As currently constituted, the Knicks can absolutely win the Eastern Conference. But can they beat the West's best?
Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.
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Fact or Fiction: The Knicks need Giannis Antetokounmpo if their goal is to win a title
Whether or not you believe the New York Knicks need Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time NBA MVP whose trade availability may be forthcoming, largely depends on what your goals are for them this season.
As currently constituted, the Knicks (17-7) can absolutely win the Eastern Conference. They are second in the standings to the Detroit Pistons (19-5), though their East-leading +8.6 net rating suggests they are the bracket's most formidable team. After all, they beat the Pistons in a first-round playoff series last season.
The Knicks entered the season as betting favorites to win the East and remain so. Their best lineup — the one with All-Stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns bracketed by wings OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart — is +40 in 59 minutes. The alternative, a double-big combination of Towns and Mitchell Robinson, is also yielding positive results (+7.8 points per 100 possessions). Among core members of their rotation, only free-agent signing Guerschon Yabusele has left them wanting more.
Besides, their chief competition is struggling to establish itself as serious championship contenders. Last year's East entry into the NBA Finals, the Indiana Pacers, who lost Tyrese Haliburton to injury and Myles Turner to free agency, are in shambles. The conference's 2024 champions, the Boston Celtics, have taken a step back in the absence of an injured Jayson Tatum (a smaller step back than most anticipated but a meaningful one nonetheless). And the Cleveland Cavaliers, who won 64 games last season, are wavering.
Oh, and the Milwaukee Bucks — a team that must be feared, so long as Antetokounmpo is plying his trade for them — are struggling to cling to the conference's final play-in tournament berth, which is one reason why Antetokounmpo reportedly met with the front office to discuss the possibility of a trade.
"The writing is on the wall," a source told ESPN's Shams Charania of the Antetokounmpo sweepstakes.
Have we mentioned that the Knicks are Antetokounmpo's preferred trade destination? Milwaukee and New York engaged in discussions "for multiple weeks in August," when last Antetokounmpo discusses his future with the franchise, according to Charania. No Knicks offer could convince the Bucks at the time.
Still, it is possible. New York could package, say, Towns and Anunoby, potentially shipping one or both of them to a third team to acquire the sort of picks-laden package Milwaukee might covet. Plus, the Knicks have first-round draft pick swaps in 2026, 2030 and 2032, and a couple of second-rounders, to sweeten any offer. It may not be the best possible trade package any team could put together, but if the Bucks are willing to send Antetokounmpo to his preferred trade destination, there is a reasonable deal to be made.
Maybe Antetokounmpo's calf injury, combined with ailments that have limited his playoff availability in recent years, knocked down the price a peg. Probably not, but regardless a trade is possible.
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Why upset the apple cart to add Antetokounmpo if the Knicks are already favored to emerge from the East? Well, as it turns out, the West is that good. The conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder, who New York could face in Tuesday's NBA Cup championship, have lost a single game in 25 tries, blowing a 22-point lead to the Portland Trail Blazers on Nov. 5. They have won 16 straight. They are on pace for the greatest record in NBA history, with the greatest net rating in the sport's history. They are a juggernaut.
If any West opponent were to knock off the Thunder — most likely the Denver Nuggets, who boast Nikola Jokić, a perennial MVP favorite — it would immediately become the favorite, over New York.
You see, the Knicks have a fatal flaw — their defense. While they own the league's second-rated offense, they are clinging to a top-10 spot on the other end, where the presence of Brunson and Towns builds in a ceiling that falls below the Western Conference favorites. New York is actually closer to the bottom of the defensive ratings than they are to the Thunder's NBA-best 103.3 points allowed per 100 possessions.
If the Thunder, or the Nuggets, or whoever survives that gauntlet out West, can exploit the Brunson-Towns combo on offense, while fielding a superior defense, what title chance do the Knicks really have?
And isn't that the goal? To win the championship. It is not to beat the East. The goal for a Knicks team that has not won a title since 1973 should be to end a drought that has lasted in excess of half a century.
Antetokounmpo can do that. He did it for Milwaukee in 2021. It was Antetokounmpo who defeated OKC in last year's Cup final, with a lesser supporting cast. The Knicks need someone with Antetokounmpo's relentlessness to stand a chance. Traditionally, champions have required a top-five player in the league, and Antetokounmpo is that. For all his talent, Brunson is not that, because of his defensive limitations.
In fact, nobody else available fits the description of a top-five guy, and that includes Anthony Davis.
Sure, there might be spacing issues with Antetokounmpo, Robinson and Hart sharing the floor, unless Hart can maintain his current clip from 3-point range (40% on four attempts per game). But the foundation of a Brunson-Antetokounmpo pick-and-roll, with length and shooting around it, is as good a recipe for success as any team could manufacture, both for this season and the length of Antetokounmpo's prime.
Otherwise, the Knicks will run into the same ceiling that Brunson and Towns set last season, when the Pacers beat them in the Eastern Conference finals. It is not like the East will get any easier in the years to come, either. Tatum will return to Boston and presumably be healthy by next year. The Orlando Magic are developing into a serious contender. Any number of teams is one piece away from challenging New York.
The window for the Knicks is open this season. The time to pounce on Antetokounmpo is now.
The same could be said of any East contender. For, if New York were to land Antetokounmpo, other potential suitors — teams like the Atlanta Hawks, for example — might have to write off their chances in the conference for the next five years. For the Knicks, this is a choice between seizing this window of opportunity and opening it further, or perhaps watching it slowly close over the course of this season.
This is the arms race that the Bucks covet in an Antetokounmpo sweepstakes, by the way. An entire conference can ill-afford to see Antetokounmpo move out West, where it could be night-night for the East's championship odds for the foreseeable future. Imagine if either the Houston Rockets or San Antonio Spurs — a pair of rising challengers to Oklahoma City — were to land Antetokounmpo instead?
No, the East cannot lose its only viable MVP candidate in a field that could be dominated for the next half-decade by Jokić, Dončić, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama. And the Knicks are closest to challenging Oklahoma City already, but, yes, they need Antetokounmpo to beat the Thunder.
Determination: Fact. The Knicks need Giannis Antetokounmpo if their goal is to win a title.
Category: General Sports
