Peter Johnston

Yeah, it's chemistry.

I think that's the big one that I think maybe flies under the radar.

We saw how this Knicks team was built, obviously making a lot of trades and giving up a lot of assets to get these guys in, but now you have guys like Mikel Bridges.

They went out and sent five first-round picks to get him.

Jalen Brunson obviously turned into a player that I don't even know if the Knicks were expecting to turn into.

Josh Hart, these guys obviously all went to college together and then

You know, went to the conference finals last year.

They went through that, you know, sort of rollercoaster last season and now, you know, went one further to go to the NBA finals.

So they've just slowly been building, you know, this roster over the last three, four seasons, which is very un-New York.

Normally it's let's go out and get a big free agent and try and put these stars together.

But they've really built a team.

And you can see in every sort of position they have guys that play to each other's strengths.

So I think the front office deserves a lot of credit.

for how they've tactfully put this roster together because the starting five is probably among one of the best in the league, but the surrounding pieces on the bench as well have made a big impact as well.

I think after the way they competed last season, obviously lost to the Pacers in a thriller, they were always going to be back because they have the same team.

The East was very wide open this season.

So this was probably their best chance to win.

I think the big question mark was making the coaching change, obviously getting rid of Tibbs and bringing in Mike Brown.

Was that the right decision?

It absolutely was when you look at what they've done.