Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The New York Knicks transformed from a struggling franchise into NBA Finals contenders over the past four seasons through bold roster decisions.
- Each of those decisions drew skepticism at the time but proved essential in building a balanced, championship-caliber team.
- Now standing four wins from a title, the Knicks' historic playoff run will test whether their moves were enough to end a 47-year championship drought.
Four years ago, the New York Knicks were in disarray, as they've been wont to do throughout James Dolan's tenure as owner.
They had exactly two winning seasons, two playoff appearances and one playoff series win over the previous decade. They were fresh off a 37-45 season and had Julius Randle and RJ Barrett as their top two players.
Four years later, they're in the NBA Finals for the first time this century.
Over that span, the Knicks completely overhauled their roster. Mitchell Robinson and Deuce McBride are the sole survivors from that 2021-22 group. They burned through most of their assets to do so, but they're four wins away from accomplishing something that no Knicks team has done since the 1970s.
Five moves in particular stand out as the swing factors in their transformation from also-ran into contender. None of them received universal acclaim at the time, but all of them proved vital in retrospect.
Signing Jalen Brunson
The Dallas Mavericks could only offer Jalen Brunson a four-year, $55.5 million extension before he became a free agent in 2022, but they chose not to do so before the 2021-22 season, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon. That put the gears in motion for Brunson to leave Dallas and sign with the New York Knicks the following summer.
The Knicks signed him to a four-year, $104 million contract on the opening day of free agency, although the reaction to the signing was largely lukewarm.
"Brunson is a 6'1" combo guard who can't get to the free throw line and doesn't shoot threes off the bounce," Michael Pina wrote at Sports Illustrated at the time. "As a team that won just 37 games and has no clear path to winning a playoff series, the Knicks spent the past week moving draft picks and clearing cap space to treat him—a 25-year-old who probably won't ever make an All-Star team—as their top priority."
Brunson averaged 21.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists in the Mavericks' run to the 2022 Western Conference Finals, which hinted at his upside. Since joining the Knicks, he has averaged at least 24 points and six assists per game and has received three All-Star nods and three All-NBA nods. He also won Clutch Player of the Year — a very real and important award — in 2024-25.
Brunson has been even better in the playoffs. He's guided the Knicks to at least one series win in each of his four seasons, two conference finals appearance and now their first Finals berth since the 1998-99 campaign. In 56 playoff games with the Knicks, he's averaging 29.2 points, 6.7 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.3 threes in 38.3 minutes per game while shooting 46.4 percent overall.
Brunson wound up being (tampering) money well spent.
The OG Anunoby trade
Midway through the 2023-24 season, the Knicks were hovering around .500 and decided they needed to upgrade. They shipped Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a 2024 second-round pick to the Toronto Raptors for OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn.
The deal was largely praised across the internet, although Ricky O'Donnell of SB Nation pointed out one potential pitfall.
"Teams typically want a player who can create more than Anunoby can with the ball in his hands for a near-max contract, which is what he’ll demand after this season, but volume three-point shooting and fantastic defense makes this a decent gamble by the Knicks," O'Donnell wrote.
Anunoby has averaged 16.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, 2.3 threes, 2.1 assists and 1.4 steals in 35.0 minutes per game across 164 regular-season appearances with the Knicks. The two-way dynamo was in the 93rd percentile leaguewide in Dunks and Threes' defensive estimated plus/minus and in the 95th percentile in estimated wins.
Anunoby has been their third-best player on the Knicks' run to the Finals, which speaks to how well the top two have been playing. He missed the end of the Eastern Conference Semifinals after suffering a hamstring injury — health remains the biggest knock against him — but he was back by the start of the Eastern Conference Finals and barely skipped a beat.
Anunoby is an above-average 3-point shooter, a rock-solid defender and a strong cutter and rebounder. He's the perfect complement to Brunson, which made him well worth the cost of Barrett and Quickley.
The Mikal Bridges trade
The Knicks' trade for Mikal Bridges might have been their most controversial move throughout this retool.
The Knicks gave up four of their own first-round picks (2025, 2027, 2029 and 2031) along with an unprotected pick swap in 2028 and a top-four protected 2025 first-round pick from the Milwaukee Bucks to acquire Bridges from the Brooklyn Nets in 2024. On paper, it was a clear overpay.
The skeptics appeared to be right early on. Bridges easily scaled down into a smaller role on offense and was highly efficient, but he rarely showed the ability to take over games like he did during his brief spell in Brooklyn. Teams rarely give up four unprotected first-round picks for anything short of a superstar. Bridges was more of a three-and-D glue guy.
Bridges briefly appeared to be in danger of losing his spot in the starting lineup during the first round of this year's playoffs. He responded by averaging 18.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.4 steals on a nuclear 62.8 percent shooting over his last nine games, in part because he's been attacking the basket more than he ever has with the Knicks.
When word leaked last fall that Giannis Antetokounmpo had interest in coming to the Knicks, the Bridges trade looked even more disastrous in retrospect. Those draft picks would have been key in any talks with the Milwaukee Bucks.
But now that the Knicks are in the Finals, they might not have any regrets about going all-in on Bridges — a Villanova teammate with Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo — when they did.
The Karl-Anthony Towns trade
The Bridges trade wasn't the only major change that the Knicks made during the 2024 offseason. On the eve of training camp, they traded Randle, DiVincenzo and a 2025 first-round pick (via Detroit) to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns.
The Knicks were fresh off losing Isaiah Hartenstein to the Oklahoma City Thunder in free agency, which left them vulnerable in the middle, particularly with Robinson injured to start the season. Flipping Randle and DiVincenzo also helped the Knicks' starting lineup click into place positionally. Instead of having to start Bridges at the 2, Anunoby at the 3 and Randle at the 4, the Knicks could slide them up a position and start Hart as well.
Towns' three-point shooting ability immediately added a new dimension to the Knicks' offense. But he took it up a notch in the playoffs when the Knicks began running their offense out of him at the high post against both Atlanta and Philly.
Evan Mobley helped the Cavaliers snuff out those looks, and both Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama could do the same for the Thunder and Spurs in the Finals, respectively. Even if they do, Towns' postseason record with the Knicks is unassailable.
During his first year in New York, the Edison, New Jersey native helped them advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1999-2000. This year, he helped guide them to their first Finals berth since 1998-99.
Having grown up around New York, Towns understands the gravity of this moment for the city. It wouldn't have happened without him.
Firing Tom Thibodeau
Tom Thibodeau has a habit of getting the best out of his teams shortly after his arrival, only for his schtick to wear thin over time. His distribution of minutes is at least a half-decade out of date, too.
Still, it came as a mild surprise when the Knicks fired Thibs after he guided them to the 2025 Eastern Conference Finals. However, one source told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne that the decision to replace him "had been trending in that direction for months." Brunson and Towns never quite developed championship-caliber synergy under Thibodeau.
So, out went Thibs and in came Mike Brown, who guided LeBron James and the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2007, and perhaps even more impressively, led the Sacramento Kings to the playoffs in his first year at the helm. That decision paid off on both ends of the floor.
In 2024-25, the Knicks had the league's fifth-best offense and 13th-best defense. This past season, they were fourth in offense and seventh in defense. Having top-10 marks in both categories often a hallmark of a championship-caliber roster.
The Knicks were inconsistent during the regular season in Brown's first year. Some nights, they looked like legitimate title contenders. Other nights, they looked like they were just playing basketball with one another for the first time.
But ever since they got down 2-1 in the first round to the Hawks, they've been world-beaters. They've won 11 straight playoff games, which puts them in historic company. No matter what happens from here, Knicks fans will remember this playoff run for the rest of their lives.
The players deserve a majority of the credit, but the upgrade from Thibodeau to Brown has been noticeable, particularly as he coached circles around Kenny Atkinson in the conference finals.
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