What’s next for Jalen Brunson and the Knicks following their playoff exit?
New York might choose to retain this club together, led by Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle, and hope for improved health in 2024-25.
Jalen Brunson’s postseason, one of the best ever for a New York Knicks player, ended one quarter prematurely due to a broken left hand.
Julius Randle’s season had already ended months before due to a separated shoulder, and three more crucial players had been lost in the interim.
But there were the Knicks, as obstinate as they were short-handed, putting together a run that pushed Indiana to call a timeout midway through the fourth quarter on Sunday, determined to advance regardless of how many players couldn’t play.
“You know, I don’t want to discredit them at all, but with everything that happened, I think it was an 11, 12-point game with six minutes left, five minutes left,” Donte DiVincenzo, the guard, said. And that is our organisational mindset. It doesn’t matter who is there for us since everyone will provide 110%. We have a system and core ideas that, if followed and believed in, will give you a chance in every game.”
A healthy mindset is essential. It’s more important to have healthy bodies.
The Knicks’ 130-109 loss in Game 7 left them without a return to the Eastern Conference finals since 2000, but there has been significant development since Brunson came. New York has won a playoff series in each of his seasons, after failing to advance to the second round since 2013.
The Knicks must now determine whether to surround him with more quality or if simply being healthy would have sufficed.
After acquiring OG Anunoby on December 30, they rolled through their schedule in January, finishing 14-2. However, Randle was hurt on January 27 and ultimately decided on surgery after attempting to return.
Mitchell Robinson had been leading the NBA in offensive rebounding before breaking his foot in December. He returned late in the season as a backup but was eliminated in the playoffs alongside attacker Bojan Bogdanovic. Anunoby hurt his left hamstring in Game 2 against the Pacers, missed the next four games, and attempted to return in Game 7, but only lasted five minutes.
“A lot of teams would’ve folded,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau admitted. “We took a hit with Mitch, then you add Julius and OG, your starting frontline, and Bogey is gone. “It was hit after hit, but these guys never gave up.”
The Knicks could choose to retain this squad intact, led by two All-Stars in Brunson and Randle, in the hopes of better health and the belief that they can be even stronger than this club, which finished 50-32 and second in the East.
Perhaps this was the pinnacle for a group that can’t expect Brunson to improve much further than he did this season. He finished fourth in the NBA in scoring and became the fourth player to score four straight 40-point games in the playoffs, finishing with five.
The Knicks have two first-round picks in the draft, which they could try to use in a trade package, and with three playoff trips in four seasons under Thibodeau, may be able to entice the kind of top free agents who had no interest in the NBA’s biggest market during the mostly miserable previous 20 years.