The East fails to stop New York
It was supposed to be wide open. That's my problem, it ain't simply the Knicks, the hated Knicks, but that this Eastern field was a superior drag. The one-sided nature of all this. That and the stupid Knicks.
And this isn't another column about Knick luck skimming a Finals out of the weakened East, I read all those in 1999 and made rude comments and gestures toward them which remain appropriate. If any mediocre team could win a dozen games in the Eastern bracket, why did only one team win more than eight?
Knicks on it, but wide open never was.
Maybe your presumption was more pessimistic but I got giddy last summer, expected eight-to-ten teams out of the East with a chance at the Finals.
Damian Lillard and Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton fell in spring and opened the gates for anyone with a horse, with the Bucks and Boston and Indiana retaining colts in spite of setback. Boston did its job, Jaylen Brown pounding out an MVP-level season, but Indiana lost every game and traded its lottery pick for Ivica Zubac's raised arms. Milwaukee did much less.
So I arrogantly concluded every team would connive for 48 wins and the East would conjure a bracket for the ages, suppose I was wrong. It wasn't simply New York shutting events down but the dwindling drama in other areas. Eventually the East's seven-game runs were a relative snooze compared to any Western sprint, no matter how one-sided.
Market didn't matter: San Antonio/Portland's five outings could not help but crystallize more compelling basketball than seven games of Detroit/Orlando. Even with the fair assumption (at the time, with New York so-so'ing it down in Atlanta) that we were watching a 2026 NBA Finalist in the Piston/Magic series.
No magic, and in the end the team that didn't win it last year won it this year. Boring, made even more so by the historically decisive fashion in which New York concluded its many, many, victories.
If it had to be anyone emerging from the pack, make it New York. If you're gonna watch one team that ain't your own whap an opponent around, make it at Madison Square Garden. No arena is better to watch lose its senses, and beyond those walls Knick fans travel tactfully, loudly yet appropriately.
The Knicks were two wins from the 2025 NBA Finals, surely the 2025-26 Knicks were a favorite entering this season, only recently the. With a rotation that ran only six-deep and New York settling on its sixth head coaching candidate, we presumed they'd among the crabs and we presumed correctly, for a regular season, the Knicks finishing with the East's third-best record again.
Remarkable stability, it turns out. The Pacers dropped from No. 4 seed to the No. 14 seed, to the part of the standings where they typically don't say "seed." Cleveland lost a dozen wins and abandoned its 26-year old point guard for the James Harden Question, more or less answered by May. The Bucks gave up 16 wins while committing to pay Damian Lillard more to not play for them (~$113 million) than they paid Ray Allen (~$49 million), Vin Baker (~$9 million) and Glenn Robinson (~$48 million) to play for them.
Orlando traded four first-round picks and a swap for four more wins (and a flop!), meanwhile Toronto simply traded into Brandon Ingram and sucked up 16 more victories. Each were uninspiring, neither knocked off the Knicks (let alone the Cavs or Pistons), but seven-game stints lend a little credibility to any regular season.
All we do is reflect upon the way teams limped out. Detroit led the East all season but turned in a 7-7 postseason, drag. Boston blew its wheels again, bummer.
Philly improved 23 wins and made the second round yet somehow concluded its triumphant return to prominence with the least possible momentum. Even with two certified franchise players in the backcourt, the Comeback Player of the Year Award-winner (this award does not exist), and Paul George exuding freshness well past his sell date.
Charlotte pumped 25 more wins out of rookies and internal improvement and still biffed its goodwill with a Play-In boner, now LaMelo Ball does ads for balls of liquor. I could not have been the only one who wondered about the Hawks turning in a Pacer-like unfurl toward the Finals, maybe I was the only one. Whatever the expectation, the Hawks did not take flight against the Knicks (unless it was time to jump in the air before deciding to pass or shoot).
And the Heat! We depended on them to roar out of the lower half of the bracket after some massive February move, the addition of a new player (who spiritually was already member of the Miami Heat this entire time).
Instead, nothing. The bracket was the opposite of our expectations. Last year's runner-up winning it, running briskly long after everyone else pulled up. Where were the bold trade deadline moves, pitched to pounce on prone opposition? Exhausted last summer, it turns out.
The only thing more disappointing than the East's response to this open field was me making it all the way down here without a Chicago Bulls mention, after the Bulls didn't earn one.
MIKE BROWN
There was a part in this particular Knick journey where we wondered if we'd overrated every last member of New York's dynamic, enviable starting five. The five didn't hold New York back, the Knicks only required a coaching change and choice of the team's sixth-favorite candidate. Simple math, for those of us who never really read those Worldwide Wes columns all the way down.
This outsider disagrees with the idea that Mike Brown flipped forward from Tom Thibodeau's sets only recently. The 2025-26 Knicks appeared far less rigid in their offensive approach throughout the regular season, stats showed much improved defense. It is true that it took until the playoffs for Karl-Anthony Towns to turn into Tom Boerwinkle, but these are wrinkles to reveal versus steaming competition, not to survive the Woolite-in-the-sink regular season with.
Every new New York Knick coach has the chance of going over about as authentic as Jay Leno's simpering shows in New York City, and it is to Mike Brown's credit that the first-year New York coach made the Knicks as boring and unheralded as possible. Moderately discussed in what was supposed to be the season the Knicks made a larger name for themselves, well before the time the new March Madness ads hit.
The No. 3 seed stasis earned some unnerved midwinter press, but because Brown's approach was forthright and settled, those who wanted to talk up imaginary phantoms were instead caught nodding at Brown's constructive X's and O's retellings.
How Mike Brown encouraged all of New York's tri-state metropolitan era to "give New York some space until the playoffs hit," well, that's for Brown to tell each future Mets/Yankees/Giants/Jets/Rangers/Islander/Nets coach in a future, private, seminar.
Can these Knicks beat the Spurs, or Thunder? What matters now is New York did its part, earning eight days off. A year after firing Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks will push the rest narrative to its absolute peak.
Fewer minutes mean fresher performers, I'm ready to credit damn near all of Mikal Bridges' recent excellence to having two extra swigs of water in his bottle (one to drink, the other to dump out because gross). Bridges lopped off 344 minutes this season, no more loitering on the court deep into blowouts, and these aren't simply extra seconds in a vacuum.
It's going to the job every day knowing that you won't be cut early from work no matter what, not a chance, no way, why are you wearing jeans, what do you mean "it's Friday."
That dread, previously pervasive October through April, is absent. As is all the yelling, "motivations" so loud that the owner of the club couldn't help but hear while courtside.
All 30 NBA head coaches are saying the same thing, the right thing. Some ways serve teams in their early 20s better, some voices better serve clubs in their prime. Thibs got the Knicks to where they needed to be, cut minutes and lengthened rotations in comparison to his two previous stops, still took it too far.
Thibodeau's voice still rings in their ears, if only because someone just as meticulous still runs things, reminding at medium volume. I don't care if his last gig was with the Kings, the Knicks are far luckier to have Mike Brown than the other way around.
The Finals?
Last year's Pacers needed six games to make the Finals, took the Finals to seven, very nearly took it to a title.
This year's Knicks doled out regular season minutes responsibly, which reserved legs but also kept the bench's faith. Then the Knicks played all of eight games in the month of May.
We know Mike Brown's Knicks have the temperament to win. By June 3 they may own the time off needed to topple a giant, whichever one rumbles in.
GOTTA GET A GRIP ON YOU PT. 2
This free column, which begins by insulting the New York Knicks before moving on to say terrible things about 11 other Eastern Conference teams, is my way of asking for support as I endeavor to drive my car (currently without working air conditioner) to Oklahoma or Texas for the 2026 Finals.
The best way to support is to subscribe, and thank you for reading!
