Everything has changed for the Boston Celtics following Jayson Tatum’s devastating Achilles injury and subsequent surgery. The 27-year-old has headlined one of the NBA’s few open-ended title windows for the better part of a decade, one that was supposed to continue for the foreseeable future.
Now, though? Who knows. Next year is almost assuredly a wash for Tatum and the Celtics. When he returns, likely in 2026-27, he could be a different player. Even if he's the same ol' Tatum, Boston will assuredly be an entirely different team.
Amid the shock, sadness, and generally crippling uncertainty following Tatum's injury, there is a harsh-but-necessary lesson to be learned by the rest of the NBA, including these New York Knicks: Nothing in this league lasts for as long as it’s supposed to, so you better appreciate, and optimize, the slivers of time in which you have to win, to be special, while you can.
NBA title windows open and close on a whim
There was a clock on this exact version of the Celtics before Tatum ever suffered his ruptured Achilles. They are deep into the heavily punitive second apron, and a new ownership regime will gradually assume control. Many expected them to run it back next year. That was never a given. They were almost certainly going to make major cost-cutting changes before 2026-27. Those will likely come sooner now.
Either way, Boston’s title window as currently constructed is now closed, noticeably earlier than intended. And it isn’t the only team feeling the ramifications of a premature derailment.
The Milwaukee Bucks are being thrust into a completely different timeline following Damian Lillard’s own Achilles injury. A Stephen Curry hamstring strain may have ended the Golden State Warriors’ last best crack at a title, a window that only opened after the previous era’s closed. Injuries have torpedoed a Cleveland Cavaliers squad coming off a regular season in which they looked like a prospective title favorite.
It’s not just injuries, either. The Dallas Mavericks (inexplicably) moved on from Luka Doncic after making the NBA Finals last year, consigning themselves to one of the weirdest timelines around. The Phoenix Suns’ Big Three experiment imploded, a path the team only traveled down after they decided the core that made the 2022 NBA finals had run its course.
Remember the Big Three-era Brooklyn Nets? And the James Harden-era Philadelphia 76ers? How about the Kawhi Leonard-era Toronto Raptors, a one-off in the pantheon of NBA champions? Even the Kevin Durant-era Dubs disintegrated at a time when it felt like they could have gone on, even after KD’s own Achilles injury.
New York understands the urgency its up against
No matter how long you think a window might remain open, the reality is it’ll close much sooner. There will always be a course-altering injury, trade demand, free-agency decision, cost-cutting maneuver, or something else right around the corner.
This is why so many call for urgency, even in situations that don’t seem to need it. The Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs are set up to run the tables indefinitely. They might. But they probably won’t.
The same applies to these Knicks. They feel like a team of destiny at the moment, a half-baked regular-season product that coalesced into something more, something greater, at the perfect and most important time. Now they find themselves one win away from the franchise’s first Eastern Conference Finals since 2000, and five wins from their first Finals cameo since 1999.
There is no guarantee they ever get back here, to this exact position. Sure, most of their key players are under long-term contracts. Mikal Bridges is closest to free agency. Jalen Brunson’s extension last summer suggests Bridges, one of his BFFs, will follow his lead.
It doesn’t matter.
Payroll concerns are coming for these Knicks, if not next season, then almost assuredly the one after that. Nobody in their starting five missed 20 games this past year, and four played in at least 72 games. They cannot bank on the same semi-pristine health every season.
Certain members of the core might decline. Finding pathways to deepen an already-shallow rotation will get harder. Ascending teams in the Eastern Conference will continue rising to meet them.
That is why the Knicks didn’t hold out even longer to strike on the trade market. They couldn’t. It’s easy to think about how patience may have paid off now, with Giannis Antetokounmpo potentially available, and interested in New York. Maybe the Knicks could have predicted that. They couldn’t have guaranteed they wound up with him. It wasn’t long ago they waited on Donovan Mitchell, only to miss out on him.
This time around, Brunson was—and remains—too good for them to keep waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for the ideal superstar to come on the market. Yes, they overpaid in draft compensation for Bridges. In doing so, though, they were attempting to meet an inescapable urgency head-on. You have to respect that, the intent, even if it doesn’t quite pan out.
The Knicks must appreciate this run—for whatever it is
For the time being, it is working out. This run the Knicks are on is special—unexpected, heartfelt, vindicating, thrilling, deserved, the whole nine. It is also fleeting, just like everything else in this league. New York and its fans must appreciate this while it lasts.
Because while there’s no guarantee this will be the Knicks’ best crack at a title, there’s likewise no guarantee it won’t be, either.
Dan Favale is a Senior NBA Contributor for FanSided and National NBA Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.