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Knicks Notes: Mike Brown and Jalen Brunson on turning the page, returning New York's core players
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- Knicks Notes: Mike Brown and Jalen Brunson on turning the page, returning New York's core players
After practice Monday, Knicks coach Mike Brown , as well as guards Jalen Brunson and Landry Shamet , spoke about what it means to turn the page on their championship berth and enter a new campaign with largely the same group.
Turning the page on a title
The Knicks will kick off their 2026-27 campaign with one last celebration of their historic NBA title: a ring presentation and banner raising ceremony hosted at MSG ahead of their season opener against the Philadelphia 76ers Tuesday night.
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As fun as it's been to revel in their success the last few months, much of the team is already trying to move forward.
"Every year, it's a new year to attack something," Brunson said. "When people say we're defending the title — I mean, that's one way to look at it, but it's something we won. We've put in our past, and now we're just trying to attack another."
Shamet added that although fans across New York City are still riding the high of the championship, once the new season starts, everyone will be more focused what lies ahead.
"I think the fascinating part about sports is that starting tomorrow, no one cares [about the championship]," Shamet added. "After the ceremony's over, it's 0-0. We're a competitive bunch, and by no means is anybody expecting to just coast or anything like that. That's definitely not the tone of our group."
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Between the ring presentation, the roar of the home crowd, and the excitement of a new season, having a ceremony immediately before the opener against Philly could be distracting. But Brown said he trusts his players to compartmentalize.
"It's hard, because they're human, and there's a part of you that wants to keep celebrating, but we've got to turn it off," he said. "The challenge is to try to get them enjoy the moment, but not fully. You have to try to supress all that early, before the ceremony, so that you can quickly get not just your body, but your mind and your emotions into the task in front of you."
The hard part, Shamet said, is to not get so wrapped up in what they've already accomplished that they become cocky or complacent.
"I think that's maybe some of the challenge that I've read about and seen in the past that championship teams have," Shamet added. "How do you take the high in the celebration at the beginning of the game, and still go out and perform, play the brand of basketball that you'd want to play?"
Shamet grateful for another year in New York
For the first time in his eight-year career, Shamet is spending a third-straight season with the same team.
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After splitting his freshman season between the 76ers and the Clippers, he floated from the Nets, to the Suns, to the Wizards, until finally landing in the Knicks organization in 2024. He then dislocated his shoulder, got waived by the Knicks, spent a few months recovering, and worked his way from New York's' G-League affiliate back onto the major league bench.
Shamet ended up a crucial piece of the Knicks bench late in the playoffs, shooting 55.6 percent and 41.7 percent from the field in Games 1 and 2 of the Finals, respectively. In June, he inked a four-year deal with the team worth $24 million, marking Shamet's first long-term commitment with a team.
"It's not lost on me. I feel like I try and do a good job of not taking much for granted," Shamet said of his tenure with the Knicks. "[I've] never spent three consecutive training camps with the same organization, so feels really good ... to be here and have a familiar group and feel comfortable and confident with the people I'm around. I feel like they feel the same way about me, so I don't take that for granted at all."
He's one of several key players the Knicks were able to retain in the offseason — a fact that should give them a boost against many of their Eastern Conference rivals, whose rosters saw major shakeups over the summer: Boston got Paul Georgeand former Knick Mitchell Robinson, Philadelphia added LeBron Jamesand Jaylen Brown, Toronto welcomed Kawhi Leonardback after seven years away from the team, and Miami acquired Giannis Antetokounmpoafter a lengthy trade battle with Boston.
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While those teams spend the early months of the season working out the kinks that come with a roster rebrand, the Knicks are hoping to lean on their well-established system to get ahead early.
"[It's] very valuable," Brunson said of returning so many key players. "For us to come back, it's good to have our chemistry continue to grow, understanding that we've done it, but are we still hungry, are we still satisfied? Do we continue to get better every single day, or are we just content? That's our big question that's going to be answered within the first couple weeks of the season. However we answer it, we're going to attack it and get better every single day after that."
