The New York Knicks had a case to be viewed as the best team in the NBA after winning the NBA Cup Finals over the San Antonio Spurs, with Jalen Brunson playing at an MVP level and the supporting cast contributing across the board. However, the Knicks have slowed down significantly since then, and the start of 2026 hasn't been pretty.

On Monday night, the Knicks headed to Detroit for their first matchup with the Pistons this season, a rematch from the 2025 postseason, where the Knicks defeated the Pistons in the first round. Unfortunately for the Knicks, they weren't able to hold off Detroit, dropping their fourth-straight game with a brutal 121-90 loss.

Following the 31-point loss, Knicks head coach Mike Brown was asked a variety of questions, which included the comments team owner James Dolan made earlier on Monday on a radio appearance on The Carton Show.

Dolan was very bold in his takes, speaking to championship aspirations.

"We want to get to the Finals, and we should win the Finals. Anything can happen in sports. Getting to the Finals, we've absolutely got to do. Winning the Finals, we should win," Dolan said.

It wasn't ideal that these comments came ahead of a blowout loss, but Brown gave his best answer in response.

"Obviously, I mean, we all want to win it," Brown said. "And we're fighting like heck to get there. But that's down the road. Our focus is to try to get a little bit better every single day, whether we're practicing or not practicing, having shootaround or not having shootaround. We're having a team meeting."

Losing four games in a row, the Knicks don't look like contenders at the moment, especially with them now falling behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference standings.

"We want to get better day by day, so when that time comes, we're ready to make our run," he added.

While the Knicks should certainly be exploring moves around the deadline in the coming month, their issues go beyond adding a player or two to the mix. It starts with fixing the team's effort on the defensive end, and that might be fixed by moving rotations around, as well as getting Josh Hart's high intensity back into the lineup.

The Knicks have the LA Clippers on Wednesday before starting a four-game road trip on the West Coast. If they can't figure things out in the next couple of games, serious changes could be on the way in terms of lineup configurations and more with New York.