One Thing Knicks Need Every Starter to Be Better at in 2026-27

New York Knicks fans have another month to enjoy their championship buzz before the new season gets underway. As transcendent as New York looked winning it all, that means bupkus this year. Come opening night, the Knicks are tied with the Boston Celtics, the Brooklyn Nets, and everyone in between. Teams will come at them with a chip on their shoulder.

The Knicks, then, must be better this year than last, across the board. Player development isn’t just for rookies and two-way contract hopefuls. As accomplished as the starting five were, they’ll each need to bring something new to the table.

Mikal Bridges

The most scrutinized of the starting five, Bridges’ postseason play – a 56/36/92 shooting slash line, three assists for every turnover, and top-shelf defense – seemingly erased any lingering doubts about his impact (and the draft picks it took to acquire him). But as someone who hasn’t missed a game since high school, Bridges is surely already aware not to rest on his laurels, but to keep on trucking.

Can he? Should he? Even the NBA’s all-time iron man, A.C. Green, missed three games early in his second season. Bridges is obviously built different from most, but he’s no dummy. Remember, it was he who publicly called out Tom Thibodeau two years ago for playing the starters too much. Would Bridges be amenable to resting some in-season if it costs him his streak but freshens him up for the biggest games?

On a performance level, he remains metronomic in his consistency. Two points to keep an eye on: despite playing nearly 400 fewer regular-season minutes last year than in 2025, Bridges committed 53% more shooting fouls.

And interestingly, he played power forward a little more than a quarter of the time, rising to a third of his playoff minutes. One solution to the roster’s biggest need – size – would be to play more smallball. If the Knicks do, it may behoove them and Bridges to rest him more during the year than they have in the past.

Josh Hart

Hart makes the argument in favor of resting Bridges. Last season, the former’s minutes fell by 31%. This decrease in minutes likely contributed to fresher legs and led to him shooting a career-best 41% from deep. Hopefully, Hart carries that benefit into this season, because New York may need him to top himself to help the team with a former area of strength that’s now a bit of a question mark.

Last year, the Knicks led the league in offensive rebounding and were third in total rebounds. This summer, they let their leading offensive rebounder and second-leading defensive rebounder, Mitchell Robinson, walk. They’ll likely add another center before the season begins, but whoever they bring in won't be Robinson. Replacing his rim protection will be impossible. Replacing his rebounding, maybe not so much.

It’ll be a team effort, and that effort begins with Hart. The numbers say his rebounding rates were down last year, their lowest since 2022-23, the year the Knicks acquired him. But as Hart once told Robinson, not all rebounds are created equal. If he can keep corralling the team-breaking variety, New York will remain a force on the glass.

OG Anunoby

If you told a Knicks fan before last year’s playoffs that Anunoby would finish with a 49/40/79 shooting slash, they’d have signed up for it on the spot. As good as those numbers are, those are Anunoby’s career postseason shooting numbers. In last year’s apotheosis, he ascended to a 56/49/85 line – essentially Steph Curry, only a half-foot taller and a lockdown defender.

Anunoby’s playoff PER would have made him a top-10 player in the regular season. So on the one hand, it’d seem he, like Bridges, needs to keep doing what he’s been doing. But on the other hand, the biggest change the Knicks probably hope for from him is not repeating what happened earlier in his career.

New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby (front) holds the ball from San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle. — Keeping New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby healthy and fresh will be one of the keys for head coach Mike Brown this upcoming season. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In Anunoby's first two seasons in Toronto, he played 74 and 67 games. In his first two full seasons in New York, he played 74 and 67 games. But after a third healthy year with the Raptors, he missed 29, 34, 15, and 32 games over the next four seasons. The Knicks can’t afford to lose him for a significant stretch; he’s as irreplaceable as Jalen Brunson or Karl-Anthony Towns. However, there are reasons for optimism.

Mike Brown cut Anunoby’s per-game minutes to their lowest number since the end of his healthy years in Toronto. The Knicks will obviously try to win as many games as they can in the regular season. But they’re a veteran team that closed their title run on an eight-game playoff road winning streak.

Their key players have closed out Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland and San Antonio in their buildings. They don’t need home-court advantage; ergo, they don’t need to burn anyone out chasing it. No need to overextend Clark Kent when there are bigger battles ahead — the kind when Superman will be needed.

Jalen Brunson

Speaking of Superman, there was a famous Alan Moore story years ago called “For The Man Who Has Everything,” in which Batman struggles to come up with what to get Superman for his birthday. He ends up giving him cash, something Superman obviously doesn’t need. Jalen Brunson isn’t short on cash, even with the nine-figure salary he passed on to give the Knicks the flexibility they’d need to build a champion around him.

But the King of New York has already done all anyone could have hoped for and plenty more since his arrival four years ago. Brunson is already considered by many an all-time Knick great, with a chance to retire as the most-loved Knick since Walt Frazier (if he isn’t already). 560 men have suited up for the Knickerbockers since 1946. Only two have been named Finals MVP: Willis Reed twice and Brunson in June. What else could he possibly do?

Two things, neither of which is a big deal, both of which would make the shifty lefty even harder to defend. Last season, Brunson took more shots going to his left than I remember him taking in his first three years in New York combined. It’s a subtle shift, adding one more variable to the captain’s infinite repertoire. Think of how many more permutations are possible in a five-digit code than a four-digit code. That’s Brunson going left.

The other area he might look to improve would ironically require him to regress. Brunson led the league in charges drawn in 2026 after finishing sixth in 2025. Similar to Bridges and Anunoby, Brunson doing a little less of what he’s used to from October through April could pay dividends come May and June.

He just turned 30, and he’s not getting any younger or any bigger. His 2024 playoffs ended with a fractured hand. He gutted through the 2026 playoffs with tendon pain in his left hand and wrist that required offseason surgery. The less wear and tear there is on his body, the better.

Karl-Anthony Towns

Perhaps no other Knick enters this season with as much on his plate and as little room for error as Towns. He and Robinson were impactful separately and together. Five-man lineups with Brunson, Bridges, Anunoby, Robinson, and KAT were +9.4 points per 100 possessions. They were a perfect pair of bigs, each excelling where the other struggled.

With Robinson gone, replaced by Andre Drummond, and Ariel Hukporti gone and not replaced yet, Towns’ responsibilities have grown.

No one expects KAT to become the rim protector Robinson is. But the Towns we saw in the playoffs was a revelation, increasing his block percentage by 150% from the regular season. And that leap wasn’t the result of overextending or playoff adrenaline.

Towns showed patience and court awareness we hadn’t seen before, allowing his impact to expand despite playing fewer minutes in the postseason than in the regular season.

Will Towns be as motivated this year as he was last? He often spoke about being inspired by his mother's spirit during the postseason. He got married this offseason, and he’s eligible for a contract extension. If he brings the same Zen he did in the playoffs and remains a defensive presence plus a 7-foot point center/sniper, there won’t be much many teams can do with him. Or, by extension, with the Knicks.

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