Jalen Brunson does not care that the Knicks have a huge target on their backs now originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
After the 2025-26 season, the New York Knicks are now the top dogs in the Eastern Conference. It comes after years of hard work, which involved going from strength to strength with every year they were eliminated in the Playoffs. Jalen Brunson has been at the heart of that growth over the years.
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As the captain and superstar player for the Knicks, Brunson knows that he has a lot of responsibilities for the team. Ahead of the 2026-27 season, he wants to set the tone for the Knicks in their championship defense season. He does not want anyone to be complacent, especially when everyone has a target on their backs.
Jalen Brunson is well aware of the Knicks’ top dog status in the 2026-27 season
Defending a championship is quite tough in the NBA, especially when the most recent instance of a team doing so was almost a decade ago. That was the iconic Golden State Warriors superteam that had their core group led by Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant.
Ahead of the 2026-27 season, the Knicks have a talented group, but they are not as stacked as that Warriors team. That is why Brunson is motivated to lead this Knicks team well because he wants them to be good enough to beat out all the other teams.
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The Eastern Conference is possibly the most stacked it has been for a long time. With teams like the Philadelphia 76ers and the Miami Heat making major improvements in the offseason, the Knicks are hard at work to prove they belong by successfully defending their title.
“We don’t want to speak of the trophy, we don’t talk about the trophy, we don’t want to see the trophy. We want to come in with the same mindset, if not, even a tougher mindset than we had last year… It’s important for us to come into this season to be like, ‘That’s over with,'” Brunson said about the Knicks’ goals on the Road Trippin’ Show.
The Knicks have huge targets on their backs, and they will have to be the first team in eight seasons to defend their titles. There have been a lot of good teams that have failed in that goal, and if the Knicks want to keep this core group going, they need to succeed.
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