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The people have spoken.

Over 3,000 fans let their voices be heard about the New York Knicks’ upcoming season, the state of the franchise and more in The Athletic’s Knicks fan survey. Unlike last year, expectations aren’t as grand, and that’s likely because New York, for the first time in 53 seasons, is the reigning NBA champion.

In hopes of repeating, the Knicks are bringing back almost the same team as last season. They’ll try to defend their title in an Eastern Conference that has gotten tougher in just a few months. Don’t get me wrong: The expectations are still high. However, New Yorkers aren’t going to stop celebrating this championship run anytime soon.

With all that said, let’s get into the results for each question and my thoughts on everything.

Question 1: How far do the Knicks have to go next season for you to consider it a success?

Knicks fans want success, but they don’t need another title … not right now, at least. It appears everyone is still buzzing off the dominant championship run that concluded in June.

Over 80 percent of voters would be OK with New York not going back-to-back. If the Knicks do win it all again, they’d be the first team since the 2017-18 Golden State Warriors to win in consecutive seasons. Parity is at an all-time high, with eight different NBA champions in the past eight seasons. So, it’s possible that fans factored that into their equation.

Regardless, the weight of the Knicks jersey, which several players have talked about, has gotten a little lighter … finally.

Question 2: How confident are you that the Knicks will be the No. 1 seed in the East?

The defending Eastern Conference champions certainly deserve the right to be the favorites. That comes with the territory.

With that said, “cautiously optimistic” followed by “non-zero chance” feel like good choices here, based on how the Knicks have performed the last few regular seasons. They haven’t come out of the gate red hot the last two years. They also tend to have a few stretches per season that surely can be maddening for fans to watch — where they get blown out by good teams, lose to average teams and barely beat bad teams.

My gut tells me that New York won’t start this season well, and I wouldn’t blame it. It seems like the celebrations from the title are just now easing up in late August. Jalen Brunson had wrist surgery over the summer and should be ready by camp, but I’m sure he will need time to get in rhythm. Karl-Anthony Towns just got married. They’ll have to adapt to life without Mitchell Robinson and all that he provided. Plus, I’m sure it’ll be hard to walk into the regular season not too far removed from the intensity of postseason basketball at its highest stage.

The rest of the East has gotten better. There are teams that I believe are built for the regular season more than the Knicks. My guess is they’ll end up with the No. 3 seed again. Yet, as they’ve shown, playing at a high level come the postseason is all that matters.

Question 3: Do you want Karl-Anthony Towns to get a max extension?

Brunson set the precedent to help build this championship team, and it’s clear that fans want the players to do what is necessary to keep it together for as long as possible.

You don’t have to worry about Towns getting a max extension, as I wrote about recently. It will be fascinating, though, to see what the two sides agree to, based on the Knicks not offering a max and Towns deserving one. Towns is a team player, and I think he will take less money than he could get. I don’t worry about this being a public spat, not after the championship run. Yet, Towns probably shouldn’t be asked to take a considerable amount less than the max.

Both sides finding the balance of what will help the team and rewarding Towns for the success that has come since his arrival is a negotiation I wish I could watch.

Question 4: Do you think the Knicks should have gone into the second apron to retain Mitchell Robinson?

I tend to agree with the plurality here: I’m not going into the second apron to retain a bench player. With that said, Robinson might be the greatest offensive rebounder of all time and is a good rim protector as well. That level of dominance on the offensive glass isn’t a quality most teams have, and it certainly gave New York an advantage over its opponents far more often than it didn’t.

Also, last year’s team deserved the opportunity to defend its title. I’m with the 30.9 percent on that.

It’s a tough call. I see both sides, from both a business and basketball operations standpoint. The Knicks would have been very limited with their roster building had they retained Robinson for anywhere near what he got from the Boston Celtics.

Question 5: Did you want LeBron James to join the Knicks?

LeBron James’ agent, Rich Paul, said that, had the Knicks not won the title, James would have gone to New York this summer. It takes two to tango, but surely the Knicks’ brass would have entertained the idea more than they did if the team had bowed out of the postseason before the finals for the second straight season.

The James-to-Knicks ship feels like it sailed about a decade ago. He had several opportunities throughout his long career to play 41 games inside Madison Square Garden per season and elected not to — not once, not twice, but three times. Knicks fans seem to be over the circus and would rather bask in the glory of what they have at home.

I’m with the 71 percent on this one.

Question 6: As many teams in the East got better, did you want the Knicks to make a big offseason move?

This was a no-brainer result. The Knicks are the best team in the East until proven otherwise. And while they’ll miss Robinson, it’s not like they went on arguably the most dominant postseason run in history with him performing at his best.

Other than signing James, which wasn’t going to happen, the big move wasn’t there, not without making a trade. Brunson and Towns weren’t getting moved after a championship. OG Anunoby wasn’t getting moved, especially not after the postseason he had. Bridges and Hart aren’t getting packaged together, and neither would bring back a “big” player individually.

If the Knicks were going to make a huge offseason move after winning the title, adding James would have been the only thing that maybe, sorta made sense. And they didn’t think it made sense.

Question 7: A year later, have your thoughts on the hiring of Mike Brown changed?

When I asked fans in last year’s survey whether they liked the hiring of Mike Brown, roughly 70 percent of voters answered, “I’m not sure yet.”

Mr. “Who let the dogs out?” has won the popular vote.

It took some trial and error, but part of Brown’s willingness to experiment with lineups, players and X’s and O’s, I believe, is what helped him win over Knicks fans. Being the coach of the first team to win a title in 50-plus years helps, too.

Question 8: Do you want the Knicks to keep Miles McBride, who has one year left on his contract?

I’m not too surprised by this result, because it’s clear that New Yorkers love them some Miles “Deuce” McBride. To learn that, all you have to do is be inside Madison Square Garden, or any other NBA arena, and hear fans chant, “Deuceeeeee!” each time McBride rises to shoot.

This is by far the most split fan voters were on a question. McBride will be an unrestricted free agent after this season and a prime trade candidate by the Feb. 11 deadline if he doesn’t reach an extension with New York. The extension seems unlikely based on what McBride should want (and likely can get from another team) and New York wanting to keep as much flexibility as possible.

The Knicks, who drafted McBride in the second round of the 2021 draft, have had the 25-year-old guard on a steal of a deal since they signed him to a three-year, $13 million contract in 2023, before he was even a regular contributor. New York projected McBride’s development and gave him the opportunity for some security before he showed too much at the NBA level, and it paid off for the Knicks.

McBride has been one of the league’s top 3-point shooters over the last three seasons and is a solid on-ball defender. The Knicks, though, can’t pay everyone, and McBride has had some injuries over the last two seasons. Also, at a generously listed 6-foot-2, he’s another smaller guard on a team that has several small guards.

If McBride gets to the trade deadline without an extension, it feels like the writing is on the wall.

Question 9: Do you care that Leon Rose doesn’t speak to the media/public?

I’m surprised that fans don’t want to hear their lead decision-makers talk — whether about a trade, a draft pick, a signing, a hiring or a firing. At the very least, it’s interesting to hear the thought processes and rationales behind major organizational decisions.

Every other team’s lead executive talks at least once during the season. Yet a lot of Knicks fans don’t care. Leon Rose hasn’t talked to independent media since 2020.

In Rose’s defense, I guess when you build a champion, you can do whatever you want.

Question 10: Aside from Jalen Brunson, which player on the roster do you most want to finish their career as a Knick?

I feel like if we did this survey before Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Hart would have been the winner. Combine his gritty style of play with his playful personality and willingness to interact with fans on social media, and Hart is the perfect player for New York.

Yet, when you make possibly the most iconic shot in franchise history, one that leads to a championship, the fans naturally will love you for a long, long time.

Anunoby is one of the league’s best defenders. He can shoot. He can drive. His personality and humor are a little more subtle, but I think his mystique resonates with a lot of Knicks fans.

That tip-in layup, though, catapulted him to New York legend status.