this 53-year drought over the last month and change.

Tonight is going to be something special, something that we will never forget. At times, it doesn’t quite sink in that the Knicks really did it, but it will tonight.

It’s a team that I’ve loved my whole life, but said life has been much shorter than a lot of people I’m surrounded by, whether it’s in the P&T community, my friends, my family, there’s always someone who’s suffered more.

I’ve shared this story before, but I truly will never forget where I was, what I was doing, and who I was with when the buzzer sounded in Game 5. Watching poolside in the backyard, I immediately hugged my 39-year-old brother who had lived through so much more pain and suffering watching this team than I have. It was emotional, and an experience that I know a lot of you shared with your loved ones.

That’s what sports fandom can do. It can cause agony and dread to a degree that’s not healthy for, let’s be honest, things we can’t control and people who don’t know who we are.

But it can also cause great moments, one that we all got on June 13 and will get again tonight.

This organization has come a long way in 53 years. They’ve cycled through foundational pieces, coaches, executives, ownership, and controversy after controversy.

What we got in Leon Rose, the architect of this team, in 2020 is something that this franchise should be eternally grateful for. After decades of absolute buffoons in the front office, there was a calculated maestro who placed value in every small detail and exercised patience when necessary, while also being able to make big moves when the time is right.

Only one of the players that Rose inherited saw the fruits of this rebuild. The coach that he hired to change that culture also watched from afar. His original plan fizzled out, but the thing about great executives is that they find a way to figure it out, taking what the universe gives him.

This era brought about a new type of pain. The pain that only those ghosts from the 90s felt. The pain of knowing you have something special, only for it to be repeatedly ripped away and beaten down. The group that Leon wound up building, though, had the perseverance that nobody in this franchise had in the last 53 seasons.

Such perseverance allowed them to take everything that happened in the six-year agonizing climb to the top in stride, using it as fuel to ultimately create an unstoppable force that nobody could deny, not even the mountain of ghosts that acted as a brick wall for generations of players in the orange and blue.

Throughout much of the past 1.5 seasons, dating back to the jarring, unforeseen acquisition of Luka Dončić, the Los Angeles Lakers haven’t always played or looked like the most cohesive team. This summer, with the departure of three starters in LeBron James, Deandre Ayton and Rui Hachimura and an influx of free agent signings, another assimilation period for Los Angeles to mesh will be required.

Despite the many new faces and only two incumbent starters from 2025-26, head coach JJ Redick believes this year’s preseason has afforded him and the Lakers more opportunities to refine their execution in key spots — something he felt they needed more of prior to the last year’s regular-season opener.

“We’ve been able to take our time more in terms of teaching and installs,” Redick told reporters prior to Friday’s game against the Denver Nuggets. “We’ve also been able to cover not only more special situations, like we had one today in our shootaround. It’s the third time we’ve covered that, so we’ve had time to kind of double and triple down on a lot of things that maybe we’ve only had one pass through last year before our first game.”

While optimism is abundant during virtually every team’s training camp and preseason, that sort of development is assuredly a positive for the Lakers. Depending how deeply Redick taps into his bench most nights, they could have as many as seven or eight new rotation players this season, with the lone holdovers from 2025-26 being Dončić, Austin Reaves and Jake LaRavia. As many opportunities as possible to establish some familiarity and connection ahead of Wednesday’s game against the Golden State Warriros is welcomed.

It’ll be interesting to see how quickly the Lakers can gel defensively. They’re seemingly embracing a more aggressive, turnover-pursuant approach this season, which requires tons of synergy to be properly executed. I anticipate the offense — even if more potent by year’s end than this week — to be pretty dang good out of the gates with Dončić and Reaves surrounded by a bevy of play-finishers and spacers. But the defense might be wobblier to open the year and projects as the lesser of Los Angeles’ two units, so monitoring what level this group begins at and where it can get to may be crucial in determining the Lakers’ ceiling for 2026-27.

You can follow Jackson on Twitter at @jackfrank_jjf.