Opening night is upon us. In a matter of hours, the Sixers will take the Madison Square Garden floor to face the defending champions, kicking off their season – and the Sixers tenures of LeBron James and Jaylen Brown – against the New York Knicks.

A new regular season beginning means a new slate of game previews. Keep an eye out for these Q&As on the mornings of Sixers games in which PhillyVoice speaks with someone covering or following the Sixers' opponent.

Leading off in 2026-27: Gavin Schall, the host of Locked on Knicks – where you can find a podcast previewing this game with yours truly.

Let's talk to Gavin:

Adam Aaronson: The only significant change to New York's title-winning rotation is that former backup center Mitchell Robinson has been replaced by our old friend Andre Drummond. How do you expect Drummond to handle that rotation spot?

Gavin Schall: The Knicks deciding not to pay Mitchell Robinson was the first bit of pain and frustration Knicks fans had to endure post-title. It was painful on a number of levels. Robinson was one of the longest-tenured players with one team in the NBA. He was an incredibly fun personality and kind of mirrored the rise of the franchise as a whole from an incredibly raw and flawed prospect to one of the most dominant offensive rebounders in NBA history. His last act as a Knick was walking the NBA’s golden boy down under the rim and beating him for a championship-sealing rebound.

I say all this to say Andre Drummond has some incredibly big shoes in the eyes of Knicks fans. I’ve been dubious all offseason about his ability to do that. He’s an awesome offensive rebounder, but is coming off a merely very good season in that capacity vs. Robinson, who set a single-season record for offensive rebounding percentage and offensive rebounds per 36 minutes.

Drummond’s biggest weakness offensively is his rim finishing. He was in the bottom 10 percent of centers in converting at the basket each of the last two seasons, per Cleaning The Glass. A lot of the Knicks’ second-unit offense was derived from Robinson’s vertical gravity drawing in a defense, even if the Knicks lacked the lob passers to fully actualize it.

The other substantial area of perceived drop off was switchability and rim protection defensively. While Robinson is likely past his peak as a rim protector, he’s still substantially better than Drummond, who was one of the league’s worst last season.

That being said, Drummond has largely excelled this preseason for the Knicks. You always take any preseason production with a substantial grain of salt, but Drummond looks to be in fantastic shape. He’s been springy off the floor defensively, elevating quickly to block shots as soon as they leave an opponent's hands. He’s averaging just under two blocks in under 15 minutes per game. Knicks head coach Mike Brown has mostly used him in a shallow drop, and he’s been able to quickly jolt to the level to contest runners when ball handlers turn the corner.

He’s also been revelatory as a passer, averaging over two assists per game. Though it was popularized as a playoff innovation, the Knicks ran a lot of offense through their centers last regular season. Robinson was mostly limited to dribble handoffs and dives, while Drummond brings a lot more diversity as a hub. Drummond can run the same loop actions the Knicks like to run with Karl-Anthony Towns and hit a cutter or spot a defender tilted the wrong direction and laser a pass to the corner. He’s also shown the same ability as Robinson to find shooters off an offensive rebound.

The explosion he’s shown defensively hasn’t consistently translated to rebounding, as he’s been beaten a surprising amount there, but Drummond had clearly his best performance in that capacity in the Knicks' final preseason game and only win over the Raptors.

The finishing will likely remain an issue, particularly in traffic; he’s rarely going to elevate quickly, but that final game against the Raptors was encouraging in that respect as Drummond got off the hardwood for two loud dunks. He’s also made centers pay for playing off of him multiple times by driving right into their body. He had a beautiful one against the Raptors, attacking Jakob Poeltl’s chest, spinning off him and finishing with a jelly lay.

We’ll see if Drummond can retain the verve all season against locked-in and sometimes better defenders, but early returns are largely good.

MORE: Sixers mailbag: 2026-27 predictions

AA: The Knicks are rightfully considered the safest bet to contend in this year's loaded Eastern Conference. Do you believe the Sixers present the most significant threat to the Knicks' chances of getting back to the NBA Finals? If not, which team does?

GS: I personally don’t think so, but I understand that could look stupid later tonight.

As we discussed on Locked On Knicks, I’m going to need to see if Joel Embiid finds the Fountain of Youth and starts moving like it’s 2018 again defensively (or at least substantially better than he did last year). The Knicks had a 146.5 offensive rating when Embiid was on the court in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. New York relentlessly put him in action, and he didn’t stand a chance against Jalen Brunson in space; if he sat back, the Finals MVP could bomb away from three.

Philly can counter this by playing Embiid on Josh Hart and playing ghost coverage. Sixers head coach Nick Nurse has been reticent to sit back and watch Hart shoot. As dominant a ceiling as the Sixers offense could have, they’re not going to be able to outscore a healthy Knicks team if Embiid isn’t moving substantially better.

To be fair to Embiid, it sounds like this is the healthiest he’s been in years, and he’s had a full camp for the first time in years to build chemistry defensively. I’ll believe it when I see it in the playoffs. This might be another controversial statement for Sixers fans, but in a world where LeBron James would have come regardless, I think they would have been better off keeping Paul George over acquiring Jaylen Brown. Brown has less utility than George off-ball, and while he might have a higher ceiling for a single-possession stop, he isn’t the overall defender George is.

I don’t know what it’s going to look like with him as a fourth option, or how much it’ll lead to internal frustration for the Sixers. Nurse knows this and will likely stagger his stars heavily. Brown undeniably provides Philly a much higher floor than George when James and/or Embiid are out.

Tyrese Maxey is one of the NBA’s most dangerous offensive weapons, and with a full artillery of firepower around him someone the Knicks are going to have a lot of issues slowing down. VJ Edgecombe is an extremely uncomfortable hiding place for Brunson. One area Embiid can greatly hurt the Knicks is getting Towns in foul trouble. Drummond is a big frame but isn’t in the same universe as Robinson as a Plan B against Embiid. I say this all this to clarify the Sixers' upside is incredibly high, and if they get all their talent pointed in the same direction, they definitely have the ceiling to beat the Knicks.

I’d be lying if I told you I had a strong opinion on who the Knicks' toughest opponent will be. On any given day, I could say the Celtics, Pistons, Pacers, Heat, and perhaps even the Magic. But today I’d probably go with the Raptors as the team I’d least want to see in the playoffs. Between Kawhi Leonard, Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles, the Raptors are likely the only Eastern Conference team with three players that all credibly guard every member of the Knicks' Big Three (Murray-Boyles on Brunson may be a stretch, but you get the idea).

MORE: What did we learn during 2026 Sixers training camp and preseason

AA: Finish this sentence: if the Knicks have a disappointing season coming off their championship, it will be because...

GS: As a guy with significant anxiety, this question is right up my alley, Adam.

The first thing my mind goes to is the Knicks' (read: James Dolan’s) unwillingness to go into the second apron. While I’m excited about how Drummond looks so far, the Knicks' ceiling is undeniably lower sans Robinson and gives them one less answer in a potential rematch vs. Victor Wembanyama.

As telegraphed by numerous reports of Leon Rose chasing backup centers this offseason and even signing Mavericks center Moussa Cissé to an offer sheet, the Knicks clearly don’t think they’re set at this spot and will potentially have to move off one of the league’s best bench talents in Deuce McBride to acquire one later in the year.

The Knicks not operating in the second apron also prompted them to trade out of the first round. Now, to improve internally, the Knicks are reliant on continuing to build on the chemistry they’ve found with their starters the last two years and perhaps a leap from 2025 second-round find Mo Diawara.

Injuries are also a significant concern. After having the majority of their rotation out by the end of the 2024 playoffs, the Knicks brought in Casey Smith as the Vice President of Sports Medicine from the Mavericks (another Nico Harrison casualty) and have had good health when it’s mattered most. Any regression to the mean from stars with long injury histories such as Towns and OG Anunoby could put the Knicks' repeat hopes on the rails.

The most likely scenario is those issues interacting with the strongest Eastern Conference of my lifetime. The fact of the matter is the Knicks could be favorites in each individual series, but it’d be tough to bet on any team winning three series in a row against the level of opponent the Knicks would face in each round. Even if they do, they’re likely to be far more battered going into the Finals than they were after 10 straight relatively easy wins and over a week off before the final round.

For me personally, if the Knicks reach the Eastern Conference Finals again and hold their own once they get there, it would be tough to call the season a disappointment. The Thunder are the only one of the last six NBA champions before the Knicks to get that far in their repeat attempt. It’s by design incredibly difficult to do in the modern NBA.

If they get it done in this Eastern Conference, with either the ridiculously loaded Thunder or Spurs likely waiting for them, it would be one of the greatest accomplishments in NBA history.

MORE: Before trade, Jaylen Brown went to Morocco with two soon-to-be teammates