With the Knicks all-in, it's now or never for New York

As the Pacers battled the Thunder in the NBA Finals last June, I saw a group of kids heckle New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson while he walked along a sidewalk in a Jersey Shore town.

"What the Hali," the kids jeered - a catchphrase referring to Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton. Indiana had just knocked the Knicks out of the playoffs for the second straight season after New York entered the 2024 second-round series and 2025 conference finals as the favorite, reigniting a decades-old rivalry.

No stranger to provocative road crowds, Brunson graciously chuckled at the kids, who weren't even old enough to drive.

Seven months later, the Pacers sit at the bottom of the standings without Haliburton, who tore his Achilles in Game 7 of the Finals. The Celtics, the previous Eastern Conference champions, remain without superstar Jayson Tatum, seemingly clearing the Knicks' path to their first Finals appearance since 1999.

But don't tell that to Brunson, the central figure in the Knicks' rise from laughingstocks to contenders.

"The conversation about the East being wide-open, I'm not a fan of that," Brunson told reporters in mid-December. "There's too many great teams, great players, regardless of who's out, that are still competing."

The Knicks got off to a scorching 23-9 start. Near the beginning of January, Knicks owner James Dolan declared: "Getting to the Finals, we absolutely got to do." They were on the doorstep of the East's top seed as the calendar flipped to 2026. Since then, however, the Knicks have unraveled, losing eight of 12 games this month and slipping to fourth in the East.

Last season marked New York's first conference finals appearance since 2000, but it wasn't enough. Not after Brunson's ascension, Karl-Anthony Towns' arrival, and Leon Rose's impressive maneuvering elevated the Knicks' ceiling. Although Tom Thibodeau had guided the team out of the gutter, the franchise fired the stubborn, scowling head coach, asserting that the Knicks were "singularly focused on winning a championship for our fans."

New hire Mike Brown was tasked with improving a top-five offense that needed to compensate for the team's obvious defensive flaws. Armed with decades of experience as a head coach and assistant, Brown knew anything short of a Finals appearance would be unacceptable.

"Nobody has any bigger expectations, first of all, than I do," Brown said at his introductory press conference. "My expectations are high. This is the Knicks. ... I love and embrace the expectations that come along with it."

In early October, a video surfaced showing part of a Knicks practice in Abu Dhabi. Mikal Bridges initiated a play with a pass to OG Anunoby from the wing to the top of the key, and the possession finished with Towns attacking a closeout with a shot fake into a one-dribble floater off the glass. Every Knick touched the ball, and no one held it for more than 4 seconds. The possession featured as many passes as dribbles.

Mundane practice clips don't usually go viral. These 14 seconds, however, represented such a departure from what Knicks fans had grown accustomed to that the video garnered millions of views across multiple accounts.

As orchestrated by Thibodeau, the Knicks' offense was often stagnant and predictable, lacking ball and player movement and relying heavily on Brunson. Their 117.3 regular-season offensive rating in 2024-25 dipped to 112.7 in the playoffs. Brown had to ensure New York could withstand the heightened defensive coverages and physicality of the postseason.

Maximizing the margins of an already potent offense (and a flawed defense) started with Brunson, who had reached All-NBA status by playing a heliocentric style. Brown's plan involved having other guards initiate the offense, creating opportunities for Brunson to attack closeouts off the catch and come off screens.

"I don't care what my point guard's like: I'm going to try to get him off the ball so that he's comfortable with it during the regular season," Brown said in November. "And then, come playoff time, teams can't sit on, 'OK, he's dominating the ball, so let's blitz him. Let's get the ball out of his hands.' Now you've got to try to defend him in a lot of different ways."

Brunson concentrated on two areas of his game in the offseason: playing off the ball and conditioning, two people familiar with his workouts told theScore. He simulated in-game situations including relocating, playing off the catch, and coming off various actions like pindowns, flares, and handoffs.

That offseason work has paid off. Brunson's scoring 5.4 spot-up points per game (compared to 3.3 last season) on the third-best efficiency among the 36 players averaging at least five spot-up points, according to NBA Advanced Stats. Brunson's isolation frequency is down from 17.3% to 14.4%, while his spot-up frequency has risen from 10.1% to 16.4%. He's shooting 43% from three on 141 total catch-and-shoot attempts. He only attempted 166 catch-and-shoot threes last season, and just 31% of his 3-point attempts came off the catch compared to 44% this season.

His time of possession, average seconds per touch, and dribbles per touch have all declined despite his usage rate increasing. Earlier in the season, Brunson wasn't being used less; he was being used differently. He became a play finisher rather than an initiator. Many of Brunson's touches arrived later in the possession against a defense already in rotation.

For the first couple of months, Brown's staff did something Thibodeau couldn't: maintain Brunson's All-NBA level production while maximizing the talent around him.

Of course, Brunson still assumed plenty of ball-handling responsibilities. He's averaging 28 points per game, the second-best mark of his career, on similar efficiency to last season. Most importantly, at the end of December, the Knicks' offense was scoring five more points per 100 possessions than last campaign.

Beyond Brunson's role, Brown envisioned the Knicks playing with pace. That isn't just about speed; it's about initiating actions quickly. The Knicks attempted more shots early in the shot clock, crossed half-court earlier, and got into their first action faster.

Brown's spacing, driving, and cutting principles led to increased ball and player movement. The Knicks are averaging nearly 10 more passes per game than last year and four more drives. New York creates advantages by getting downhill, collapsing the defense, and finding open shooters for threes or to attack closeouts. The Knicks shoot five more threes per game than last season and connect on a higher clip. They lead the NBA in open made threes per game.

Towns has been asked to make the biggest adjustment in Brown's offense, and unlike Brunson, he's had a rough transition. Towns' scoring and efficiency are down, but that seems more about his unusually poor play than his new role. He's shooting just 55% at the rim, according to Synergy, which is the worst mark of his career. He's also hitting 36.4% of his threes, his lowest percentage from long range since his rookie season.

But remember why the Knicks' offensive evolution is so important: They must offset their defensive shortcomings. Lineups featuring Brunson and Towns are inherently at a disadvantage defensively. Surrounding them with Bridges, Anunoby, and Josh Hart - physical, long, switchable defensive wings - is the best approach to mask their stars' deficiencies on that side of the ball.

The 2022-23 Nuggets created the contemporary blueprint, winning the title with a top-five offense and 15th-ranked defense. But Denver still had a slightly above-average defense, according to Basketball Reference's league-adjusted stats, which rate the Knicks' unit as slightly below average right now. The 1956 Philadelphia Warriors and 2001 Los Angeles Lakers are the only two teams to win a championship with a below-average defense.

Since the calendar flipped, the Knicks seem to have lost their identity. They've won just four games in January so far. Their 17th-ranked defense has been abysmal recently, particularly in transition. But what's really hurt them is abandoning Brown's offensive tenets and reverting to their stagnant, isolation-heavy ways.

The Knicks are averaging seven fewer passes and four fewer assists in January than in December and November. Their isolation frequency, which was 6.7% at the beginning of January, jumped to nearly 8% over the last few weeks. They went from shooting 40% on open threes in December to 30.4% in January. Before the new year, the Knicks had a 123 offensive rating, the league's second-best. Entering play Tuesday, their offensive rating is 111, the seventh-worst.

There are other reasons for the Knicks' skid, too: They've played a condensed schedule with an inordinate amount of travel since winning the NBA Cup in Las Vegas. Hart, who's crucial to their lineup, missed six games in January, and Brunson missed two. The Knicks are 14-4 this season when both former Villanova roommates start.

Maybe a new coach wasn't the answer. Maybe, regardless of the system, these players and personalities don't mesh. But unless Giannis Antetokounmpo becomes available, it's too late for an external fix that will alter the Knicks' trajectory. Brunson reportedly called a players-only meeting following their embarrassing home loss to the Mavericks last Monday. The Knicks responded with a 54-point drubbing of the lowly Nets for the largest margin of victory in franchise history, followed by a road win over the 76ers. The changes must be internal, and they need to start by returning to the system that propelled them to a successful opening stretch.

The Knicks are no longer a feel-good story about overlooked players and reunited college teammates. From the owner to the fans, expectations are as high as the Empire State Building. Anything short of a Finals appearance won't be dismissed as bad luck; it'll be a missed opportunity with major offseason consequences.

Sam Oshtry is a sports writer at theScore. You can follow him on X @soshtry for more basketball coverage.