The New York Knicks started the 2026 NBA Finals off with two wins on the road, making them just one of three squads in NBA history to steal Games 1 and 2 on the road to start the postseason's ultimate showdown. After the San Antonio Spurs' Game 3 victory, De'Aaron Fox told reporters at Madison Square Garden that the Knicks were one of two opponents that created their best offense on the other side of the court.
Fox's Spurs played the Portland Trail Blazers and Minnesota Timberwolves in the first two rounds before going up against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. It was the Thunder that the veteran guard said also got their "offensive flow" from their defense, out of the teams they had faced off against in all four rounds of the postseason.
The guard added that the Knicks were the fastest-playing and best-shooting team of their four opponents, according to outlets including ClutchPoints. With the 2025 Champion Thunder in the mix, and the Knicks going on to win the next two games after Fox's comments, it's hard to argue with the results. At least for the 2025-26 NBA season, New York had the NBA's best team. That writes Leon Rose and William Wesley's place atop the NBA's best front offices in pen.
Knicks built a contender in five years, and a Champion in six
The Knicks made changes ahead of this season, swapping out head coaches and bringing in some different bench pieces. But their new coach's utilization of the bench was the true difference, with players who were previously deemed unfit for playoff basketball, like Landry Shamet, serving in key roles throughout the postseason.
But the majority of their roster was built ahead of last season, when they made the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 25 seasons before losing to the Indiana Pacers. That affirmed their place among the conference's best teams, with their entire core just entering their athletic primes and all hungry for an NBA Championship win.
The Knicks entered the stratosphere of "contenders" with their ECF appearance last season, and locked their place in league history in with their five-game series win over San Antonio.
Especially considering the facts that their front office inherited a 21-win roster and never tanked, that's all the proof fans should need to acknowledge Rose and Wesley could likely turn the Washington Generals into a respectable Play-In Team in just a couple of seasons.
Knicks did their best to control injury luck with award-winning trainers
The Thunder suffered huge hits throughout the 2026 NBA Playoffs in the forms of injuries. Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell, arguably the team's second and third-best offensive creators, both missed plenty of time and were unable to close out the Western Conference Finals against the Spurs. If they had made it to The Finals themselves, it's unclear just how available either young star would have been throughout the series.
That isn't the fault of the Thunder's young players, or the organization itself. But it does underscore exactly why the Knicks deserve more credit than they're getting for poaching key members of the Dallas Mavericks' training staff at the behest of Jalen Brunson. Casey Smith and Heather Mau, trainers that Brunson reportedly trusted from his time in Dallas, came over to New York after Mavs GM Nico Harrison deemed them poor fits for his organization.
Both just served in pivotal roles on the Knicks' training staff, which was awarded as the NBA's best ahead of this season. Mitchell Robinson and OG Anunoby were both available throughout the NBA Finals, despite the former of the two undergoing a surgical procedure on his hand ahead of the series.
It was all the result of various efforts from the players and trainers throughout the course of the regular season to help ensure their availability when the games mattered most. And that was all made possible by the men who brought them together, putting them in the same room (and team logo) with a common goal in mind.
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