8 Items That Should Be on Knicks’ Wishlist for 2026-27 Season

The New York Knicks enter the 2026-27 NBA season as the reigning champions, with hopes of becoming the NBA’s first repeat champion since the 2018 Golden State Warriors.

That will be a tall task, as the Knicks are now the team the rest of the NBA is hunting. They will get every team’s best shot, and they now face what should be a deeper, tougher, more competitive Eastern Conference.

If the Knicks hope to top last season’s regular-season win mark and make it back to the Finals, they’ll need lots to go right. Hence, the Knicks’ wishlist for the 2026-27 season. We’ll skip the obvious ones like health, great shooting percentages, or All-Star-worthy seasons.

Instead, we’ll focus on the more detailed items: what needs to happen for the Knicks to have a great season outside of the obvious.

1. Jalen Brunson utilizes his off-ball gravity

One of the common, and fair, critiques of Brunson is his tendency to try to do it all himself. Brunson has produced heroics countless times in his four years as a Knick, but there are also times where Brunson becomes too dribble-heavy, too focused on beating his opponent, leaving his teammates standing around as the offense stagnates.

But Brunson is such an offensive weapon and efficient shooter that, combined with the offensive skills of his teammates, he can be just as dangerous when he’s not handling the ball. The Knicks have utilized this before.

For parts of the 2023-24 season, the Knicks ran Brunson off-ball like he was Stephen Curry, letting Isaiah Hartenstein act as a hub while Brunson ran through cuts and screens, only to come back to the ball facing a rearranged defense.

And the Knicks certainly showed it in last year’s postseason with Karl-Anthony Towns acting as the hub of this offense. In some of these actions, Brunson and a teammate run to one another, set screens, then flare out in opposite directions, leaving the defense scrambling.

Good off ball movement from the Knicks. Playing through Karl-Anthony Towns, flipping how ATL wants to defend Jalen Brunson. Good counter with Okongwu on OG and Kuminga on KAT

-Brunson hits KAT and cuts to the block
-Backscreen for OG, Vincent stays attached, cut is open pic.twitter.com/DVoR7HgQoS
— Steve Jones (@stevejones20) April 26, 2026

Will it be this easy all season? No. But more Brunson off-ball lessens his workload, gets his teammates involved, and adds variety to the Knicks’ offense.

2. Mikal Bridges remembers he can go to the basket

Much to the chagrin of the Knicks fans, Bridges has largely avoided the paint since becoming a Knick. Bridges favors short midrange jumpers over rim attacks, and while the former is a useful tool for tight playoff moments, there are plenty of times he leaves fans screaming, “Just go to the basket!”

Bridges went to the rim a little more than fans might remember last season: according to Basketball-Reference, his percentage of field goals from 0-3 feet was 20.2% last season, up from 18.5% the year before.

Something flipped for Bridges in the postseason. His percentage of shots from within three feet jumped to 26.6%. Bridges got tons of easy layups off the Knicks' cutting actions and in transition, but Bridges was more aggressive in the half-court, too. It was almost jarring to see Bridges just continue to the basket in the half-court when fans had become accustomed to seeing him pull up:

Amid the Knicks' playoff dominance, Mikal Bridges is quietly playing really good ball and has dialed up his aggression off the bounce.

Averaging 13 points on 69% TS, including 70% on 2s. His rim frequency has spiked from 24% in the regular season to 36% in the playoffs. pic.twitter.com/inBPyf9rHk
— Jackson Frank (@jackfrank_jjf) May 10, 2026

Bridges probably slots fourth on the Knicks’ in shot totals this year. But he has moments where he can be a first or second option. In those moments, Bridges has the ability to be a competent three-level scorer. The Knicks have to hope he continues to press toward the rim like he did last postseason.

3. Karl-Anthony Towns uses his off-arm a little less

Towns led the NBA in offensive fouls committed last season—by 25 more than the next-closest player. Many of those came from Towns’ own folly. While this isn’t a stat that’s tracked, any regular Knicks observer would say that a majority of those offensive fouls came from Towns hooking his opponents on drives or shoving off with his off-hand.

Towns played some of the best basketball of his life in the Knicks’ Finals run, but foul issues plagued him as the Finals went on. Some of those were suspect calls, but nevertheless, they took Towns off the floor and killed his momentum in the midst of some career-defining play.

The Knicks need Towns to be more disciplined this season and not take himself off the floor with silly, preventable fouls. With Mitchell Robinson out of the picture and Andre Drummond in his place, it’ll be even more important that Towns not pick up two quick fouls early into games, forcing Drummond from backup duty to playing big minutes.

4. Josh Hart lets it fly

It’s no secret that Hart sometimes loses confidence in his shot.

For as long as this Knicks’ starting five is together, opponents will likely continue to play off of Hart, daring him to shoot. When Hart overthinks his open shots, turns them down, gives up the ball, or drives randomly into defenses, it plays into opponents’ hands.

Hart needs to let his three-pointers fly. It’s not as if he is a bad shooter. Hart shot 41% from three on over three attempts per game last year. For his Knicks career, he is at 36% (a number boosted quite a bit by last year and a very hot stretch when the Knicks acquired him in ‘22-23).

Recall that in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Cavaliers, Hart began the game going 0-for-3 from deep before hitting five of his next eight attempts to spark a Knicks win that some called “The Josh Hart Game.”

Hart can keep defenses honest and even make them pay when he shoots with confidence. If he is misfiring, Mike Brown can sub him out for someone else, but he has to shoot them.

5. Mohamed Diawara turns into a legitimate rotation-worthy wing

Diawara showed promise his rookie year, with a solid three-pointer, capable defense, and surprising court vision. It wasn’t a huge sample, but it was enough for the Knicks to ink him to a four-year extension (worth $11 million) this offseason.

Diawara figures to get a crack at being a regular part of the rotation this season. Diawara developing into a legitimate bench wing for the Knicks would be a massive win for a team that runs a little small and is brushing up against the second apron this season and going forward.

Fans can get carried away about Diawara’s potential, but the Knicks don’t need him to become the next OG Anunoby—they just need a legitimate, rotation-worthy wing: a forward who can spell Anunoby, Bridges, or Hart by hitting threes, playing defense, making plays, and bringing some size that is currently lacking on the roster.

With an average salary of just $2.8 million over the next four years, Diawara has a chance to be a massive bargain for the Knicks. His development this season is one of the team’s most fascinating subplots.

6. Andre Drummond’s three-point shooting is not a fluke

Prior to last season, Drummond had attempted 140 three-pointers and made 18 of them in his career. Then, last season, Drummond launched 90 threes and hit 32 of them (35.6%).

Drummond’s corner threes became a legitimate part of his game, a shot that defenses had to respect.

Drummond represents a downgrade from Robinson in a lot of ways, but his three-pointer is a unique trait that the Knicks have not had from their centers outside of Towns. It could allow the Knicks to play 48 minutes with a floor-spacing five.

At training camp, Drummond told reporters that while he isn’t hunting threes, he does have the green light to shoot them. If last season’s stroke wasn’t a fluke, it could be a unique addition to this roster.

7. Ed Flynn fills Jordan Brink’s challenge shoes

Jordan Brink was the rare assistant coach whose success could be measured. He was the Knicks’ “challenge” coach—i.e. the person in charge of determining when to challenge a call—over the past two years. During that stretch, the Knicks were frequently cited as being one of the most successful challenge teams in the NBA (though official data is hard to come by and parse).

Brink was hired away by the Chicago Bulls this past season, and the Knicks brought in Ed Flynn, an assistant with the New Orleans Pelicans last year, to replace him. The New York Post dubbed Flynn the new “challenge guy.”

Flynn will have big shoes to fill and will actually have metrics by which his performance is judged. Replays and challenges in sports have their critics, but a successful challenge can undoubtedly swing the momentum of a game.

8. The Knicks’ deep bench allows Mike Brown to pace the starters

Mike Brown has a problem most coaches would envy: too many players to play.

As things stand right now, players like Jordan Clarkson and Tyler Kolek look like they’re on the outside looking in when it comes to regular playing time. The Knicks have a training camp battle for a third-string center among some veterans in Drew Eubanks, James Wiseman, and Tony Bradley (signed to a training camp deal on Wednesday), and they could theoretically make a move to add another veteran to the roster. These are players who, on many teams, would be seeing regular minutes.

Brown already showed a willingness to deploy the end of his bench last season, and that was before the Knicks played into June. Expect Brown to try to pace his starters this season with the goal of being fresh for next spring. That means not just relying on the usual subs—Landry Shamet, Miles McBride, Drummond, etc.—to play big minutes but turning to the end-of-bench guys in random regular season games.

Last season, the starters all averaged 30-plus minutes per game, led by Brunson’s 35 a night. Can Brown bring those numbers down into the low 30s and high 20s? That will depend on the bench’s ability to build and sustain leads and for the 12th, 13th, and 14th men to be able to provide quality minutes on any given night.

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