Do 2024 Knicks Have a 'Championship or Bust' Mentality?

The New York Knicks have improved, but they aren't in position to become true title contenders.

The New York Knicks are celebrating their best season in over a decade, winning 47 games and a playoff series for the first time since 2012. With those accomplishments come a new responsibility: proving they weren't a fluke.

The modern Knicks already deal with the gargantuan expectations of New York and expectations will certainly be higher than a second-round exit this time around. While a championship may not be plausible for the Knicks in 2024, a step backwards could mean the end of the road for some employees on and off the court.

"Come April, if they’re sitting on 41 wins with a chance of getting knocked out in the Play-In Tournament, I imagine people up and down the organization will worry about their jobs," The Athletic's Fred Katz writes. "But I also don’t think there is a championship-or-bust mentality from ownership — at least, not at the moment."

New York probably isn't in position to win the NBA Finals ... yet. Sure, the team would like to get there in the foreseeable future now that Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle are there to give the team some semblance of a winning core, but New York probably thinks it is one or two pieces away from being serious contenders, hence why they're reportedly sniffing around MVP candidates to join the current group. That shouldn't be the fault of anyone in the organization.

The Knicks have to be patient for the next star to become available, because New York really only has one shot to get this last player of the core right. Once that person is in-house, then expectations will grow and the stakes will be raised.

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