Knicks Still Expected to Cross Major Threshold

The 2025-26 NBA regular season has crossed into December, meaning that every team is approaching the quarter-mark of their respective campaigns. The early-fall flukes have all vanished or materialized into distinct win-loss records, giving oddsmakers their first honest shot at reflecting upon the expectations they ladled upon each respective franchise at the season's start.

The New York Knicks were one of those teams who needed a bit more time than others to find themselves, having embarked upon the league's most public coaching changes of the summer. Mike Brown took Tom Thibodeau's spot at the head of the bench, and though the changes he's ushered in are still catching on, they're taking better advantage of their talent to cover up for a few costly injuries, and beating up enough on the underwhelming Eastern Conference to earn a 13-6 record. That's good enough for the second-best mark out east, and sixth across the entire league.

How Have the Knicks Held Up Since Preseason?

Bleacher Report jumped on the opportunity to rectify their preseason record predictions for each team, but clearly bought enough of the Knicks' recent formula to shy away from any drastic changes from their initial assumptions. Once slated to go 53-29, they're now favored to tie last season's finish at 51-31. And given this group's high ceiling and big shoes to fill, the areas in which they've struggled continue taking centerstage.

"Outside of a low free-throw attempt rate, the New York Knicks offense is getting the job done and is a good bet to finish with one of the top five scoring rates in the league," Grant Hughes wrote.

The other end of the floor is where the worries start," he continued. "Lineups featuring [Jalen] Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns are vulnerable against almost every action, and opponents don't have to strategize much beyond simply putting those two in as many pick-and-roll actions as possible."