There’s light at the end of the tunnel for the Knicks.

It hurts now, but the future’s bright.

To have come so far and to see it all disintegrate.

It felt like the sky was the limit when the final buzzer sounded at Madison Square Garden on May 16, when the Knicks slayed the defending champions in six games and secured a rematch with the Indiana Pacers in their first Eastern Conference Finals since 2000. After beating the best team in basketball that you were carefully constructed to conquer, who can’t you beat?

Unfortunately, the Knicks learned the downside of designing your team to beat a specific opponent, it can leave you compromised against a team with a different playstyle. They had hoped that their talent alone could overcome matchup deficiencies against others and were focused on getting to the matchup with Boston.

Despite all the confidence in the world after that second-round victory, the Knicks fell short. Despite building a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter of Game 1, a collapse of epic proportions immediately put them behind the 8-ball. After losing Game 2 and Game 4, the Knicks were pushed to the brink, only to respond and get the series back to Indiana, where it, as well as the season, would end on Saturday night. It’s the fallacy of the predetermined outcome, but at worst, the Knicks would most likely be playing Game 7 on Monday if they made one more free throw, one more pass, or got one more stop in Game 1. That thought will haunt the team and fanbase for the foreseeable future.

There are mixed emotions with the season coming to an abrupt end. If we go back to P&T’s season predictions, the Knicks had a pretty standard regular season, as all of our writers picked between 49 and 55 wins, as well as the No. 2 or No. 3 seed. They finished with 51 and the No. 3.

If you told a fan before the season that the Knicks would make the conference finals and prove they belong with the Celtics, they’d consider the season a success.

However, if you told them that you were the No. 3 seed and bounced by Indiana again, they’d consider it a massive failure.

In all, it’s just confusing. The opportunity was there for the team to play in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, and it slipped through their fingers. Despite the currently weak state of the Eastern Conference, you just don’t know if they’ll get another chance quite like this. But this is what we wanted from this season. They made tangible progress, improving their win total for the third straight year and advancing further as well.

As much as it absolutely feels like the Knicks pissed away a golden opportunity, there’s hope for the future.

For one, the Knicks don’t have to deal with cap hell… yet.

Thanks to the unprecedented pay cut taken by Jalen Brunson last offseason, the Knicks will likely stay below the second apron in 2026-27 and still be able to make improvements off the bench. They’ll have the near-$6 million Taxpayer MLE at their disposal and could hunt for an archetype of player at Pick No. 50 in the draft that could contribute right away, similar to Memphis’ slam dunk pick of Jaylen Wells at No. 39 last season. A few recent mock drafts have them quadrupling down on the Nova Knicks, drafting Villanova forward Eric Dixon, who led D-I in scoring last season.

They should also have cheap depth at their disposal in the form of their current rookie class. While not ready to step into the limelight this year, an offseason of development could lead to one or two contributing next season.

Ariel Hukporti appeared to be in line for playoff minutes prior to a February meniscus tear, and his path to backup center minutes cleared one less obstacle with the likely departure of pending free agent Precious Achiuwa. Tyler Kolek could assume some backup guard play with the departure of Cam Payne and Delon Wright, depending on other moves, while wings Pacome Dadiet and Kevin McCullar Jr. will benefit greatly from playing in Summer League (especially McCullar, who missed a lot of time with injury).

On the topic, the Knicks will also have a full offseason with their core, if they so choose.

Barring any moves to their top seven, they’ll be able to dig in on what went wrong this season and what can be fixed for next season. Remember, Karl-Anthony Towns didn’t get here until the eve of training camp last year. Mitchell Robinson missed the first four months. Deuce McBride was in-and-out of the lineup with a few minor injuries.

Speaking of Robinson, he was clearly running on fumes late in games this series. Indiana’s pace, as well as the fact that he played more high-stress playoff minutes (370) than regular season minutes, trying to get in shape (290). A healthy offseason for him would be massive, especially if the double-big lineups, which had their ups and downs all postseason, are seen as viable going forward.

Sometimes, cores just need time to mesh. Although they made a coaching change, Kenny Atkinson didn’t single-handedly elevate the Cavs from 48 to 64 wins with minimal personnel change; the pieces just fit together better. The same can be said for the Pacers, who pretty much ran it back and are now in the NBA Finals. I don’t see any drastic roster changes because, in the end, isn’t this the season the front office anticipated in Year 1? A competitive conference finals exit?

123 days. That’s how long it is until the next time the orange and blue will don the hardwood in Abu Dhabi for the beginning of the 2025-26 preseason on October 2. As much as things will stay the same, a good amount will be different. It’s out of our control now, we just have to wait and see.

Go Knicks.