noti.group’s Stefan Bondy answers the biggest Knicks questions, makes bold predictions and picks the five biggest games of the 2025-26 season:
Starting 5
Is Mike Brown the right guy for the job?
For five years, the Knicks followed the Tom Thibodeau way to great success. The coach was entrenched in everything that happened, the good, the bad and everything in between. His surprise firing led to a winding and sometimes sloppy coaching search, ending with the candidate who was safe but not the front office’s first choice. A big change means there’s a microscope on everything said and done by Mike Brown, who’ll have a shorter honeymoon phase than most because of the franchise’s heightened expectations. Thibodeau is a hard act to follow.
How much of an upgrade is the bench?
Just based on how they previously performed, the reserves will be better. The Knicks bench finished at the very bottom in scoring last season and was overmatched on a nightly basis. For context, a few players who were an important part of Thibodeau’s depth — Precious Achiuwa, Delon Wright, Cam Payne — are unemployed.
This season, the Knicks signed veterans to fill out the rotation, but question marks abound. Already, one of those vets — Malcolm Brogdon — is out of the mix after retiring. Another — Jordan Clarkson — is 33 and hoping to reverse a decline in production over the past couple of years. A third — Guerschon Yabusele — looked underwhelming in preseason and has much to prove as a contributor to an NBA contender. The Knicks should get strong performances off the bench from Miles McBride and Josh Hart, but there’s less certainty about the newcomers.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
