{"id":939434,"date":"2026-10-20T00:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/939434\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T00:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T00:48:24","slug":"nba-season-tips-off-with-many-contenders-in-place-to-chase-the-champion-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/939434\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA season tips off with many contenders in place to chase the champion Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

New York Knicks’ guard Jalen Brunson goes up for a shot during the first half of a preseason game against the Philadelphia 76ers earlier this month in Philadelphia.Matt Slocum\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

LeBron James went to Philadelphia. Giannis Antetokounmpo moved to Miami. Kawhi Leonard returned to Toronto. A dozen or so former all-star selections, the majority of them being former all-NBA picks, changed addresses this off-season as well.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019re all chasing the New York Knicks.<\/p>\n

The 81st season of NBA play starts Tuesday with a tripleheader, highlighted by James and the 76ers heading to New York to face Jalen Brunson and the champion Knicks. They\u2019ll get their championship rings before the game, see a banner swaying from the ceiling of Madison Square Garden and then get down to the task of doing something that nobody in the NBA has done for nearly a decade \u2013 repeat as title winners.<\/p>\n

The Knicks became the NBA\u2019s eighth different champion in the last eight years, a run unprecedented in league history. They\u2019re not the favourites to win the title this season; that role is shared by Victor Wembanyama\u2019s San Antonio Spurs and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander\u2019s Oklahoma City Thunder. But the Knicks weren\u2019t expected to win it all last season either, and NBA finals most valuable player Jalen Brunson points to the title as proof that words don\u2019t have to matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s only potential distractions when you read and believe what people are saying,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cSo, no matter what\u2019s being said and no matter what\u2019s been talked about, consistently or not, you believe what you want to believe, you hear what you want to hear. It\u2019s on us as teammates and individuals and professionals to understand what the nature of it is. \u2026 The way we won was just because of how connected we were as a group. We\u2019ve got to keep that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is no shortage of legitimate contenders, on both sides of the league. In the Eastern Conference, four of the last eight NBA finals MVPs changed uniforms \u2013 Leonard returning to Toronto, Antetokounmpo going to Miami, James and Jaylen Brown joining the Sixers. Detroit and Cleveland brought their rosters back virtually intact, as did the Knicks. Boston will plug Paul George into the hole created by Brown moving to Philadelphia and pair him with Jayson Tatum. Indiana gets Tyrese Haliburton back for the first time since losing Game 7 of the 2025 NBA finals and expects to contend again.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a team perspective, we don\u2019t have any conversations about anything but winning a championship. That\u2019s our goal. There\u2019s nothing more to talk about,\u201d Haliburton said. \u201cThere are no small wins. To me, the year\u2019s successful if you win a championship. If not, it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Western Conference, as always, is loaded.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama and Gilgeous-Alexander are two of the game\u2019s biggest stars and the Spurs and Thunder lead the West pack. Nikola Jokic, always considered a serious contender for MVP honours, will try to get Denver back into title contention. Golden State still has Stephen Curry, the Los Angeles Lakers still have Luka Doncic, Houston is expected to contend with Kevin Durant leading the way, Portland finally will have Damian Lillard in uniform and Minnesota put together what\u2019s expected to be an elite backcourt by pairing LaMelo Ball with Anthony Edwards.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) looks to shoot over Houston Rockets guard Marcus Smart (36) during the first quarter of a preseason game on Thursday in Houston.Kevin M. Cox\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\u201cNew beginnings,\u201d Ball said. \u201cIt\u2019s literally a new story. We\u2019re all excited here. It\u2019s going to be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spurs got to the NBA finals last season after winning a Game 7 in Oklahoma City, ending hopes the Thunder had of being the league\u2019s first back-to-back champion since the Warriors did it in 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n

That loss, for certain, stung the Thunder. But the off-season in OKC was about getting ready for 29 opponents, not just the one in San Antonio.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure that what we are doing is broad enough that it gives us a chance to be competitive across opponents, including ones that we are not aware that are going to be really good teams. That happens every single year,\u201d Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we need to be laser-focused on ourselves. We need to take the lessons from that series, for sure, and we did. But it\u2019s certainly not something that we overcorrect for because you end up chasing your shadow, and it prevents you from being your best as you move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are six new coaches this season: Dusty May took his NCAA title won last spring with Michigan and moved to Dallas, Micah Nori takes over in Portland, Tiago Splitter will coach Chicago, Taylor Jenkins was tabbed to oversee the post-Giannis rebuild in Milwaukee, Sean Sweeney got the job in Orlando to replace Jamahl Mosley and Mosley will coach New Orleans.<\/p>\n

The NBA Cup final will move from Las Vegas to Indianapolis this year, the all-star weekend is in Phoenix and there\u2019s a No. 1 draft pick in AJ Dybantsa who already is turning heads in Washington. But all eyes will eventually turn to June, and whoever will be the next team to hoist the Larry O\u2019Brien Trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did something great last year,\u201d Knicks wing Mikal Bridges said. \u201cThat was last year. I think the biggest thing coming into this year is that we know what it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: New York Knicks’ guard Jalen Brunson goes up for a shot during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,459,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-939434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-nba","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}