news-engine

The best thing about the New York Knicks entering 2026-27 is that there really isn’t much guessing to do with the starting five. New York just won the championship, went 53-29 with the NBA’s third-ranked offense and seventh-ranked defense, and the Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns lineup went 25-11 when those five actually started together. Mike Brown has basically zero reason to mess with something that already ended with a chip. The more interesting part is figuring out what the numbers will look like now. Nobody major was added to the core; Mitchell Robinson was the biggest rotation loss, and the Knicks are basically betting that keeping the team together is enough while the 76ers and Heat went crazy around them. That should create a pretty stable stat environment, but I still expect some changes because Bridges probably gets a little more involved, Anunoby looks ready for another offensive jump, and Hart shooting 41.3% from three again would be asking for a LOT. So instead of throwing random round numbers at everybody, I’m using last season’s lines, minutes, efficiency, and playoff roles as the starting point. Some guys should basically repeat 2025-26, while others have numbers that look way more likely to move. Jalen Brunson Will Be Elite Once Again Predicted 2026-27 Stats: 26.7 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 7.1 APG, 0.9 SPG, 0.1 BPG, 47.2 FG%, 37.4 3P% I wouldn’t try to get too creative with Jalen Brunson because New York already found the level it needs from him. He finished last season at 26.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 6.8 assists in 35.0 minutes, taking 19.9 shots per game while hitting 46.7% from the field and 36.9% from three. That wasn’t even some crazy regular-season scoring year by his standards, yet the Knicks still produced 119.8 points per 100 possessions and won 53 games. Where I can see a tiny jump is in assists. Brunson’s 6.8 last season was actually lower than his 7.3 in 2024-25, and with this group getting another full year together, 7.0-plus feels pretty easy to bet. Brunson doesn’t suddenly need to become Steve Nash, but another 0.3 assists per game isn’t asking for much with so many talented offensive pieces around him. The scoring side should stay almost exactly where it is until the playoffs, because that’s when Brunson basically turns into another person. He led the entire 2026 postseason with 539 points, then went to 32.6 points per game in the Finals while winning Finals MVP. That run kinda proved why New York shouldn’t waste 82 games asking him to play Finals basketball every Tuesday in January. Save the huge shot volume for when they actually need it. I’d also bet on a small efficiency bounce. Brunson is a career 38.5% three-point shooter and landed at 36.9% last year, so predicting something around 37.4% feels way safer than expecting another drop. The Knicks also reportedly want him getting to the line more, which makes sense after he went from 6.9 free-throw attempts in 2024-25 to only 5.7 last season. More free throws without really changing his shot chart could push him closer to 27 points without needing extra attempts. Mikal Bridges Deserves More Touches Now Predicted 2026-27 Stats: 16.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.7 BPG, 49.3 FG%, 37.8 3P% Mikal Bridges is the starter I expect to change the most statistically, and not because anything was wrong last year. His role just shrunk for a player who had once scored 26.1 points per game after arriving in Brooklyn. Bridges ended 2025-26 at only 14.4 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists, taking 11.7 shots per game, but he was super efficient at 49.0% from the field, 37.1% from three, and a 57.1% effective field-goal percentage. He wasn’t struggling (besides a small slump), he simply wasn’t asked to do that much. For a team that just won the championship, I obviously wouldn’t start randomly feeding Bridges 18 shots because somebody needs nicer box-score numbers. Still, getting him closer to 13 shots feels logical after his crazy efficient postseason. There are possessions where Brunson can give the ball up earlier, Bridges can attack a second-side defender or run a quick pick-and-roll, and New York gets a good look without Brunson having to dribble for 15 seconds. His playoff run actually makes me more comfortable predicting the efficiency to stay high. Bridges wasn’t a huge scorer in the Finals at only 10.4 points, but he shot 46.5% from the field and 42.1% from three while New York won the series 4-1, then his defense and low-turnover game kept him valuable even when the shots disappeared. During the regular season, he turned it over only 1.0 times per game despite playing 32.8 minutes, which is kinda perfect for a fourth offensive option. The number I like most is actually four assists. Bridges already reached 3.7 last year, easily matching the best playmaking stretch of his career without having anywhere near his old Brooklyn usage, so 4.0 doesn’t feel aggressive at all. New York doesn’t need another point guard, but getting one extra creator involved can make the offense less Brunson-heavy over a long regular season. Sixteen points, four rebounds and four assists would probably look pretty boring next to the package New York once paid for him. If the Knicks are winning 55 games and Bridges is defending the other team’s best wing every night, nobody will care. OG Anunoby Could Finally Get His All-Star Predicted 2026-27 Stats: 18.2 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.6 SPG, 0.8 BPG, 48.5 FG%, 38.8 3P% OG Anunoby is the one where I’m willing to be a little more aggressive because 2025-26 already looked like the beginning of something. He scored 16.7 points with 5.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.6 steals while hitting 48.4% from the field and 38.6% from three, made Second Team All-Defense, and finished 10th in Defensive Player of the Year voting. That’s already a ridiculous two-way package before even getting into what happened in the playoffs. Spoiler: he scored 21.5 points per game in the opening round against the Hawks on 61.1% from the field and 56.7% from three, and he eventually led every player in the entire postseason with 3.8 win shares. Even in the Finals, where Brunson obviously owned the offensive spotlight, OG still gave New York 21.2 points on 52.5% from the field and 50.0% from three. I’m not predicting those percentages because that would be insane, but seeing him handle more playoff offense tells me 18-ish regular-season points is very realistic. There’s also just more room for him to attack than people think. Brunson and Towns pull so much attention, while Hart and Bridges are good passers, so Anunoby gets a lot of chances to attack an already scrambling defense off the dribble. He shot 58.4% on twos last season, so he isn’t surviving only through catch-and-shoot threes anymore. Give him one or two extra drives per game and suddenly going from 16.7 to 18.2 is quite realistic. The Knicks themselves appear to see another level too, with how much confidence they injected into him during that run. His first All-Star selection is a possible individual goal entering the season, and I somewhat agree. In the East, 18 points with elite defense, near-39.0% shooting from three, and another top-three team record could put him into that conversation. I wouldn’t predict 20 because New York has too many mouths for that, but 18.2 with basically the same efficiency feels super possible. If one Knick posts a new career high in scoring this season, OG is my pick. Josh Hart’s Shot Is Coming Back To Earth Predicted 2026-27 Stats: 11.5 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 5.2 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 49.5 FG%, 37.0 3P% The most hilarious thing from last season was definitely Josh Hart shooting 41.3% from three. Not because he can’t shoot, but because this is a career 35.0% guy who had never hit 38.0% in any previous Knicks season, then randomly went 41.3% while helping them win the title. If he does it again, fine, I’ll take the L, but I’m absolutely predicting some regression here. The nice part is Hart doesn’t need that percentage to stay ridiculously valued. He still gave the Knicks 12.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in only 30.2 minutes, and his per-36 numbers came out to 8.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists. That’s why I actually have both of those categories going UP even while the scoring drops a little. With Mitchell Robinson gone, there are more defensive rebounds available, and nobody loves grabbing one and instantly turning it into transition more than Hart. His minutes are also interesting because 30.2 was way below the 37.6 he played in 2024-25. Mike Brown already showed he wasn’t going to copy Tom Thibodeau and run Hart into the wall every night, yet Hart’s production barely changed. He even started only 52 of his 66 appearances, and the main five still crushed opponents when healthy, posting a +12.5 net rating across 263 minutes together. So I’m not touching the role much. Maybe Hart sits around 30 or 31 minutes again, scores a little less because the three-ball normalizes, but creeps over eight rebounds and five assists because that’s basically what he does whenever he’s on the floor. A prediction like 11.5, 8.0, and 5.2 looks strange for a starting wing until you remember Hart has never really played like a dude his size anyway. That’s the whole appeal. Karl-Anthony Towns Should Bounce Back A Little Predicted 2026-27 Stats: 21.8 PPG, 12.0 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.7 BPG, 51.5 FG%, 38.4 3P% Karl-Anthony Towns‘ first championship season was also a pretty weird offensive year for him. He still made the All-Star team and finished with 20.1 points, 11.9 rebounds, and 3.0 assists, but 20.1 was his lowest scoring average since his rookie season. His 50.1% from the field was also well below his 52.2% career mark, while 36.8% from three was fine but nowhere near what we’ve seen from one of the best shooting big men ever. That’s basically why I’m taking the easy over on his scoring. Towns doesn’t need some new role or 20 shots per game, he just needs his percentages to look a little more like himself again. He attempted only 13.8 field goals last season after taking 16.9 the year before, so even something around 14.5 shots with better shooting can push him toward 22 points without changing how the Knicks play. His rebounding probably isn’t going anywhere either. Towns grabbed 11.9 boards in only 31.0 minutes and had 3.1 offensive rebounds per game, easily the best offensive rebounding season of his career. Mitchell Robinson leaving for Boston makes me even less interested in predicting some big drop there, because New York just lost the guy who was taking 8.8 rebounds in 20.5 minutes behind him. Andre Drummond will obviously eat some of those backup minutes, but Towns should still have a ridiculous amount of rebounding responsibility whenever he’s on the floor. The assists are where I think we can get another little bump. Towns had 6.0 per game in the first-round series against Atlanta, which obviously isn’t something he’s repeating over 82 games, but it showed how dangerous he can be when New York uses him as more than a scorer. Put Brunson around him, let Hart and Bridges cut, and KAT can scan doubles instead of forcing something through them. His Finals numbers were honestly a bit ugly offensively at only 13.0 points, but he still grabbed 10.6 rebounds, and New York outscored the Spurs by 8.8 points per game with Towns on the floor. That’s a good reminder that the Knicks don’t need Minnesota KAT putting up 25 every night anymore. Still, 20.1 feels a little low for a player this efficient historically. Give me 21.8 points, basically 12 rebounds, and a three-point percentage back near 38.5%, and I think that’s much closer to what Year 2 under Brown looks like. The Champs Don’t Need A Huge Stat Change If these predictions look conservative, that’s intentional. The Knicks just won a championship with Brunson at 26.0 points, Towns at 20.1, Anunoby at 16.7, Bridges at 14.4, and Hart at 12.0. They finished third offensively, seventh defensively, and went 25-11 with the regular starting five, so there isn’t any reason they should change the way they approach games in the regular season. My biggest changes would be Anunoby pushing toward 18 points and an All-Star conversation, Bridges getting back to around 16 with a slightly bigger offensive role, and Towns recovering a little of the efficiency he normally lives at. Brunson should remain the same, while Hart’s box score is just totally unpredictable at this point, which is the best compliment he can receive. So my final predictions are: Jalen Brunson: 26.7 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 7.1 APG, 0.9 SPG, 0.1 BPG, 47.2 FG%, 37.4 3P% Mikal Bridges: 16.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.3 SPG, 0.7 BPG, 49.3 FG%, 37.8 3P% OG Anunoby: 18.2 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.6 SPG, 0.8 BPG, 48.5 FG%, 38.8 3P% Josh Hart: 11.5 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 5.2 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.3 BPG, 49.5 FG%, 37.0 3P% Karl-Anthony Towns: 21.8 PPG, 12.0 RPG, 3.4 APG, 1.0 SPG, 0.7 BPG, 51.5 FG%, 38.4 3P% Nothing insane, no random 30-point explosion just to make the article punchier. The Knicks already know this five works, and after winning the whole thing, the smart thing might simply be that everybody gets a little better while doing their same role.