Renewed Knicks have made Reggie Miller a believer

When his beloved Pacers eliminated the Knicks in May, Reggie Miller posted a message to Jalen Brunson on social media that ended, “You and your boys can all heal up together on some beautiful beaches in Cancun, please enjoy!!” But a lot has changed in five months — specifically and, most importantly, to New York’s roster.Despite Indiana’s having advanced to the conference finals last season, Miller believes the revamped Knicks are the top threat to knock off the defending champion Celtics. “To me, the Knicks and Boston are the two clear-cut top teams in the East,” said Miller, a Hall of Fame player and analyst on TNT. It’s certainly not a controversial opinion.

In the annual NBA GM poll released last week, the Knicks were picked to finish second in the East by 43 percent of the executives — with 97 percent voting the Celtics as the winners. No GMs picked the Pacers, who basically stood pat with their roster, to finish in the top three.Miller agreed Boston remains the favorite but clearly loves New York’s offseason moves. “To go out and get Mikal Bridges, who hasn’t missed a game since he was in the AAU in the sixth grade, who is a 3-and-D type of player — and to get [Karl-Anthony Towns,] who is going to create even more space [for Brunson],” Miller said.

“Think about this: because of his shooting and his ability to draw bigs away from the rim, the space he’s going to create for Jalen Brunson.Think about the space he had with Mitchell Robinson and he was still giving you 29 [points] a game.

Think about the space he gets to operate now with that high and side screen-and-roll with KAT?” Miller’s excitement over Brunson’s space has been justified in the preseason, with the point guard shooting 53 percent in three appearances and averaging 20 points in just 21 minutes.Towns, meanwhile, has struggled with his 3-pointer (just 22 percent in three preseason games) and the defensive concerns weren’t alleviated, but the opposit...