The Knicks will navigate much higher expectations than what the franchise is accustomed to.
Most of the major sportsbooks project Tom Thibodeau’s squad to finish second in the East with its best record in over a decade. BetMGM and Fanduel, for instance, peg New York’s over/under win total at 53.5, behind the Celtics (58.5) and Thunder (56.5) in the NBA.
To put that in perspective, the Knicks have only once exceeded 53 wins in a season since 1997.
They haven’t reached a conference final since 2000 — the third-longest drought in the East after the lowly Hornets and Wizards.
The gambling world’s enthusiasm for the Knicks arrived after they added Mikal Bridges to a roster that won 50 games last season and reached Game 7 of the second round.
Another key addition is Julius Randle, the three-time All-Star who missed the final three months of last season with a dislocated shoulder.
Jalen Brunson, who already has established himself as the best Knicks point guard since Clyde Frazier, acknowledged lofty goals are also internal.
“What can we do to get past the second round? That’s our goal,” Brunson said this month during his captaincy ceremony.
The Knicks open the season Oct. 22 in Boston, where the Celtics — including familiar face Kristaps Porzingis — will be accepting their 2024 championship rings.
“It’s nice to hear that we’re contenders, but I think we have to go into training camp without having that word be spoken,” Brunson said. “Obviously, I said I want to get past the second round after getting there two straight years. But we can’t just go into the season and jump right back into the second round. We’ve got to go back and start all over again.
“We have some new pieces and some familiar faces, so what can we do with it? What type of team do we want to be?”
The downside to higher expectations is they’re more difficult to meet.
And the Knicks have question marks.
They lost starting center Isaiah Hartenstein to OKC in free agency and didn’t proportionately replace him.
They have two injury-prone starters — Mitchell Robinson, OG Anunoby — and another — Randle — who is coming off shoulder surgery.
Perhaps their greatest strength is depth, with a potent top-3 off the bench in Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo, and Miles McBride.
Still, a directive of conference-finals-or-bust is a daunting bar.
Assuming the safe bet of the Celtics returning to the third round, the Knicks will have to best either the revamped Sixers, the Giannis Antetokounmpo-led Bucks, the pesky Heat, Kenny Atkinson’s Cavaliers, Tyrese Haliburton’s Pacers and the rising Magic.
Until this point, the Knicks have largely exceeded expectations under Thibodeau.
And that’s also because the bar was generally low.
In Thibodeau’s first season, for instance, they were predicted for the lottery and finished fourth in the East.
Now they’re expected to finish second.
And anything less than the conference finals would be a failure.