I have no doubt in my mind that New York is still riding the fever dream high of winning the 2026 NBA Championship, finally ending a 53-year long title drought and making up for all the years of Knicks fans having to endure a whirlwind of emotions.
The Knicks are just the latest line of NBA squads to raise the Larry O'Brien trophy, marking the eighth-straight year where a different team has been crowned the champion.
And while it's a unique crop of guys getting the job done again, New York shares a common thread with so many of the teams before them, in the case of their talented depth. The darling of Knicks Nation is, of course, star guard and Finals MVP Jalen Brunson. But the cast around him is no joke either: Karl- Anthony Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart obviously round out the starting lineup.
Then, you look elsewhere on the roster and it's guys like Mitchell Robinson, Deuce McBride, Landry Shamet, Jose Alvarado, Jordan Clarkson — all names you can throw into a playoff game and get meaningful minutes. Even the reserves like Jeremy Sochan, Ariel Hukporti, Mo Diawara, and Tyler Kolek are strong names to have at the end of your bench.
NBA insider Marc Stein of The Stein Line emphasized this point on a recent edition of the ALL NBA Podcast (YouTube link here) and offered an interesting perspective on the Knicks' title aftermath:
Knicks serve as a model for what the Raptors should aim to replicate
"[...] I think teams around the league are looking at the Knicks to see what they can glean for themselves, to see what they can use as a blueprint. [...] But the Knicks did look to me somewhat like Indiana last year. A team that was deep, a team where the coach was not afraid to put his eighth, ninth, 10th guy in the game. And I think in today's NBA, because of the pace of play, because of the way the toll that injuries take and that everybody seems to deal with injuries, you need the deepest possible team. I mean, we're seeing that and I think that's something that teams will want to try to emulate."
A team like the Toronto Raptors could definitely look at what the Knicks were able to carve out for themselves here and take inspiration. The Raptors know first hand what it means to make it to title glory with a similar blueprint, having done so in 2019 with a superstar at the forefront and endless depth from top to bottom. This isn't something completely missing from the Raptors' lineage, but seeing where things currently stand, Toronto is definitely a few steps behind from being the well-oiled machine they were seven years ago.
Sure, the Raptors have a talented cast featuring Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Brandon Ingram, Immanuel Quickley, and some rising youth in the mix too, but depth has been a key issue facing Toronto for several years now. It was understandable seeing as the Raptors were in the middle of a rebuilding/retooling phase, but with their recent playoff berth and strong showing, it should only be up from here for Toronto.
And Stein makes an important note about the state of the league, referencing how cutthroat the landscape of competition can get with injuries, pace, and just the overall toll of an 82-game season. We saw samples where the Raptors would be forced to navigate or outright struggle due to key injuries to guys like RJ Barrett, Jakob Poeltl, Collin Murray-Boyles, and into the playoffs, it only got tougher with the Quickey and Ingram losses.
Toronto's depth being challenged can sometimes give us surprise feel-good breakthroughs like a Jamison Battle game, an AJ Lawson game, or even an Alijah Martin game — but you can see the Raptors aren't exactly a mirror of what the Knicks or other teams before them have built. It takes a lot to star power and superb roster building to have about 11 guys who deserve minutes. You could make the argument that right now, Toronto only has about eight or nine truly playable guys in the rotation, and one of them (Sandro Mamukelashvili) is a free agent.
What happens when the blows just keep on coming, like Stein said? That is where we see true championship grit and identity emerge from an NBA roster. Darko Rajakovic has been experimental with his rotations before, but I don't know if he's 100% confident to plug in players to this degree just yet — I mean, just look at how the runs of Jonathan Mogbo or Gradey Dick have turned out.
It's largely why I've pressed the idea of eventually adding vets on your roster as being crucial for any young team (the Knicks actually have a bunch that Toronto could explore this summer).
In light of what New York was able to accomplish, Toronto's front office must catch wind of this winning strategy. and begin to build a roster where almost your entire roster can slot in at any given point and be impactful. The Raptors must see where they are wasting roster spots, lagging behind the NBA's elite, and slowly, take that leap into the next stage of their evolution as a contender.
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