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The New York Knicks, from the moment they were eliminated from championship contention by the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals, were raring to redeem themselves, looking to make any and every change necessary to get the team over the hump. And they have been busy thus far this offseason, replacing head coach Tom Thibodeau, who turned things around for the Knicks and got them to the playoffs in four of his five seasons with the team, with another former Coach of the Year Mike Brown.
Moreover, the Knicks got to work quickly, as they looked to add the depth they were sorely missing all playoffs long. If there was anything the Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder showed, it was that high-level depth is the most valuable currency in today's NBA, and that having as many playoff-viable, battle-tested players on the roster as possible was the recipe for success more than being a top-heavy team.
But even the best front offices tend to slip up. The Knicks have certainly made their fair share of blunders over the course of their storied history.
Nonetheless, calling anything the Knicks have done this offseason thus far would be a huge mistake.
Knicks' free agency period is off to a flying start
Considering the bed the Knicks made for themselves during last year's offseason, there isn't much the front office could do to improve the team further. For better or for worse, the Knicks are locked into their core four of Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, and OG Anunoby, and a trade involving any of those four would be a seismic change that the front office, after the team's first Conference Finals appearance in 25 years, doesn't appear likely to make.
Meanwhile, Josh Hart, Mitchell Robinson, and Miles McBride are valuable role players whom the Knicks are paying fair contracts for, and even with Hart's underperformance in the ECF, he's coming off the best season of his career and is a do-it-all hustle guy — the kind of player every contending team would want on their roster.
Keeping those seven guys will be important for the Knicks. But utilizing just seven players on a consistent basis in the playoffs is not the way to go considering how high-effort every minute in the NBA is, especially when the stakes are at their highest.
Last season, the Knicks could not go over the first apron after trading for Towns. This year, they can, and they have utilized what limited resources they have and maximized them.
They waited until the Utah Jazz had no other recourse but to buy out Jordan Clarkson, and they finally added the former Sixth Man of the Year on a minimum deal after years of expressing interest in a trade for the Fil-Am guard.
And then in another stroke of genius, they managed to sign Guerschon Yabusele, who was drawing plenty of interest in free agency, using the taxpayer midlevel exception.
While this signing hard caps them at the second apron, requiring them to make a roster cut if they were to sign another veteran to the roster, Yabusele's ability to guard multiple positions as well as his ability to either be a bruising, stretch four or a capable stretch five allows the Knicks more flexibility down the roster now that their frontcourt rotation is basically set.
This now gives the Knicks at least nine players who could log playoff minutes, and they can still bring back the likes of Delon Wright or fan favorite Landry Shamet (at the expense of perhaps Tyler Kolek or Ariel Hukporti) for even more depth in the backcourt.
Even the hiring of Brown as the team's new head coach should not raise any alarm bells. Perhaps hiring someone new, like former Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant, would have been a more exciting move, but Brown is a solid choice, as he was able to take the De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis partnership in Sacramento and mold it into the beating heart of the first Kings team to make it to the playoffs in 17 years.
Brown should be more willing to use his bench than Thibodeau ever was, and if there's anyone who knows how to maximize the synergy between star guard and big man, it's the newly-hired Knicks head coach.
While the Knicks' moves this offseason aren't as earth-shattering as they were last season, they simply needed to add to an already-talented team. After all, this team won 51 games last season and perhaps was one choke job away in the ECF (in Game 1) to making it to the NBA Finals. They did not need to rock the boat; instead, they simply needed to ride the wave and come out unscathed, and they didn't just do that, they even reinforced the ship as they set sail into the deep blue sea in their continued hunt for the ever-elusive Larry O'Brien trophy.
