Fans of the New York Knicks haven’t had the best past 25 years. After nearly a quarter-century of disappointment, the current Knicks team has raised fan expectations, sparking hopes of the franchise’s first championship in over 50 years.
According to a survey done by James L. Edwards III of The Athletic, Knicks fans have ‘sky-high‘ expectations for their team next year. After making their first Conference Finals appearance since 2000, fans hope the team still has room to grow.
“Over 3,000 fans voiced their opinion on the New York Knicks’ upcoming season and the state of the franchise,” Edwards wrote. “And, as was the case last year, the expectations are sky high from both the organization and the fans.”
New York is bringing back all of their starters and a majority of their role players from last year’s team. They also brought in new head coach Mike Brown and signed free agents Guerschon Yabusele and Jordan Clarkson to play off the bench.
Knicks Fans Agree On A Lot
The survey asked Knicks fans about their confidence in the team’s recent moves and its outlook for the 2025-26 season.
The question that saw an overwhelming majority of fans agree on was, “Do you still have faith that Jalen Brunson can be the best player on a championship team?“ More than 82% of respondents said ‘yes’, while 14% said they were unsure, and the remaining percentage didn’t believe he could lead a title-winning team.
“Of all the questions on this survey, this was the one result I was most sure of,” Edwards wrote. “The fans love Brunson. Brunson loves the fans. This is a perfect marriage.”
Nearly three-fourths of Knicks fans also agreed that they were ‘cautiously optimistic‘ that the team could get the first overall seed in the East next season.
Both questions, “Did you like the hiring of Mike Brown?” and “A year later, do you like the trade for Karl-Anthony Towns?” had roughly two-thirds of fans agree on the same response. A majority still feel undecided about the Brown hire, but the same percentage of fans think the Towns trade has been a success so far.
The final question that Knicks fans were in majority agreement on was, “What should be the starting lineup next season?” A little more than 50% of people agree that a Brunson, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby, Towns, and Mitchell Robinson lineup is preferred.
“Fans, too, feel like pairing Towns with a more traditional, defensive-minded center like Mitchell Robinson is the best way to go in order to maximize this team’s ceiling,” Edwards added.
Fans Split On Multiple Topics
While survey respondents agreed on most questions, a few drew a wide range of opinions.
Among those include the question of, “How far do the Knicks have to go next season for you to consider it a successful season?” Just 43% of fans said winning the Eastern Conference Finals would be enough to call 2025-26 a success. About 30% said a loss in the Finals, 15% said a loss in the conference finals, and 11.3% said winning the championship would qualify as a successful year.
Perhaps the biggest offseason move by the Knicks was firing former head coach Tom Thibodeau. The question of whether fans agreed with the move had a very close three-way split in responses. Just over 37% said they agreed, while just under a third of fans said they were indifferent, and slightly under 30% said they weren’t in favor of the move.
Fans were also split on the process itself of finding a new coach. Though for different reasons, many disagreed with how the process went, while nearly a third said they were fine because the team needed to find the right person for the job.
The final question that saw a split in responses asked about fans’ thoughts on the Bridges trade. Over 40% said they were still undecided, while 36% liked the move, and the remaining 23% thought they gave up too much in the deal with the Brooklyn Nets.
Fans agree that they expect New York to be in the hunt for the title this year, and even though they may disagree on some of the recent moves made by the front office, expectations are high as ever.
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