The New York Knicks are a new team entering the 2026-27 season, and that brings a new set of challenges, per head coach Mike Brown. 

Despite being the defending champions, Brown admits he has a lot to learn about his group, which returned 12 players from the title-winning roster. The only notable departure was Mitchell Robinson, who joined the Boston Celtics in the offseason. The Knicks promptly replaced him with veteran center Andre Drummond. 

But Brown has stressed the importance of maintaining focus on the details and the energy and effort that go into the Knicks' 'process'. He added that he's looking forward to seeing how his side handles adversity. 

"I want to see how we react when we lose three in a row or four in a row," he said. "And [the media] is on us, and the fans are on us. Let's see if we can keep trying to [have an upward trajectory] in tough times." 

Responding to adversity well really turned the Knicks' season around last year. 

Before finishing the regular season on a 28-11 run, the Knicks had lost nine of their last 11 games, including a 114-97 defeat to the Dallas Mavericks on Jan. 19, their fourth straight. 

At the time, their record was still fine (25-18). However, as Brown recently noted, the trajectory appeared to be trending downward rather than upward. 

But the Knicks flipped the script. They immediately rattled off eight consecutive wins after the loss to the Mavs. That proved to be the catalyst for a strong regular-season crescendo and a near-unstoppable 16-3 postseason run that ended with the franchise's first championship in 53 years. 

Brown knows what it took to steady the ship and use it as fuel for improvement. He hopes his team remembers it too when times inevitably get tough during a grueling 82-game campaign. 

As fate would have it, the Knicks are facing adversity before the regular season even begins. 

On top of the contract extension struggles between owner James Dolan and some key players — including Karl-Anthony Towns and Josh Hart — New York is also riding a three-game losing skid to start preseason. 

And while you shouldn't take too much away from games meant to prepare you for the real thing, you also can't ignore the Knicks' inability to string together momentum a week out from their banner night. 

The reigning champs have two games remaining before they host LeBron James and the stacked Philadelphia 76ers on Oct. 20 in the regular-season curtain-raiser. 

The Knicks will face the Toronto Raptors twice — once on Tuesday, with Brown already announcing that the starters will sit that one out in the second half of a back-to-back, and again on Thursday, in the final preseason tune-up.