There is nothing positive you can say when your team loses three games in a row, even less when those three losses are the first three games of the season. It is baffling to many that the same team that won the championship, with the widest overall margin of victory and biggest ever comebacks, could have a record of 0 wins and 3 losses just a few months later.
And yet, this slow start points to what an achievement the Knicks’ first NBA Championship in 53 years really was. These players are not deities; they are not superhuman. They are human beings, who work hard to excel. The excellence of last season was the result of relentless hard work, deep learning, and perseverance.
The Knicks are currently without a staple player, Mitchell Robinson, who was traded to Boston in the offseason. Robinson is one of the league’s most energetic and ubiquitous defenders; missing him is a big problem, even with Andre Drummond bringing size and skill. Jalen Brunson, the Captain and Finals MVP, had surgery after the Championship, and is just back to competition with a recently healed wrist—on his shooting hand.
The Knicks are also now facing something they didn’t last season: Every team they play wants to take down the champions. For the Knicks, it’s the start of a new season; for everyone they play, it’s one of the biggest games of the year, at least so far.
The Knicks have to turn this around. They need to be more consistent; they need much stronger defense; they need to be much sharper and more precise with their passing, and they cannot be missing free throws the way they have.
The Knicks also need to recognize that they will not be able to overcome every deficit every time they play. The 2026 playoffs were special. This team has the ability to come back from 29 points down in 10 minutes. Taking significant leads into the final 5 minutes is still a big part of securing a winning record.
One more thing, to put these three losses in perspective: The Nova Knicks—the Nova guys and the rest of the team, as a whole—are not the kind of champions who need to win 70 games out of 82 to be contenders. They showed last season they can go into the playoffs with 53 wins and then beat the best of the best.
What we expect from this team: They will learn from every mistake. They will improve by learning as they go. They will treat every game, win or loss, as an opportunity to learn what needs fine-tuning, and they will develop strategies that surprise and frustrate their opponents. They will keep doing this, even when it seems they have reinvented basketball more times than should be possible.
This team will need to do some new things that weren’t part of last year’s success:
- They need their new big guy to discover a new role; his role on this team is different from his role on past teams, and he won’t be Mitchell Robinson. Discovering that unique role will help everything flow on both ends of the court.
- They need the younger bench players to become a serious problem for opponents. This team can bring 10 or more players to the floor every night who defend well, shoot well, and flow with their teammates. That takes time, but it needs to be a priority.
- Brunson is a generational leader, and may be in the process of reinventing NBA basketball, but he is human. He needs his whole team to be at their best, for the team to repeat the glory of the spring.
- Coach Mike Brown might also be in need of some reinvention. Brunson is as much the leader as the coach is, and the whole league has studied the Knicks’ tricks from last season; smart coaching will keep opponents guessing, and let the creativity of this team—which is not identical to last year’s—flow as it needs to.
- They will face new, possibly creative, challenges on every possession; this team needs to defend relentlessly, and never allow more than 30 points in a quarter.
Another important detail: The team knows what they need to do. Brunson has said they have a lot of work to do, as a team, to get back to their best; Hart, KAT, and others have echoed that sentiment. This team aims to learn from adversity, create unexpected solutions, and improve to the point where they can beat anyone on any night.
The hardest thing to bring to the floor after winning championship is humility, and this team has it. They understand they don’t own the league; they understand, as their team Captain says, the magic is in the work.
Starting the season with 0 wins and 3 losses is not fun, and it is not ideal, but it does show what hard work was required to deliver the most dominant playoff run in NBA history, just a few months ago.
