Knicks are in new territory with Finals-or-bust postseason expectations

After a steady build that peaked with a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, the New York Knicks entered the 2025-26 season in an unusual position. Owner James Dolan was not satisfied with how the Knicks lost to the Indiana Pacers last summer, dismissing Tom Thibodeau and replacing him with Mike Brown to get the most out of his roster. After the Knicks won the NBA Cup back in December, Dolan upped the ante by refusing to hang a banner to commemorate the achievement and going on talk radio to declare he expected his team to reach the NBA Finals this year.

That interview let a dirty little secret into the air for the Knicks — what they did in the regular season didn't matter at all. That kind of mindset has been the case for years with the NBA's elite, who have load managed stars to ensure they are at peak health for the postseason, and New York had to navigate that mentality for the first time in decades.

The resulting season saw some inconsistency from the Knicks, who improved defensively in the back half of the season but saw their level of play fluctuate in the back half of the campaign. The end result saw the Knicks finish with 53 wins and the three seed in the East, but nothing they accomplished under Brown in February and March will matter if they exit early in the spring.

The Knicks path to the NBA Finals could be brutal

It was reasonable for the Knicks to enter the year with hopes of reaching the NBA Finals. They had come up one step shy of doing it a year ago and the Eastern Conference looked wide open with Indiana and Boston projected to take steps back after Achilles' injuries to Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum.

While the Pacers did finish as one of the conference's worst teams, Joe Mazzulla helped the Celtics re-load into a juggernaut that finished higher than the Knicks in the standings. Tatum came back earlier than anticipated as well, helping Boston position themselves for a potential rematch with New York in the second round.

The Detroit Pistons, who the Knicks beat in six games a year ago in the first round, surged to the top of the Eastern Conference and won 60 games. The Knicks didn't do well against Detroit in the regular season either, getting smoked by an average of 28 points in three defeats.

Cleveland also underachieved to a degree during the regular season but finished strong after acquiring James Harden from the Clippers at the deadline in exchange for Darius Garland. The Knicks also got a bad first round draw with a very physical Atlanta team that actually outscored them by six points in their three regular-season meetings despite losing two of them.

It appears unlikely that the Hawks have enough firepower to get past the Knicks, but they can be an annoying first-round draw much like Philadelphia and Detroit were for New York in the past two years. A path of Boston and either Cleveland or Detroit awaits the Knicks to meet Dolan's expectations of reaching the Finals, which is doable but by no means a sure thing.

This postseason will be a good test for this Knicks' roster to see if they are capable of flipping a switch in April and May like the elite contenders do. There appears to be at least some front office skepticism of this group based on their decision not to extend Karl-Anthony Towns' deal immediately, giving them the option to shake up the roster if expectations are not met.

With the looming spectre of Giannis Antetokoumpko lurking, there is a ton of weight for this Knicks' team to prove they can win the East and get to the NBA Finals. Failure to do so would test Dolan's patience, which is the last thing New York can afford right now.

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