NBA legend Kevin Garnett recently ranked the best teams in the Eastern Conference, naming the New York Knicks as the second-best franchise heading into the 2024-25 season.
Garnett played in the East for eight seasons between 2007 and 2015 for the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets. Although he played in an era when the East was tilted toward the top, but clearly the little brother of the formidable Western Conference, the former 2004 NBA MVP knows better than anyone what it takes to make a team that oozes championship DNA.
The former 2008 NBA champion called the defending champion Celtics the best team in the conference, followed by the Knicks in a recent matchup.
During the Julius Randle era in New York, the Knicks were labeled as an outsider in the East. However, once Jalen Brunson blossomed into their franchise player, they became a bonafide threat.
Now that the Knicks have significantly improved their roster once again this summer, “The Big Ticket” thinks the only team that will stand in their way is the Celtics, who have the hardware and experience behind their talented roster. Boston.com’s Trevor Hass summarized Garnett’s ranking of the East’s best teams on a recent episode of his “Ticket and the Truth” podcast with Celtics legend Paul Pierce, as he shared on his X profile:
“It’s a big buzzsaw right above them, a green buzzsaw that’s cutting everything in half,” Garnett said of the Celtics looming over the Knicks as the supreme team in the East.
“Garnett said, in his eyes, it’s: Celtics, Knicks, 76ers. Pierce asked Garnett if the 76ers are as good as the Celtics with Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid and Paul George,” Hass summarized.