After the New York Knicks won the 2026 NBA championship, the first championship for the Knicks in over 50 years, the next biggets question was going to be how they would retain the roster that brought them to the peak of basketball glory.

After winning the championship, the next biggest question that the Knicks had to address was the potential max exodus of free agents that they were facing.

There were 11 players from the Knicks championship winning roster that were entering free agency this offseason and with owner James Dolan's declaration that the Knicks wouldn't enter the second apron no matter what, it looked like the Knicks were going to have to say goodbye to a number of crucial support pieces. 

But after the offseason drew to a close, the Knicks had retained the vast majority of the Knicks' most crucial free agents stayed with the team, including Jose Alvarado and Landry Shamet, with Shamet in particular seeming like he would have sought a bigger contract elsewhere, but still stayed with the Knicks.

But even going back to before this offseason, or even before the 2025-26 championship season, Knicks general manager Leon Rose was making a number of moves that at the time seemed subtle or risky, but have since paid off to be franchise-defining moves that helped propel the Knicks to the peak of the NBA. 

The biggest move to look at in that regard is the trade for Mikal Bridges in 2024 that in total cost both three players and seven combined first and second-round picks between unprotected picks and a pick swap. 

At the time and in the years since, Bridges' contract looked like a major mistake, but as Bridges proved in the playoffs last season, he was worth every single pick and proved to be one of the Knicks most clutch performers and a crucial piece for team synergy considering his chemistry with Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart going back to their college days at Villanova. 

Even the bigger trade moves that were made under president of basketball operations Leon Rose's tenure with the Knicks, those being the acquisitions of Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby, were relatively small scale efforts that yielded massive results. 

The Knicks' front office under Rose has been defined by savvy negotiating and relatively small scale moves that not only enhanced team chemistry, but fostered a team-first culture that led to a championship. 

Looking at the results, it's hard to argue with Rose's methodology and that's why in a recent article by CBS Sports, the Knicks were ranked as the second-best front office in the NBA behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder, giving credit to the Knicks' intentional trades and focus on chemistry building for creating what became a championship winning roster.