Tomorrow at Madison Square Garden is the last of the 3-1 Knicks’ five preseason games. When the buzzer sounds to conclude the matchup with the Charlotte Hornets and everyone hopefully emerges uninjured, it won’t matter if they are 4-1 or 3-2.
What is truly consequential are the games that begin next Wednesday when the Knicks open the regular season versus the Cleveland Cavaliers as the fourth-highest betting favorite as established by major sports gaming companies.
The team they host has the second-highest odds behind only the defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder. If the Thunder do ultimately win their second straight title, they will be the league’s first repeat champion since the Golden State Warriors back-to-back wins in 2017 and 2018.
After losing to the Indiana Pacers in six games in last season’s Eastern Conference Finals, the bar is set high for the Knicks. Merely reaching the conference finals again won’t be viewed as a successful season in the eyes of rabid fans who raucously celebrated outside of MSG last May as if the Knicks won the whole thing after they defeated the Boston Celtics in the conference semifinals 4-2.
Ask Tom Thibodeau the same thing if you run into him. The former Knicks head coach was canned after leading the team to 101 combined victories over the past two regular seasons, scaling from the conference semis in 2023-24 season to the conference finals the following campaign.
These improvements were obviously not good enough for Knicks owner James Dolan and team president Leon Rose. Enter 55-year-old veteran coach Mike Brown, a two-time NBA Coach of the Year with the Cavaliers in 2009 and Sacramento Kings in 2023. Yes, each night will be analogous to a Broadway show and he’ll be centerstage in the spotlight, replacing the 67-year-old Thibodeau with the mandate to win a championship.
How else could his charge be characterized other than finals or bust? But this Knicks squad still needs more size and proven depth when measured against the Thunder, Cavaliers and Houston Rockets, the latter being the third betting favorite after the rising young team added all-time great Kevin Durant this past summer via the Phoenix Suns.
The first thing Brown said at the Knicks’ annual Media Day last month: “I don’t know if anyone has higher expectations than me. I love being in a position where you have expectations.”
Knicks All-Star guard Jalen Brunson, speaking in late August on his podcast “Roommates Show,” co-hosted with Villanova and Knicks teammate Josh Hart, said his goals have long remained the same.
“My definition of success has not changed,” Brunson said. “You win or you don’t succeed.”
Brunson’s zero-sum mentality must permeate the roster from head coach to the last man to achieve their objective of snatching the Knicks’ first title since 1973.
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