Knicks Notes: Brown, Towns, Brunson, Robinson
Knicks owner James Dolan made it clear during a radio interview this winter what his expectations were for the postseason.
We want to get to the [NBA] Finals. And we should win the Finals,” Dolan said then. “This is sports and anything can happen. But getting to the Finals, we absolutely got to do.”
That postseason run begins today with Game 1 against Atlanta at Madison Square Garden. First-year coach Mike Brown is unfazed by the high bar raised by the owner, according to James Edwards III of The Athletic.
“I don’t even think about the last part of the question,” Brown said. “Everybody in that locker room has a competitive spirit that I like, and I can say is unmatched. I love the group. We’re competing, not just for 53 wins; we’re competing, like everyone else is, to win it. … Our competitive spirit is there, and it’s not something that we take lightly.”
Karl-Anthony Towns knows the season will be looked upon as a failure if the Knicks don’t at least reach the Finals.
“It was great that we put ourselves in this position going into the playoffs,” Towns said. “At the end of the day, the regular season doesn’t mean anything if we don’t capitalize on this opportunity.”
Here’s more on the Knicks:
- Speaking of Towns, he has a chance to define his legacy with the team in these playoffs, Jared Schwartz of the New York Post writes. Towns could be the key to the series against the Hawks, Schwartz notes, since Atlanta doesn’t match up well with Towns. Onyeka Okongwu is their biggest starter and is more of a natural power forward than center, giving Towns a size advantage. With Okongwu as his primary defender, Towns went 11-for-14 from the field — and 4-for-6 from three-point range — along with five assists this season. Overall, Towns averaged 28.5 points — his most against any opponent — in the two games he played against the Hawks this year.
- The Knicks’ front office has built the team around Jalen Brunson and now we will find out if that approach was sound, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post opines. Their free agent signings and blockbuster trades have all been done with the notion of Brunson being the player to finally lead them to the title that has eluded the franchise for over 50 seasons.
- Mitchell Robinson is healthy for this postseason run. He’ll have to deal with Hack-A-Mitch tactics, with the career 50.8 percent free throw shooter being intentionally fouled to exploit his biggest weakness. Brown says he has a plan for that strategy. “We’ve talked about it. We have different things in mind that we’ll do,” he said, per Bondy. “A lot of them will come down to time and score and feel. But we understand that’s what teams may want to do, especially if our offense is clicking at that point in time.”
Details On NBA’s Playoff Bonus Money For 2025/26
The pool of bonus money for NBA playoff teams this season is worth approximately $36MM, according to Kurt Badenhausen and Lev Akabas of Sportico.
The top six teams in each conference earn bonuses based on their regular season records, while the 16 playoff teams also receive a chunk of money from the playoff pool, increasing the value of their payout with each series win. That bonus money is divvied up among the players on each club’s 15-man roster.
Teams eliminated in the play-in tournament aren’t entitled to any of the playoff bonus money, even if they had the seventh- or eighth-best regular season record in their conference.
The breakdown for 2026’s playoff pool money is as follows (rounded to the nearest thousand), per Sportico:
Regular season achievements:
- Best record in NBA (Thunder): $896K
- No. 1 seeds in each conference (Pistons, Thunder): $784K per team
- No. 2 seeds (Celtics, Spurs): $628K per team
- No. 3 seeds (Knicks, Nuggets): $471K per team
- No. 4 seeds (Cavaliers, Lakers): $384K per team
- No. 5 seeds (Raptors, Rockets): $297K per team
- No. 6 seeds (Hawks, Timberwolves): $210K per team
Postseason achievements:
- Teams participating in first round (all 16 playoff teams — the 12 listed above, plus the Sixers, Trail Blazers, and Friday’s play-in winners): $481K per team
- Teams participating in conference semifinals (eight teams): $586K per team
- Teams participating in conference finals (four teams): $980K per team
- Losing team in NBA Finals: $3,921,000
- Winning team in NBA Finals: $9,078,000
A team that makes a deep playoff run will cash in on more than one of the bonuses listed above.
For example, if the Thunder win the championship, their payout from the playoff pool would be worth more than $12.8MM in total — that amount would include their bonuses for posting the NBA’s best record, claiming the West’s No. 1 seed, making the first round, making the conference semifinals, making the conference finals, and winning the NBA Finals.
The total amount of the playoff bonus pool, which is based on a formula connected to basketball-related income (BRI), is up 3% from last season, according to Badenhausen and Akabas.
Knicks Notes: Hawks Matchup, Prospects, McBride
The third-seeded Knicks were unfazed when they learned they’d be playing the Hawks in the first round instead of Toronto, writes Jared Schwartz of The New York Post. The Raptors needed to win Sunday’s regular season finale against the tanking Nets — which they did — to earn the final guaranteed playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Atlanta could have secured the fifth seed if it had won at Miami, but the team sat most of its rotation members and lost. The Hawks’ defeat, combined with Orlando losing to Boston, moved Toronto up to No. 5, with Atlanta sliding down one spot to No. 6.
“Right now, I think we’re excited to be in this situation,” Hawks head coach Quin Snyder said ahead of Sunday’s game. “Whoever we play is gonna be really good. It’s hard to even try to figure that out. It’s possible that certain teams wanna play us. The primary thing is for us to be healthy going into the postseason. That’s been the one thing that has been consistent the last few weeks and months — you don’t know what’s gonna happen. It’s hard to predict all these games, they’re all going on. Wherever it falls is where it falls, and we’ll prepare for the playoffs, regardless of who that is.”
Guards Jordan Clarkson and Miles McBride said the Knicks are focused on playing their own game, Schwartz notes.
“We didn’t pay any attention to that,” Clarkson said. “It’s just what they wanted to do.”
We have more on the Knicks:
- James L. Edwards III and John Hollinger of The Athletic preview the first-round matchup with Atlanta, with both writers predicting the Knicks to win in six games. Edwards and Hollinger think New York’s size and rebounding will be too much for Atlanta to overcome, though they wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a competitive series. Edwards views Mikal Bridges as the X-factor for New York, while Hollinger lists Jonathan Kuminga as a key swing factor for the Hawks.
- The Knicks hosted a pre-draft workout on Monday that included Kowacie Reeves Jr. (Georgia Tech), Toby Harris (Iona), William Kyle (Syracuse), Jayden Epps (Mississippi State), and Wyatt Fricks (Marshall), reports Ian Begley of SNY.tv (via Twitter). None of those five prospects are on ESPN’s top 100 list. New York controls one first-round pick and two second-rounders in the 2026 draft, Begley notes.
- McBride struggled in his first five games back since returning from sports hernia surgery, but he played well in Sunday’s finale with the Knicks resting all their starters, per Fiifi Frimpong of The New York Daily News. The 25-year-old had 21 points (on 8-of-15 shooting), three rebounds, one assist and one steal through three quarters (24 minutes) prior to sitting out the fourth. McBride said pain management will be key for him for the rest of the season. “Dealing through residual pain of the surgery is not fun, but it’s part of the journey, just trying to do anything I can do to help the team win,” McBride said.
Knicks Notes: Anunoby, Brown, Injury Report, First Round
The Knicks got a scare during Friday night’s victory over the Raptors as starting forward OG Anunoby missed the second half of the game with an ankle injury, seemingly suffered when he tripped on the foot of Scottie Barnes early in the second quarter, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Post.
While Anunoby sat out Sunday’s game against the Hornets, there was reason for optimism, as Bondy reports (via Twitter) that, according to the coaching staff, the 6’8″ wing is considered day-to-day, and the team doesn’t seem overly concerned about the injury.
Anunoby averaged 16.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per game this season and is expected to be in the running to make the second All-Defensive team of his career.
We have more from the Knicks:
- After securing the third seed in the East, the Knicks opted to rest most of their rotation for the season finale against the Hornets, per Bondy (Twitter link). In addition to Anunoby, the Knicks sat Mitchell Robinson, Jalen Brunson, and Karl-Anthony Towns. Mikal Bridges started, in order to keep his games-played streak alive, but was pulled just 23 seconds into the game as Jordan Clarkson took his spot.
- Head coach Mike Brown has done a good job carrying over what worked for the Knicks last season while adding lineup flexibility and amplifying the voices of the assistant coaches, Steve Popper writes for Newsday. When asked about his performance relative to the expectations he set for himself coming in, Brown says he hasn’t gotten a chance to think about it much. “The things that you set as your standard are the things that I brought to the table for the standard in terms of sacrificing, being connected, everybody having a competitive spirit and everybody having true belief of each other in the process,” he said. “While I’m trying to hold people accountable, people are holding me accountable, too. All those things are the things you hope for. I didn’t put a number on how many wins or anything like that.”
- The most likely playoff outcome for the Knicks is playing the Raptors in the first round, though the Hawks remain a strong possibility and the Magic are technically still in play. New York should feel comfortable scouting Toronto, Bondy writes, given the team’s familiarity with a division rival that features several former Knicks. Bondy breaks down the three playoff possibilities in anticipation of Sunday’s slate of games, which will determine the first-round matchup once and for all.
Projected NBA Taxpayers For 2025/26
As we outlined in February, a total of 14 teams projected to be taxpayers prior to an eventful trade deadline week, with the 16 non-taxpayers on track to receive about $13.8MM apiece in tax distribution money at that point.
However, the Celtics, Nuggets, Suns, Mavericks, Sixers, Magic, and Raptors all ducked below the luxury tax line with their pre-deadline transactions, while a few other teams remained in the tax but took steps to significantly reduce their end-of-season bills.
As a result, seven NBA teams project to finish over the luxury tax line in 2025/26, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).
Here are those seven clubs, along with their projected tax penalties:
- Cleveland Cavaliers ($68.7MM)
- Golden State Warriors ($67.9MM) *
- New York Knicks ($44.4MM)
- Los Angeles Lakers ($22.2MM) *
- Houston Rockets ($7.2MM)
- Los Angeles Clippers ($6.7MM) *
- Minnesota Timberwolves ($6MM)
Total: $223.1MM
Note: Teams marked with an asterisk are paying repeater tax rates.
While the projected tax payments are quite similar to the ones from a couple months ago, the total is up slightly overall. That’s because the Warriors, Rockets and Timberwolves signed players to fill out the back ends of their rosters. The Lakers will undoubtedly finalize their roster today — they have one standard opening ahead of Sunday’s deadline.
Based on the current figures from Marks, each non-taxpayer is projected to receive a payout of about $4.9MM. That figure is determined by cutting the total league-wide tax penalties in half, then dividing them evenly among the non-taxpaying teams (in this case, 23 clubs). The projected payout was at $4.8MM in February.
In 2024/25, 10 taxpayers paid a total of $461.2MM in penalties and the 20 non-taxpayers reportedly received $11.5MM apiece. This season’s projected distribution payment of $4.9MM is the lowest figure since 2020/21, according to Marks.
It’s worth noting that the tax penalties could still change again before the 2025/26 league year ends. According to Marks (Twitter links), 36 players had a total of 133 different incentives in their contracts entering the fall, and 15 of those bonuses are still up in the air entering the final day of the regular season. Some of those bonus situations may not be resolved until the playoffs end.
The Warriors, Lakers, and Clippers would all be subject to repeater penalties in 2026/27 if they’re taxpayers again next season. Additionally, the Bucks, Celtics, Suns, and Nuggets would pay repeater rates if they’re in the tax in ’26/27, since all four clubs were in the tax for three straight years from 2023-25. They’ll each need to spend one more season as a non-taxpayer in order to reset the repeater clock.
Hawks Clinch Playoff Spot; Top Four East Seeds Now Locked In
The Hawks have become the fifth Eastern Conference team to clinch a playoff spot after defeating Cleveland on Friday, the NBA announced (via Twitter).
Dyson Daniels recorded his second career triple-double (13 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists) and CJ McCollum registered a game-high 29 points in just 24 minutes during the 22-point win, notes Brad Rowland of Locked on Hawks (Twitter link).
Atlanta, which is currently 46-35, also secured the Southeast Division title with Friday’s victory. This is the first time the Hawks have avoided the play-in tournament since 2020/21, when they made a surprise run to the conference final as the No. 5 seed.
Detroit secured the East’s No. 1 spot following last Saturday’s win in Philadelphia, but the other seeds had been up in the air until now. Friday’s results have provided a little more clarity. The Celtics locked up the No. 2 seed by demolishing New Orleans; the Knicks are No. 3 after they beat Toronto and Cleveland lost; and the Cavaliers are No. 4.
The Hawks can clinch the No. 5 seed if they win Sunday’s game at Miami. The 45-36 Raptors, who are currently No. 6, also control their own fate — a win Sunday over the tanking Nets will secure a guaranteed playoff berth.
There’s theoretically still a pathway for the No. 7 Magic (45-36) or the No. 8 Sixers (44-37) to sneak in as the East’s sixth guaranteed playoff team on Sunday. The Magic would need a win at Boston combined with a Raptors loss, which would make Orlando the No. 6 seed (the Hawks would be No. 5 in that scenario no matter how they fare against Miami). Philadelphia needs Orlando and Toronto to lose Sunday and it has to beat Milwaukee at home to finish No. 6, with Atlanta again the No. 5 in that scenario.
If the Hawks, Raptors, Magic and Sixers all win on Sunday, they will finish where they currently are in the standings. That outcome wouldn’t be surprising.
The Hornets are now locked into the play-in tournament after losing to the Pistons on Friday. They’ll face the Heat in the No. 9 vs. No. 10 play-in game. Charlotte will be No. 9 with either a win Sunday (at New York) or a Miami loss. The Heat need to beat Atlanta and need Charlotte to lose to the Knicks to move up to No. 9.
Injury Notes: Wemby, Castle, Nuggets, Bulls, Tyson, Barrett
Spurs star Victor Wembanyama has been upgraded from questionable to available for Friday’s game vs. Dallas, per Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News.
Orsborn’s colleague Jeff McDonald wrote on Thursday that San Antonio was privately optimistic that Wembanyama would be active Friday. The third-year center needs to play at least 20 minutes against the Mavs to qualify for major postseason awards. He left Monday’s game early due to a left rib contusion, an injury which sidelined him for Wednesday’s win over Portland.
Reigning Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, who also missed Wednesday’s game, will be out again Friday, Orsborn adds. Head coach Mitch Johnson said Castle is dealing with multiple nagging injuries; he was listed as having right knee soreness two days ago, while Friday’s designation is left foot soreness.
“Eighty games and the way he plays. It’s real. We’re not just sitting him just to sit him,” Johnson said.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- The Nuggets will be playing without all five of their normal starters on Friday against Oklahoma City, as Bennett Durando of The Denver Post tweets. All five players (Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Christian Braun and Cameron Johnson) had previously been listed as questionable. Jokic sitting out means he’ll need to play at least 15 minutes in Sunday’s finale at San Antonio to be eligible for year-end awards.
- After missing three games with an illness, Bulls forward Matas Buzelis will return to action for Friday’s penultimate game vs. Orlando, according to Will Gottlieb of CHGO Bulls (Twitter link). Isaac Okoro (left quad contusion) will be out Friday but there’s a chance he could return for Sunday’s finale vs. Dallas, while Josh Giddey (left hamstring strain injury management), Guerschon Yabusele (left shoulder and left elbow sprains), Nick Richards (right elbow sprain) and Anfernee Simons (left wrist fracture) will miss the final two games of Chicago’s season.
- Jaylon Tyson is in the Cavaliers‘ starting lineup on Friday, tweets Danny Cunningham of Locked on Cavs. The second-year wing has missed Cleveland’s past 10 games due to a left great toe bone bruise. Tyson is starting in place of Donovan Mitchell, who is out with what the team calls right ankle injury management.
- Raptors wing RJ Barrett was a late scratch ahead of Friday’s contest vs. New York, as Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca relays (via Twitter). Barrett is dealing with right knee soreness. It’s the second night of a back-to-back for Toronto, which will also be without Immanuel Quickley and Collin Murray-Boyles. The Raptors can clinch a playoff spot if they beat the Knicks.
Atlantic Notes: Knicks, Embiid, Grimes, Ingram, CMB
The nine players the Knicks used in Thursday’s win over Boston will likely make up the team’s playoff rotation, head coach Mike Brown said after the game, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. That group includes starters Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Miles Bridges and Josh Hart, plus reserves Mitchell Robinson, Miles McBride, Landry Shamet, and Jordan Clarkson.
“Those guys are probably our top nine when you’re talking about the playoffs,” Brown said. “And it’s hard to play more than nine guys (in the playoffs).”
While it’s probably no shock that rookie forward Mohamed Diawara and second-year guard Tyler Kolek didn’t make the cut, it’s notable that veteran guard Jose Alvarado – whom New York gave up a couple second-round picks to acquire in February – isn’t among that top nine. The former Pelican has been a DNP-CD in each of the Knicks’ past two games, but he suggested on Thursday that he’s unfazed by his declining role.
“I’m good. I’m chilling. I’m ready for my moment. I’m ready for my name to get called, whenever it is,” Alvarado said, according to Bondy. “Like you said, I started off here high. That was the best way to start. So there’s only one way to go — down. We just stay there mentally. This is my home team. I love the organization, I love the Knicks. So just whenever it’s Jose’s time, whenever that time is, I’m ready.”
Here’s more from out of the Atlantic:
- Joel Embiid‘s emergency appendectomy changes everything for the Sixers, making the team’s path to a playoff spot more difficult and significantly reducing its odds of winning a series, writes Tony Jones of The Athletic. The 76ers issued an update on Embiid on Friday, announcing that he’s returning to Philadelphia following a successful procedure in Houston, but no timeline has been set for his return to basketball activities (Twitter link via Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports).
- Quentin Grimes will be an unrestricted free agent this summer after accepting his one-year qualifying offer as a RFA last offseason. The Sixers guard’s role has fluctuated throughout the season with teammates in and out of the lineup, per Gina Mizell of The Philadelphia Inquirer, but Grimes recently described his performance in 2025/26 as “solid” and he believes he “maximized” his opportunities. “Be in attack mode. Be a good on-ball defender. Make plays for myself and teammates,” Grimes said last week. “The whole year has asked for me to do different things. But I feel like, when the whole team’s healthy, my natural self is still playing my same game I’ve been playing the whole year.”
- There was some uncertainty entering the fall about what the Raptors could expect from forward Brandon Ingram – who missed most of last season due to ankle injury – and lottery pick Collin Murray-Boyles, who wasn’t viewed as an immediate difference-maker at the NBA level. But Toronto has gotten near best-case outcomes from both players, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca, who says Ingram’s All-Star play and Murray-Boyles’ rapid development have helped get Toronto on the verge of its first playoff appearance since 2022. The Raptors can clinch a playoff berth with a win over New York on Friday, but they’ll be missing Murray-Boyles (neck sprain) and point guard Immanuel Quickley (plantar fasciitis injury management), tweets Grange.
Rory Maher contributed to this post.
Westchester Knicks’ Dink Pate Commits To Providence
Former G League Ignite guard/forward Dink Pate, who played for the Westchester Knicks this season, has committed to Providence, agent Sam Permut tells Jeff Borzello of ESPN (Twitter link).
Kentucky, Alabama, NC State and Georgia had been recruiting Pate as well, tweets Jeff Goodman of Field of 68.
According to Borzello, Pate turned down 10-day and two-way contract opportunities from NBA teams with an eye on maintaining his college eligibility. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress reported in January that the 20-year-old had declined multiple two-way offers.
Pate, who suited up for the Mexico City Capitanes in 2024/25, averaged 16.4 points, 6.7 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 0.9 steals in 50 total games (31.9 minutes per contest) for Westchester in ’25/26. His shooting slash line was .400/.346/.740, with most of his field goal attempts coming from three-point range.
As Givony wrote a few months ago, Pate graduated high school in 2023, which could put him in position to receive at least two seasons of NCAA eligibility, beginning next season. However, it’s unclear whether or not the 6’8″ swingman will be granted eligibility based on the NCAA’s current rules.
Like former second-round pick James Nnaji, who enrolled at Baylor this winter, Pate declared for – and kept his name in – an NBA draft (in 2025). However, unlike Nnaji, Pate has since signed an NBA contract, having completed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Knicks this past September.
NCAA president Charlie Baker said in December after Nnaji joined the Bears that any player who has signed an NBA deal, “including a two-way contract,” would not be permitted to play NCAA basketball. Baker’s comments in December didn’t clarify whether the NCAA views Exhibit 10 contracts as disqualifying. Exhibit 10 deals are non-guaranteed and only put a player in line for a modest bonus if he subsequently spends at least 60 days with his team’s G League affiliate.
Atlantic Notes: Rajakovic, Smith, McBride, Lidell
This season will mark the first time Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic has a chance to compete for a playoff spot, and he deserves credit for helping the team get to this point, Michael Grange writes for Sportsnet.
Toronto won 30 games last season and had the NBA’s 25th-best defense, Grange notes, while they’re up to 44 wins and rank sixth defensively this season, with three games still to go. The team currently sits in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, with a one-game lead on the Sixers and Magic, and a 1.5-game lead over the Hornets entering Wednesday’s slate of games.
“This is what you sign up for,” Rajakovic said. “It’s very, very exciting … the path that we had the past two years and this in my third year of coaching here to be in a position to plan, to fight for something, to fight for the playoffs, to fight for seeding, it’s all very, very meaningful.”
While the on-court numbers and results have been moving in the right direction, backup big Sandro Mamukelashvili also vouched for his head coach’s ability to connect with the team on a personal level.
“You go through things mentally, physically … (and) his office is always open, so it’s easy to step in there,” Mamukelashvili said. “A lot of head coaches are a little bit unapproachable, so just having the freedom to step in there and tell him what I feel and what I think I can do, where do I see myself, where does he see me? … I think that helps you through the long run.”
We have more from around the Atlantic Division:
- Malachi Smith‘s work for the Nets recently paid off as he was rewarded with a two-year deal. Now, after a start-and-stop beginning of his NBA career, partially as a result of injuries, he’s ready to take the next step, CJ Holmes writes for the New York Daily News. “I just always was like, I know I can do this,” Smith said. “I just have to be healthy to play.“
- E.J. Liddell had a career night on Tuesday, scoring 21 points in his second start of the season to power the Nets past the Bucks. While that marked a milestone for the 25-year-old forward, it also represented a minor blow to Brooklyn’s lottery position, as it moved the Jazz and Kings both a half-game away from seizing the third-worst record, and with it, the last available 14% chance at landing the top pick, Holmes writes. The Nets have three games left in the season, including a matchup with the 18-61 Pacers, while the Kings have just two games left against teams looking to improve their postseason standing in the Blazers and Warriors.
- Knicks guard Miles McBride had a scare in his return from a lengthy absence due to core muscle surgery when he tweaked the injury in his first game back, Kristian Winfield writes for the New York Daily News. However, he said he had been warned this kind of reaggravation could happen. “It’s really just a part of the recovery process,” he said. “Basically everything was tightened, and now I’m back to moving around, so it’s just part of it.” New York’s key reserve guard is taking a patient approach to his ramp-up, knowing that the process of making sure he’s at his best for the playoffs will be slower than he’d like.