Shortly after his Knicks responded to a sobering 25-point loss to the Thunder with a 34-point drubbing of the Bucks, Brunson offered a little perspective.

“I don’t really want to have a lot of bounce-back days,” Brunson said after Sunday’s 140-106 win at Madison Square Garden. “I just want to be able to continue to get better every single day and continue to be consistent.”

Indeed, the Knicks have been a particularly high-variance team this season.

They are 0-5 against the Cavaliers, Thunder, Celtics and Rockets — the only four teams with better win percentages than them to begin play Monday — compared to 26-9 against everyone else.

They followed their nine-game win streak from Dec. 15 to Jan. 1 with losses in four of their next five games, including three consecutively.

Going into Monday night’s home game against the Pistons, the Knicks were 4-4 in their last eight games, with all but one of those scores decided by double digits.

“The season, you’re gonna go through a lot of different things, and you have to be able to navigate through everything,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said during Monday’s pregame press conference.

“You want your focus to be on daily improvement, so if some days you fall short, that next day you have to come back with more determination to get things right. It’s a long season, and the whole idea is to keep working each and every day with the thought in mind that you want to be playing your best at the end of the year.”

That won’t come easily, as the Knicks entered Monday with the league’s hardest remaining schedule in terms of opponent win percentage (.523), according to Tankathon. Their final 42 games included three against the NBA-best Cavaliers and three against the defending champion Celtics.

Here are areas where the Knicks can improve:

Reliance on Starters

No team leans more heavily on its starters than the Knicks.

Not even close.

The lineup of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns had played a whopping 666 minutes together entering Monday’s game.

No other five-player lineup across the entire NBA had played more than 430 minutes together — and only two five-player lineups had played together for even half of the minutes the Knicks’ starters had.

What’s more?

Brunson, Hart, Bridges and Anunoby had played 823 minutes together — again, the most among all four-player lineups in the NBA.

In fact, all five of the NBA’s top four-player lineups in terms of minutes played all belonged to the Knicks, with each featuring a different combination of their starters.

As the most-played three-man lineups? The top seven belonged to the Knicks! Brunson, Bridges and Anunoby had played an incredible 1,042 minutes together to lead the NBA.

No other team had used three players for more than 830 minutes together.

The Knicks entered Monday getting an average of 96.9 points per game from their starters, which led the NBA. That was the driving force in their 26-14 start to the season.

But it also risks burnout.

During their recent slump, the Knicks were outscored 37-19 in the fourth quarter of a loss in Oklahoma City, and 38-17 in the third quarter of a loss in Chicago the following night.

Even in Sunday’s victory, the Knicks used Bridges for 37 minutes, Towns for 36 and Hart for 35 — and that was a game they won by more than 30 points.

Bench Production

This point goes hand in hand with the prior one. The Knicks’ reliance on their starters stems largely from a lack of bench depth.

That depth took a hit with the Knick’s late-offseason trade that sent Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to Minnesota for Towns. Acquiring Towns — the NBA’s Player of the Month for December — has been a resounding success so far, but because it happened so close to the start of the season, the Knicks did not have much time to replenish their bench.

The continued absence of center Mitchell Robinson, who is rehabbing from May ankle surgery, has also hurt. Thibodeau said Monday that Robinson remains on track to be cleared to practice this month, and that sprinting would be his “next step.”

Precious Achiuwa, Landry Shamet and Miles “Deuce” McBride have also missed stretches with injuries, but even with all three healthy now, the bench production remains down.

Entering Monday, the Knicks ranked dead last in the NBA in bench scoring (20.4) and rebounding (9.9) while getting the fewest minutes from their reserves.

Cameron Payne’s 18 points off the bench — including 13 in the second quarter — helped the Knicks pull away in Sunday’s win.

But that wasn’t enough for the Knicks to snap a streak of 21 consecutive games in which their bench was outscored — a stretch dating back to Dec. 1.

Regain Shooting Numbers

Perhaps the most glaring culprit in the Knicks’ recent slide were their brutal shooting numbers.

During that stretch of four losses in five games, the Knicks shot below 30% from 3-point range in each of the defeats — including 12.9% (4-for-31) in Friday’s 126-101 loss to the Thunder at the Garden.

Anunoby began Monday shooting under 32% from 3-point range since the start of December and was just 1-of-10 in his previous two games.

The Knicks went into the game against the Pistons ranked seventh in the NBA in 3-point percentage (37.5%) and third in field-goal percentage (49.5%) for the season.

“We haven’t shot it well over the last five, but over the course of the season, we’ve shot it extremely well,” Thibodeau said. “Sometimes you can jump to conclusions. As most analytical people would say, it’s too small of a sample size.”

Brunson now boasts 17 games with at least 40 points as a Knick, tying him with Carmelo Anthony for the third most in franchise history.

Patrick Ewing, who achieved the feat 30 times, and Bernard King, who did so 23 times, are the only players in Knicks history with more 40-point games.

“When you start getting mentioned in those categories, it’s a credit to him,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said of Brunson. “He’s such a self-made guy, and his talent speaks for itself. You can’t do those things without great talent, but to also have the humility that he has. For him, he just wants to win.”

Sunday’s 140-106 win over the Milwaukee Bucks at Madison Square Garden marked Brunson’s 183rd game with the Knicks. Anthony played 412 games with the Knicks, while Ewing played 1,039 and King played 206.

Ewing was in attendance Sunday for Brunson’s latest 40-point explosion. It was Brunson’s second 40-point game of the season.

Brunson scored 23 points in the first quarter, beginning the game in attack mode as the Knicks sought to bounce back from a sobering 25-point loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Garden two days earlier.

It could have been an even bigger game for Brunson, had he not missed about six minutes in the third quarter after a collision left him with what Thibodeau described as a shoulder stinger.

Brunson scored 12 points after returning from the locker room and said after the game that he felt “great.”

“It was just important for us to go out there and play as best we can,” Brunson, 28, said. “The defense, the way we saw it, I was able to get into the paint and make plays.”

The Knicks had lost four of five games going into Sunday’s. Brunson shot 16-of-26 from the field, including 5-of-10 from 3-point range, and went 7-of-8 on free throws.

Brunson has often operated as a distributor this season, but the point guard has also taken over offensively when the Knicks need him to. He scored 19 points in the first quarter of a Dec. 6 win over the Charlotte Hornets and exploded for 55 points in an overtime victory at Washington on Dec. 28.

“If Jalen scores two points and we win, he’s as happy as if he scores 44 and we win,” Thibodeau said. “That’s the beauty of his game. He’ll adjust to whatever is needed.”

Ewing and King are both Hall of Famers, while Anthony, who ranks 10th in scoring in NBA history, is eligible for induction next year.

This is not the first time Brunson has found himself in elite company. Last year, Brunson became the fourth NBA player with four consecutive 40-point playoff performances, joining King, Michael Jordan and Jerry West.

Brunson is in his third season with the Knicks, whom he signed a four-year, $104 million contract with in 2022 after spending his first four NBA seasons with the Dallas Mavericks.

Over the summer, the Knicks signed Brunson to a four-year, $156.5 million extension and named him the 36th captain in team history.

Brunson began Monday averaging 25.5 points and 7.5 assists per game, both of which led the Knicks, and appears poised for his second consecutive All-Star selection. In the latest All-Star update, Brunson ranked fourth among guards in fan voting.

“He’s going to be an All-Star,” teammate Josh Hart said after Sunday’s win. “I think he should be a starter. I think he should garner that level of respect.”

Two days removed from a 25-point drubbing by the Oklahoma City Thunder that prompted boos from the Madison Square Garden crowd, the Knicks rebounded Sunday with a 140-106 rout of a Milwaukee Bucks team that sat just one spot behind them in the Eastern Conference standings.

It was a bounce-back performance that Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau believes “says a lot” about the character of his players.

“We know it’s a long season,” Thibodeau said. “The makeup of our team is outstanding. We’re not gonna be perfect. We’ll have some games where we fall short, but I know the work they put in and the commitment they made to each other, and that goes a long way over the course of a season. The idea is to play your best basketball at the end.”

The Knicks entered Sunday’s matinee at MSG as losers of four of their last five games. They shot below 30% from 3-point range in all four losses, bottoming out at just 12.9% in Friday’s 126-101 defeat by the red-hot Thunder.

The losses generated renewed attention around the lack of depth on a Knicks team that entered Sunday ranked dead last in the NBA in bench minutes, scoring and rebounding.

Amid that adversity, the Knicks’ stars stepped up.

Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 44 points on 16-of-26 shooting, scoring 23 points in the first quarter to set the tone. He could have had an even bigger game, had a third-quarter collision not left the point guard with what Thibodeau described as a shoulder “stinger.”

Brunson missed about six minutes in that third quarter before checking back in to chants of “MVP” from the home crowd.

“We’ve got to continue it,” Brunson said of the Knicks’ improved performance. “I don’t really want to have a lot of bounce-back days. I just want to be able to continue to get better every single day and continue to be consistent.”

Karl-Anthony Towns added 30 points and 18 rebounds, while Josh Hart contributed 11 points and 11 rebounds.

​​The Knicks made 18 of their 41 attempts from 3-point range (43.9%).

“It starts with Thibs, and then it trickles down to JB, KAT, OG [Anunoby], all them guys,” Hart said. “It shows the character we have. Now, we just have to continue to build off of it. We’ve got a tough team tomorrow [in the Detroit Pistons]; a young team who’s gonna run. Obviously, it’s a back-to-back for us, so we’ve got to make sure we come out with an attention to detail and intensity.”

But it wasn’t only the Knicks starters who came up big.

Cameron Payne scored 18 points off the bench, including 13 in the second quarter that helped the Knicks pull away. He shot 4-of-7 from the field in that quarter, including 3-of-6 from 3-point range.

“Cam comes in, and it was the second opportunities, him being in transition, and him getting a couple of clean looks,” Bucks guard Damian Lillard said. “You see the ball go in, and us being in that scramble situation and out of position, and then another guy gets going, it’s gonna be hard to win a game like that.”

Sunday did not fix all of the Knicks’ problems.

Their rotation remains thin following what’s been a very successful late-offseason trade for Towns, which cost them two key players in forward Julius Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo.

Rim-protecting center Mitchell Robinson remains out, too, following ankle surgery in May.

The Knicks have the hardest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon, as their 42 upcoming opponents boast a combined winning percentage of .525. That slate includes three more games against the NBA-best Cleveland Cavaliers and another three against the defending champion Boston Celtics.

But the third-seeded Knicks (26-14) improved to 2-0 against the Bucks (20-17), who fell to the No. 5 spot in the East with Sunday’s loss.

The Knicks also beat Milwaukee, 116-94, at the Garden in November, and afterward, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo bemoaned his team’s lack of effort.

“We’re definitely, I believe, a better team than the first time we faced them,” Antetokounmpo said Sunday. “But at the end of the day, they came in, played way harder than us, better than us, and they were able to get a win.”

He was waiting. Watching. Searching.

Moments earlier, his son — Knicks captain and soon-to-be two-time All-Star Jalen Brunson — had driven into the paint during the third quarter of Sunday’s matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks, absorbed contact, and floated a left-handed shot. But the aftermath was concerning. Brunson grimaced, hunched over, and clutched his right shoulder.

Taking a knee briefly before signaling to the bench, Brunson walked straight to the locker room, leaving the court and silencing a sold-out MSG crowd.

Rick Brunson followed. The elder Brunson, also an assistant coach for the Knicks, left the bench to check on his son. He soon returned to his post but made another trip to the locker room shortly after.

And then, Rick re-emerged from the tunnel he’d been fixated on. This time, he wasn’t alone. Jalen Brunson, the player carrying the weight of New York’s championship aspirations on his shoulders, jogged out behind him.

“I got hit, went to the locker room, did some shoulder tests, strength tests, and came back out,” said Brunson.

The MSG faithful erupted, rising to their feet in a deafening standing ovation. MVP chants echoed as Brunson walked straight to the scorer’s table, checked himself back into the game, and got back to business: getting buckets.

“I think it’s inspiring,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “A great leader unites and inspires. And it could be a lot of different ways. I’m a big believer not so much in what guys say but what they do.”

And the fans had every reason to chant.

Brunson scorched the Bucks with 23 points in the first quarter alone. He added four more in the second and five to start the third before his brief exit. Then he returned to finish with 44 points on 16-of-26 shooting, including 5-of-10 from downtown, in a dominant 140-106 blowout victory over Milwaukee in Sunday’s matinee matchup.

“He just wants to win. That’s the most important thing,” said Thibodeau. “If Jalen scores two points and we win, he’s as happy as if he scores 44 and we win. That’s the beauty of his game. He’ll adjust to whatever is needed.”

Brunson’s performance was a reversal of what happened in a Nov. 8 matchup between the Knicks and Bucks — also a blowout in favor of New York. On that night, it was Karl-Anthony Towns who erupted for 13 in the first quarter and another 14 in the second, finishing with 32 points while Brunson shot just 6-of-14 from the field for 15 points.

“[It felt like] Towns had 50 the last time,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said postgame on Sunday. “He was more aggressive early. I know in Game 1, it was Towns that got off right away. So they just flipped scripts. [Jalen is] tough, though. He’s a tough guy to guard.”

The Knicks snapped a troubling skid with the win, securing a much-needed confidence boost against a Bucks team also searching for consistency.

New York’s four losses in its previous five games included an embarrassing home defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder, which dropped the Knicks to 1-7 against top-tier NBA title contenders (Boston, Cleveland, Oklahoma City, Houston, Denver, and Dallas). By contrast, they’re 11-7 against Play-In-level teams and 12-1 against lottery-bound squads.

This inconsistency underscores the challenge ahead. The Knicks are entering a brutal stretch: 24 of their next 27 games are against teams vying for a playoff or Play-In spot, including seven matchups against true title contenders.

“There’s just a sense of urgency to have energy and just be prepared, be locked in on the game,” said Brunson. “We were just out there doing whatever it took. It was important for us to go out there and play as best we can. The defense, the way we saw it I was able tog et in the paint and make plays. It could be different the next day, but the same mindset every time we go out, it has to be like that.”

But against Milwaukee, the Knicks found their form — and some much-needed help from the bench.

Miles McBride, listed as questionable with a strained hamstring, played on Sunday. Yet it was Cameron Payne who made the most noise off the bench, torching Milwaukee for 18 points in just 14 minutes.

Karl-Anthony Towns delivered a monster game with 30 points, 18 rebounds, and four assists, while OG Anunoby and Josh Hart chipped in 11 points apiece.

Defensively, the Knicks stifled two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, holding him to 24 points on 10-of-21 shooting — well below his season average. The Bucks as a team struggled from deep, shooting just 29.4% (10-of-34) from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, the Knicks capitalized, sinking 18 threes on 41 attempts, largely due to the gravity Brunson created on a hot scoring night.

“It just opens things up,” said Hart. “Obviously he’s a great player and he demands attention, but when he gets it going like that, sometimes they start to fire and blitz him and we’re playing four on three, and we’re able to get open shots and play to our strengths.”

The game turned in the second quarter. The Knicks outscored the Bucks 39-29, then maintained their barrage when Brunson returned from his shoulder scare. Head coach Tom Thibodeau pulled his star guard with just under six minutes left in the fourth, Towns shortly after, and emptied the bench with over three minutes remaining.

We played with a sense of urgency, which is how we should always play. We executed at a high level. We got stops. We got some easy buckets. And obviously JB was knocking down shots. I was just trying to find the hot hand.

The decisive victory couldn’t have come at a better time for a team preparing for the second leg of a back-to-back against the feisty Detroit Pistons on Monday.

The early tip off and blowout win should pay dividends as the Knicks navigate this grueling stretch of their schedule.

For now, the spotlight shines on Brunson — the heart and soul of this team — and his ability to lead New York through the gauntlet ahead.

Asked Sunday about the Knicks’ lack of bench production, the Milwaukee Bucks’ head coach interjected with a line about Tom Thibodeau’s reputation for relying heavily on his starters.

“Has Thibs ever played the bench?” Rivers said with a laugh before his Bucks’ faced Thibodeau’s Knicks at Madison Square Garden. “I’m joking, I’m joking!”

But Rivers’ comment, while made in jest, came during a season in which the Knicks began Sunday ranked dead last among NBA teams in bench scoring (19.9 points per game) and rebounding (9.8 per game) while getting the fewest minutes out of their reserves.

The Knicks entered Sunday’s matinee with a 25-14 record — good for third in the Eastern Conference — thanks largely to an excellent, and healthy, starting five. But the Knicks had lost four of five games, including Friday’s 25-point blowout by the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Garden, highlighting their depth issues.

It’s a situation Rivers can relate to.

He recalled coaching the Los Angeles Clippers a few years ago at the Garden and having to lean on Lou Williams, who had gone out in the city the night before.

“He wanted to come out,” Rivers said. “He said, ‘Coach, I’m not drunk, but I’m hungover.'”

Williams recently told his version of the story, saying on “The Underground Show” that he was still drunk at game time. Rivers, he said, told him he needed to sweat out the alcohol in time for the fourth quarter.

Rivers said Sunday, “The truth is I look down [the bench] and I’m thinking, ‘Lou’s our best option.’ That happens at times. It’s tough, but you’ve got to [have] trust, and then we find out a lot of times you just can’t. When that happens, it does limit you. It limits your choices. You have to play guys bigger minutes.”

“If that’s what [the Knicks] are doing, they’re doing it for a reason,” Rivers said. “One thing we know as coaches: We see everybody every day in practice. We know exactly how guys are playing and who you can trust for the most part.”

The Knicks traded two key players — forward Julius Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo — less than a month before the season to acquire star center Karl-Anthony Towns from the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Mitchell Robinson continues to rehab from May’s ankle surgery, while Landry Shamet, Precious Achiuwa and Miles “Deuce” McBride have all missed time with injuries for different stretches this season.

Last season, the Knicks ranked 27th in bench scoring (28.4 points per game) and 24th in rebounding (13.9).

The Knicks beat the Bucks, 116-94, at MSG in November in the teams’ first meeting of the season. Rivers said he had not noticed the Knicks doing anything differently during their recent skid.

“The ball’s not going in,” Rivers said. “They also have played some pretty good teams. They played Oklahoma [City] twice. That’s probably not healthy for anybody.”

BIG KAT

In that November win against the Bucks, Towns erupted for 32 points, 11 rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes.

He shot 12-of-20 from the field, including 4-of-8 from 3-point range, and repeatedly blew past the more stationary Brook Lopez — a defensive matchup Rivers described Sunday as a “stupid” one to have assigned.

Towns, 29, entered Sunday averaging 25.2 points per game on 55.2% shooting and a career-high 13.9 rebounds per game.

Asked what Towns is doing differently compared to his nine seasons with Minnesota, Rivers cited multiple areas of improvement.

“He’s always rebounded, but it just seems like his rebounding has been spectacular,” Rivers said. “I don’t think he settles as much here. Before [Anthony Edwards], he basically could take every shot and do whatever he wanted, and now I think he feels a responsibility [to] his teammates now.”

“He has really good teammates,” the coach continued. “He has a team that is serious about going deep, and I think he feels that responsibility, so his shot selection is drastically improved and better. And then the last thing, I think he’s taking the ball off the dribble way more than he ever has.”

There’s too much pride in the Madison Square Garden home locker room to admit, “we need help.”

Yet, the cracks are visible.

With each loss, with each glaring shortcoming from a thin New York Knicks bench, it’s clear: this team needs a trade to keep their championship aspirations alive.

The warning signs have been there.

The Knicks have lost four of their last five games, exposing troubling vulnerabilities. Against the league’s elite — the top four seeds in both the East and West — the Knicks are just 2-5, underscoring the gap between so-called contenders and pretenders, the discrepancy between New York’s current form and true NBA title contention.

Friday’s 25-point blowout by a surging Oklahoma City Thunder team, a legitimate threat to the championship throne, showcased the troubling norm for opponents exploiting New York’s lack of reliable bench depth.

No team has relied more heavily on its starting five than the Knicks.

That over-reliance has taken a toll. It’s clear the starters are wearing down at a rate that one off day between games cannot fix.

Meanwhile, the bench remains woefully underutilized. After Precious Achiuwa, Deuce McBride, Landry Shamet, and Cam Payne, the Knicks’ reserves are full of youth and inexperience, players who have yet to prove they can handle meaningful minutes in high-stakes situations.

Head coach Tom Thibodeau traditionally does not expand his rotation beyond nine players. He is historically even more hesitant to do so for players who lack a track record of impacting winning at the professional level.

Even the anticipated return of Mitchell Robinson, still recovering from two surgeries on the same ankle, provides only cautious optimism. If Robinson returns, he’ll be thrust into the fire, and if he gets burned — if he gets hurt again — there may not be any coming back.

The strain on the starting five is mounting.

They’ve bent and bent all season long, but this is the closest this roster has come to breaking.

Yet, if there’s a silver lining in it all, it’s this: The Leon Rose-led front office has built a reputation as masters of in-season trades and doctors of reading the room.

Over the past four seasons, New York’s front office has been aggressive in making the necessary mid-season deals to keep the team on track to reach its goal.

The goal, after surrendering five draft picks and overseeing one of the largest payrolls in basketball, is undoubtedly a championship.

When history shows a pattern, it’s worth examining — and the Knicks’ trade history offers a roadmap for what might come next.

Feb. 8, 2021 — Knicks acquire Derrick Rose

THE DEAL

Knicks receive: Derrick Rose

Pistons receive: Dennis Smith Jr., 2021 second-round pick via Charlotte

The Knicks were stuck in mud, particularly due to poor play at the point guard spot. Dennis Smith Jr. and Elfrid Payton weren’t getting the job done, and while Immanuel Quickley was a promising rookie, he was too green to carry significant responsibilities, especially under a coach averse to playing young guys pressure minutes like Thibodeau.

So the Knicks front office identified a player Thibodeau trusted: Derrick Rose, who became the youngest MVP in league history under Thibs while carrying the Chicago Bulls to deep playoff runs.

The Knicks needed a veteran with poise, someone who could complement Julius Randle’s All-Star breakout and steady the young roster.

Derrick Rose checked every box.

He brought shot creation, leadership, and the ability to close games in crunch time. The impact was immediate.

Derrick Rose revitalized his career in New York, averaging nearly 15 points per game off the bench and shot a career-high 41% from three.

The Knicks were 11-14 before the deal. They went 30-17 after Derrick Rose’s arrival, salvaging what looked like a lost year to finish 41-31 in a COVID-19 shortened season.

The move helped the Knicks make their first playoff appearance in eight years. It epitomized the New York front office’s ability to assess a team’s needs and directly address them mid-season via trade.

Feb. 9, 2023 — Josh Hart traded to New York

THE DEAL

Knicks receive: Josh Hart

Portland Trail Blazers receive: Cam Reddish, Ryan Arcidiacono, Svi Mykhailiuk, protected first-round pick

If the Cam Reddish trade was a swing and a miss, the acquisition of Josh Hart the following year was a home run. Hart’s arrival transformed the Knicks overnight.

His relentless motor, defensive versatility, and ability to crash the boards gave the team a new identity.

Plus his arrival ushered in an era of Villanova basketball at Madison Square Garden. After pairing Jalen Brunson with Hart, the Knicks went on to sign Donte DiVincenzo in free agency. They later acquired Mikal Bridges from the Nets, though they offloaded DiVincenzo last summer in the deal for Karl-Anthony Towns.

Hart was a seamless fit next to Brunson and provided timely shooting and playmaking. The Knicks immediately went on a nine-game winning streak after his arrival and went 17-8 in games he appeared in after the trade.

New York went on to clinch a playoff spot and won their first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The front office knew their team needed new life and identified Hart as the player whose grit and hustle embodied the team’s culture shift.

It was a trade that elevated the Knicks from a fringe playoff team to legitimate threat at a second-round appearance.

Dec. 30, 2023 — Knicks go all-in on OG Anunoby

THE DEAL

Knicks receive: OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa, Malachi Flynn

Toronto Raptors receive: R.J. Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, 2024 second-round pick via Detroit 

Two things were clear at the end of 2023: R.J. Barrett was not a good fit alongside Brunson and Randle in the Knicks’ starting five, and New York was not going to pay Quickley the money he wanted. Not with Brunson’s contract extension looming.

So the Knicks and Raptors agreed to a deal sending OG Anunoby to New York. The deal reshaped the Knicks’ defensive identity and turned them into contenders overnight.

The drawback, of course, was Anunoby’s status as a pending unrestricted free agent. Under threat of walking away in free agency, and thus trading their two key young players for nothing, the Knicks were forced to meet Anunoby’s demands: a franchise-record five-year, $212.5 million deal.

Only time will tell whether or not the deal was a hit or a miss. Anunoby is one of the more dominant defensive players in all of basketball, but he is the last option on offense and has a troubling injury history.

The Knicks also received Achiuwa, who waived his no-trade clause to re-sign with the Knicks this season. His $6 million contract is one of few trade chips the front office now has to bolster its roster.

Feb. 8, 2024 — Depleted Knicks call in the cavalry

THE DEAL

Knicks receive: Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks

Pistons receive: Evan Fournier, Quentin Grimes, Malachi Flynn, Ryan Arcidiacono, two second-round picks

By February 2024, injuries had derailed the Knicks’ momentum.

Randle (shoulder), Robinson (ankle), and Anunoby (elbow) were sidelined, leaving the team desperate for reinforcements.

So the Knicks front office turned back to the Pistons. They acquired seasoned veterans, including a player Thibodeau trusted in Alec Burks, who had success playing under Thibodeau in the Knicks before.

This was a move born out of necessity, designed to stabilize a worn-down roster and inject much-needed scoring and bench depth. It sounds a lot like the situation the team is staring down today.

Bojan Bogdanović, a proven bucket-getter, stepped in as a reliable offensive weapon, though he struggled to find his footing and ultimately suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the first round of the playoffs.

Burks provided versatility and stability off the bench, but he, too, found himself out of the rotation by the end of the season.

Yet the deal had two-fold impact: First, the Knicks put bodies on the roster Thibodeau trusted to use right away. Second, they bolstered their bench in the hopes that their injured players would make a return.

The Knicks finished the season 50-32, and the trade underscored the front office’s ability to act decisively in the face of adversity, addressing pressing needs while keeping the team competitive.

***

The Knicks’ history of in-season trades since Leon Rose’s arrival paints a clear picture of a front office unafraid to act when the team needs a boost.

As the current roster bends under the weight of injuries and over-reliance on its starters, the question isn’t if the Knicks will make a move — it’s when.

The blueprint is there, and history suggests that this front office will once again take action.

It won’t be easy, not by a long shot, but New York’s championship hopes hinge on more bodies coming to rescue a starting lineup on dead legs before the midway point of the season.

It’s too late in the season to expect players who haven’t logged meaningful NBA minutes to perform competently in games with playoff implications.

Maybe they’d be ready today if they’d seen the floor in October.

But they didn’t, and they’re not. And now, the Knicks are drowning in their own championship waters.

This isn’t a bad basketball team. Far from it. But with every loss to a quality opponent, it becomes more evident: The Knicks are a step behind and several bodies short of the legitimate title contenders vying for the NBA championship.

Friday’s 126-101 loss to the Western Conference’s top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder underscored the gap.

The Thunder outclassed the Knicks on Jan. 3 in Oklahoma City. Then they came to Madison Square Garden and completed the season sweep. Former Knick Isaiah Hartenstein’s return to his old stomping grounds served as a poignant reminder of the depth the Thunder have cultivated — a stark contrast to the Knicks’ struggles.

The Knicks are now 12-13 against teams currently seeded 10th or better in their respective conferences. Against everyone else? A dominant 13-1.

Yet, a recurring theme has played out in losses to smarter, deeper teams. The starters log heavy minutes, the bench stretches three to four players max, and opposing coaches with 10 or more trusted players exploit it. They run the Knicks into the ground until cracks inevitably show.

In the first matchup against the Thunder, Aaron Wiggins erupted for 19 points off the bench, including 15 in the fourth quarter. On Friday, it was Isaiah Joe’s turn to shine.

Joe dropped a career-high 31 points on a blistering 8-of-11 from three and 11-of-16 overall. He singlehandedly matcged the Knicks’ bench, despite Miles McBride returning to the rotation after a five-game absence due to a hamstring injury.

But McBride’s presence wasn’t enough. The Thunder outscored the Knicks by 21 points in McBride’s 20 minutes. The starters didn’t fare much better: Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Mikal Bridges all posted net ratings of -23.

Bridges was unrecognizable, missing all nine of his shot attempts and failing to score. OG Anunoby managed just four points on 2-of-8 shooting, including 0-of-5 from deep.

Brunson poured in 27 points on 7-of-15 shooting, Towns contributed 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Hart notched a double-double with 16 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 steals.

None of it mattered. Not with Joe’s bench explosion and certainly not with Thunder MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander torching the Knicks for 39 points in just 29 minutes.

Which brings us back to the Knicks’ glaring issues: minutes, foul calls, and rotations. None of them alone will solve this team’s championship conundrum. The answer is clear with each passing loss to a quality opponent: the Knicks need to make a trade.

Leon Rose and the front office have excelled in-season before, but this time, the challenge is greater.

The Knicks are up against the second apron hard cap, leaving them no space to sign a player to a rest-of-the-season contract despite having an open roster spot. They also cannot take back more salary than they send out in a deal because they aggregated salaries in the Bridges and Towns trades. They also gave up five draft picks for Bridges plus another for Towns.

New York’s draft capital is limited, with little beyond a wealth of future second-round picks.

Mitchell Robinson could be a trade chip, but he’s also a potential solution. His return from ankle surgery might give the Knicks the interior presence they desperately need — if he stays healthy. But Robinson’s history suggests caution: two surgeries on the same ankle in less than a year raise concerns about durability.

Outside of Robinson, trade assets are slim: Precious Achiuwa ($6 million), McBride ($4.7 million), and minimum-salary players like Cam Payne and Jericho Sims.

Thibodeau’s options are equally limited. Extend the rotation, and opposing benches — deeper and more talented — will overwhelm the Knicks. Stick with the starters, and they’ll wear down, as they did against the Thunder.

And waiting for Robinson’s return is a gamble. If he’s healthy, the Knicks might have a chance. If not, they’ll find themselves outmatched in the playoffs.

The Feb. 6 NBA Trade Deadline looms, and the Knicks’ schedule doesn’t get any easier. They’re staring down a gauntlet of playoff contenders ready to feast on a fatigued, undermanned team.

Knicks fans know it, too. The boos were loud and emphatic as the Thunder pulled away at MSG.

His teammates and coaches brace for the whistle — after all, by the letter of the NBA rulebook, these are fouls.

But no whistle comes. Towns, increasingly frustrated with each no-call, plays on.

On the other end of the floor, the standard is reversed. Marginal contact becomes an automatic foul against the Knicks’ starting center.

The Knicks will tipoff against the OKC Thunder shortly, which means Karl-Anthony Towns will be called for fouls on one end, but ignored when hacked on the other.

How do I know this? Because it happens every game. The double standard must stop.

Column: https://t.co/AHO6njG3U8 pic.twitter.com/XPoASsn7U6

— Kristian Winfield (@Krisplashed) January 11, 2025

The frustration reaches a tipping point. How is it a foul on one end and not the other?

Entering Friday’s matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Towns led the NBA with 125 personal fouls called against him. Yet, it’s hard to find a player who feels more aggrieved by the lack of calls in his favor when he gets hacked at the rim.

This imbalance has been a constant since Towns joined the Knicks in the blockbuster trade that sent Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the Minnesota Timberwolves. And for a perennial All-Star, the discrepancy is glaring. He’s punished on one end and ignored on the other. It’s time something changes.

“I don’t know. That’s for y’all to highlight and draw attention to,” Josh Hart told the Daily News. “I feel like sometimes he does get fould. JB gets fouled, too. But at the end of the day, we’ve gotta make sure we shut up and let the refs ref and let them do their jobs and continue to hoop. That’s for y’all to draw attention to, and hopefully maybe something will change.”

Sure, Towns could be more disciplined defensively. His hand placement when contesting shots in the paint has room for improvement. But it’s laughable that the same tick-tack contact that earns fouls against him doesn’t translate into calls when he’s on offense.

Publicly criticizing officials carries hefty fines — up to $100,000 for players and coaches. Still, the frustration is palpable.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Towns told The News.

“There are answers to your questions,” added Jalen Brunson, smiling as he declined to elaborate.

Towns leads all 7-footers in drives to the rim. Yet, he averages just 2.4 free throw attempts off drives per game. For a player who absorbs significant contact on every drive, that number doesn’t add up.

“Like attacking the rim, and there’s a straight line drive, and there’s force, and he’s getting hit. I think that’s what you’re saying, right?” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau responded when asked about the lack of calls. “I would agree.”

At seven feet tall and 248 pounds, Towns is often the largest player on the court. Perhaps officials believe his size allows him to absorb contact more easily. Maybe that’s why no true center averages more than 2.5 free throw attempts off drives per game.

“I don’t know — you’ve gotta ask the refs that one,” Hart said.

The lack of calls is undeniable. Officials seem hyper-focused on Towns defensively but turn a blind eye when he attacks the rim.

And like Towns himself said: “I don’t know what to tell you.”

Maybe the officials have a better answer.

The Knicks get the Thunder, one of the two best teams in the league along with the Cavaliers, and then on Sunday they get a Bucks team that has been 17-8 since starting out 2-8. So the Knicks see, and at home, how they measure up, at least for now, against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his guys at home, and then Giannis Antetokounmpo and his guys.

Always across the long season, there are loud regular season moments that have a postseason feel. The Knicks get two of them, right here and right now, back-to-back.

Good time for these games to come along, for sure. But still: How good are these Knicks, really?

They absolutely had the 9-game winning streak that ended in Oklahoma City. But that streak included two wins over the Wizards, currently 6-29. One over the Jazz, who are 9-26. One over the 8-29 Raptors and another over the 7-31 Pelicans. The other three wins came against the 22-16 Magic, and the 19-17 Timberwolves, the night Towns put it on his old team.

The reality of this, as always, is that you play who you play, and certainly don’t throw back any wins when you’re trying to retain at least some kind of contact with the Cavs, and with the Celtics. But another reality of the Knicks season is this:

Around that winning streak, so much of it against the dregs of the league, they are a .500 team.

They are also closer in the standings to the 9th place Pistons, who come into the Garden next week, than they are to the first-place Cavaliers. And they face the same questions about depth that they faced last season, and that means before everybody started getting hurt. And make it hard to remember very many games this season when you came away from a Knicks victory thinking how important the guys off the bench were, and that means even when Deuce McBride has been healthy.

Here’s what Leon Rose, who has been a star since taking over the Knicks, said after bringing a star like Towns to the team:

“Karl-Anthony brings a skillset that is unique to the game of basketball. He possesses a blend of playmaking, shooting, rebounding and defending that in combination with his size allows him to compete at a level that is rare in this league.”

Leon may have gotten a little carried away with the part about the unique skill set in a sport that still has LeBron in it, but you get the idea. Rose was taking a big swing here, not for next season, or the one after that. Since the start of the 2023-24 season, though, he’s been swinging away, adding OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges and Towns, and you see where the Knicks are, sitting in third place in the conference, with only the Cavs and the defending champs ahead of them, even if the Cavs are ahead by a lot.

But a lot of Rose’s draft capital is gone and, if he still thinks this edition of the Knicks needs more, it’s going to be a lot more difficult to make it better at the trade deadline, one year after he swung the trade for Anunoby. Not because Rose doesn’t have his own skill set as an executive, just because he is in a bit of a box.

Without going all inside baseball here, or basketball, the Knicks are currently in the second tier above the luxury tax line, known as the second apron. And landing there comes with a laundry list of penalties and restrictions on spending. Teams in this tier cannot take on more salary than they send out in a trade (teams under the luxury tax line can take back up to 125% of outgoing salary); cannot make use of trade exceptions or bundle multiple players’ salaries in a trade; cannot sign players who have been bought out of their contracts.

Those are some of the tools traditionally used by contending teams to shore up holes during long runs of success or to fabricate a coherent roster around multiple max-contract stars. But these days, the Knicks have access to none of them. Perhaps their most attractive — and expendable — trade chip would be Mitchell Robinson, but with his injury history, what are they going to get in return for Robinson at this point?

Listen: When the Knicks have played their best this season, whatever the opponent, they have shown you what an outstanding starting five they have, and an old-school ability to play from the inside out. Towns has the ability to score big, so does Jalen Brunson, and Bridges, and OG. Josh Hart has the ability, clearly, to go for a triple double on any given night. We see what they all can do, and we know how much of the load they’re already carrying for Tom Thibodeau, and how little help they get off the bench, especially when McBride is hurt.

The Knicks have a starting five more talented than the last one was, without question. They’re fun to watch, they’re a tough out, they even looked as if they might pass the Celtics not too very long ago. Right they’ve got 10 games until LeBron comes to town on Feb. 1, and as they go past the halfway point of the season: Thunder, Bucks, Pistons, 76ers, T’wolves, Hawks, Nets, Kings, Grizzlies, Nuggets. Be a good time for them to get hot again, starting on Friday night. Start showing us how much game they’ve really got.

And just in time, because things are about to heat up at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks are set to host six straight teams projected to qualify for the playoffs, a grueling stretch that will test their depth.

The Toronto Raptors aren’t a playoff-bound group and the Knicks handled them accordingly, pulling away in the second half for a 112-98 victory at home on Wednesday night.

This win was necessary — and expected. Of the Knicks’ 19 victories in their 23-game tear leading into the New Year, 12 came against lottery-bound teams and three against an Orlando Magic squad progressively weakened by injuries with each matchup.

Wednesday’s win improved the Knicks to an impressive 13-3 against teams not contending for a playoff spot. Against playoff-bound or Play-In hopeful teams, however, their record sits at a more modest 12-10.

The stakes will only rise from here. The Knicks won’t see another lottery team until Jan. 21, when they travel across the bridge to face the Brooklyn Nets. Until then, they’ll endure a punishing slate of playoff-caliber opponents, including:

• A rematch with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
• A showdown with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.
• A gritty battle against the .500 Detroit Pistons.
• A visit to Philadelphia to face Joel Embiid and the 76ers.
• Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo’s return to The Garden with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
• And a highly anticipated rematch with Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks, who eliminated the Knicks from the NBA Cup quarterfinal, complete with Young’s infamous dice-rolling celebration at center court.

After Brooklyn, the Knicks face an equally daunting schedule: Sacramento, Memphis, Denver, Los Angeles, Houston, and a rematch with the Raptors in Toronto. Then come more tests: the reigning champion Boston Celtics, a road matchup against the Indiana Pacers, and another showdown with the Hawks leading into the All-Star break.

That’s 14 of the next 16 games against teams with playoff aspirations.

Which made Wednesday’s win against the Raptors — especially after a three-game skid to Oklahoma City, Chicago, and Orlando — a non-negotiable victory.

And the Knicks delivered.

Toronto’s young core of Scottie Barnes, R.J. Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley made things interesting, but they couldn’t match the firepower of a Knicks starting five determined to push this team to the NBA Finals.

Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby were unstoppable, each scoring 27 points to power the Knicks’ offense. Anunoby, playing against his former team, shot a blistering 8-of-13 from the field and 4-of-6 from deep, while Towns looked fresh in his return after missing Monday’s loss to the Magic with right knee tendinopathy.

Barrett scored 16 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Quickley added 22 points on 7-of-12 from the field, while Barnes contributed a balanced line of 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists.

Josh Hart was everywhere, finishing with 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists, while Jalen Brunson chipped in 13 points and 7 assists, orchestrating the offense with his usual poise.

The game was well in hand by the fourth quarter, allowing head coach Tom Thibodeau to empty his bench with three minutes remaining — a rare luxury for a team whose starters have logged heavy minutes in recent games.

Those three minutes of rest were a welcome reprieve for a starting five that has carried the load through a grueling stretch. But they’ll need much more to prepare for their next challenge: a rematch with the West’s top-seeded Thunder on Friday night.

For now, the Knicks are back on track, but their resolve will be tested as they navigate this brutal gauntlet of playoff-caliber opponents. The margin for error is slim, and how they respond could have implications on end-of-the-season seeding.