Hoops Tonight - SPURS-KNICKS GAME 1 REACTION: Brunson & KAT steal AWESOME game vs. Wembanyama & Castle | NBA Finals

Jason reacts live after Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks. He breaks down every angle including the performances of Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and more.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
All right, welcome to him to night here at the
Volume Heavy Wednesday. Everybody hopeful you guys are having an
incredible week. Well, we just have Game one of the
NBA Finals in the books, A very very different feeling
series than what we had in the Western Conference Finals
between the Spurs and the Thunder, but very highly entertaining,
contested to the very end. We had a tie game
going into the fourth quarter, We had a one point

(00:37):
Spurs lead with just a couple of minutes left, and
then the Knicks closed the game on a run. Get
out of here with Game one take a one to
oh lead, stealing home court advantage and most likely going
to be the favorite to win the finals. From this
point forward, we're gonna be breaking this game down from
the perspective of both teams, digging into some of the
different kind of like trends in coverages and matchups and

(00:59):
just all the things that I picked up from Game one.
And then at the tail end of the show, we're
gonna bring Jackson ont We're gonna take some questions from
the chat. So if any of you guys have any
questions about anything from this series, drop them in the
chat and we will get to them at the tail
end of the show. You guys have the job before
we started, subscribe to the Hoops and I YouTube channel
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(01:20):
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Speaker 3 (01:31):
That helps us as well. All right, let's talk some basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
So this game very fascinatingly kind of just came down
to a series of runs. It was very back and
forth and you know, like it comes down to like
a very specific sequence of plays late, but at the
same time, it felt like at various points in the
game that either team could have taken control or lost control,
and it just wildly kind of oscillated back and forth.

(01:55):
And it's because both teams can cause problems for each
other and variety of ways. That's what makes for an
entertaining series when you have that sort of kind of
like unpredictability from stretch to stretch within the game. I
want to dig into the final sequence first, and then
from there I want to kind of backjack and dig
into some of the other runs that we saw throughout

(02:17):
this particular game. So in the fourth quarter, we have
a tie game, right, and Ognanobe comes out and goes
on a little solo eight point scoring run right and
it starts with him turning the corner on I think
it was against Steph Castle, driving off of the right
wing and kind of just getting his left shoulder in
his chest and scoring at the rim. Kind Of one
of the stories of this game to me is just

(02:37):
the difference in the overall amount of perimeter size between
this Knicks team and that Thunder team and why that
changes the dynamic. Like, yeah, you saw some bits of
success here there, like Steph Castle had some success attacking
against Josh Hart and pick and roll where he was
a little too small for him. Dylan Harper continued his
insane rookie campaign by just feasting on the new ex

(03:00):
bench groups by driving to the basket, and yeah, especially
when they would see like Landry Shamit or if they
did happen to get Brunson on a switch or something
along those lines, they were able to get to the
rim but outside of that, there wasn't a lot of
ability for the Spurs guards to feel comfortable driving to
the basket against this bigger kind of like lankier knicks
perimeter defense right and so O g Anobi turns the corner,

(03:23):
he gets a little layup, ends up hitting a couple threes,
one on a kickout, one off of a series of
jab steps against against Victor wembin Yama. They're on the
right wing, so he goes on a scoring run. Steph
Castle like single handedly works his way works the Spurs
back into the game by scoring on the offensive glass scoring.
He ends up hitting a three in that stretch, has
a massive defensive play in transition. But then Jalen Brunson

(03:46):
starts to make his impact. And the thing with Jalen
Brunson is, in addition to being just a ridiculously talented
basketball player, he's incredibly smart. So there's a lot of
like these like little details in the way he attacked
that I think are an underrated element when we're talking
about scoring ability. There's so much of it that goes
into like your skill set, your footwork, your handle, or

(04:08):
the different finishing angles you have, the different release points
that you can kind of tweak to. We talk about
creativity and audacity, the ability to try things that are
not necessarily super fundamental, but at the same time having
the confidence to try those things as well. Right, Like,
there's all these different elements to it, but a big
part of it is like, Hey, you don't necessarily need

(04:29):
to score on the other team's best defender every time.
This action might work for you, Like, Oh, I'm snaking
this ball screen, and I know that if I can
snake the ball screen back towards the middle, that allows
Mitchell Robinson to clear Wemby out so that I can
get to the basket. Whereas if I go in the
same direction as the ball screen, Mitchell Robinson can't clear

(04:50):
Wemby out because he's off the opposite side of the block,
Like he's got outside leverage on Wemby. There, if I
can snake the pick and roll, I give Mitch inside leverage,
then he can clear out Wemby. Now I can get
back to my left hand. Or hey, the Spurs are
rolling hard with Wemby, so every time they failed to
score there, whether it's a turnover or mishot, like, I

(05:11):
have opportunities in transition to get up the floor, like
scream up the floor and then nasty in and out
dribble to get back to my left hand to get
a high bucket off the glass like Brunton had twelve
or thirty one tonight. This was not a game where
there were a lot of easy shots to be had
for the primary offensive players on either team. But you
just find little ways to get some easy ones mixed

(05:33):
in there, and then you hit just like one or
two of the hard ones, right like even that bucket
off the offensive rebound that switched the lead back to
the Knicks late in the game, that was off of
a offensive rebound from McHale Bridges, wide open three for
Jalen Brunson in the right corner, right Like, he paid
off the easy ones and that allowed him to kind

(05:54):
of weather some of the cold spells he had against
the tough ones. And then he hit one of the
really tough ones on that kind of step through move
against Devin Vessel. But we have the O g Annobie
run to start the fourth quarter, Steph Castle kind of
cancels it out. Brunson goes on that little scoring run
where he gets to the Snakes the pick and roll
gets a little ball screen Bucket hits the little transition
in and out dribble for the layup. The Nicks end

(06:16):
up pushing the lead out to eight and from there
to Victor wben Yama's credit, like, Victor had a rough
offensive night, and we're gonna We're gonna talk more about
Victor later. A lot of his offensive flaws were on
display in this one, but just from like a basketball
character standpoint. One thing I really admired about Victor at
the end of this game is he emptied the clip.
He wasn't about to lose because he missed a couple

(06:37):
shots and just stopped shooting. He kept attacking, attacking, attacking,
and he ends up hitting a big pull up three
has a couple, has a driving layup, and one on
cat draws a foul working on the offensive glass like
or on a little of lob pass in a vertical
spacing sequence that ends up giving the Spurs that one
point lead. From there, og Nnobi misses the open three,

(06:59):
Brunson off the offensive rebound with the three deeron Fox
misses the little pull up jumper in the lane. They
go down to the other end. Brunson draws the double
team and all playoffs long, the Knicks have been so
good at just like quickly paying off those sequences with
like good cutting, spacing, relocating ball movement, play finishing right.
And one of the most common ones that we've seen

(07:20):
there is the McHale bridges flash to the high post.
McKale bridges flashes, he gets the ball deer and Fox
kind of compounds the mistake by fouling fouling mckail bridges
on the little pull up jump shot. He goes to
the line to push it to three, Wemby ends up
turning it over on that little kind of like overly
ambitious in and out crossover dribble where he didn't get

(07:41):
his foot out of the way yet. And then Brunson
Ice is the game with that pull up jump shot
over Devin Vessel around the right elbow, and like, here's
the thing, It's gonna be a really funky kind of
conversation if the Nicks end up winning this series, because
I actually did think Carl Anthony Towns was their most
valuiealuable player today and we'll talk about Karl Anthony Towns

(08:04):
here in just a minute. But regardless of whether or
not you know the Runson gets Finals MVP or Cat
gets Finals MVP if the Knicks win the title. I
don't think either of those guys is going to get
some sort of recognition as like best player in the
world or even necessarily as like top tier superstar or
anything like that. But one thing is for damn sure
about Jalen Brunson. He is absolutely the hardest player to

(08:27):
deal with, specifically in the final three to four minutes
of the basketball game, Like if you're talking about just
clutch time offense. He is absolutely one of the top
tier guys in the league, if not the very best
guy in the league. He is just it's all those
things that we just talked about. It's the unbelievable confidence
that gives him the audacity to try incredibly difficult shots.

(08:50):
It's the creativity. Like players that are overly fundamental, that
have all the moves, but they're very like rigid and fundamental.
They struggle in like high leverage scoring situations because usually
the defense is really good, and you can't shoot the
perfect release, and you can't shoot on a perfect base,

(09:11):
and you can't shoot with plenty of separation and go
straight up and down. Usually there is like an awkward angle,
an awkward bit of footwork. Sometimes it's improvisational in the moment.
There is a creativity in an improvisation element to that
type of scoring, and Brunson has that in spades. He's
outrageously confident he has all the creativity improvisation to go

(09:31):
with it. And then you add the skill, all the footwork,
the understanding of angles, understanding that he has a low
center of gravity in his ability to kind of like
beat you on the ground even though he knows you
have physical advantages in just about every other way, the
touch to be able to actually make these shots, like
specifically in that situation, we got you know, five or

(09:53):
six possessions here that are going to determine our fate.
He's just very clearly one of the very best in
the league, if not the best in the league. And
he's sure as hell is the best guy in this
series in that look. And that is a big advantage
for the Knicks. Close games are going to have a
heavy advantage towards the Knicks in this series, depending on

(10:13):
how things progress over the course of the next few games.
But it was kind of cool seeing Jalen Bruntson get
a like real bona fide NBA Finals moment, something that
I don't think a ton of us expected coming into
the season. And this kind of cinderella run for the
New York Knicks continues as they win their twelfth consecutive game,
and it's just been it's just been really really fun

(10:35):
to watch. But let's take into some of the other elements.
So I gotta start with Karl Anthony Towns. I thought
he was unbelievable tonight. One of the kind of funny
early storylines because early in the game, Victor got matched
up with kat a Ton and was just kind of
guarding him in more of a traditional context when we
switched to the third quarter, one of the big reasons
why the Spurs went on an early third quarter run.

(10:57):
They ended up going up with like sixty three to
fifty I think at that point, which by the way,
they had sixty three points with eight minutes left, which
means they scored thirty two points total over the final
twenty minutes of the game. That's how good the Knicks
defense was against the Spurs down the stretch of this one.
We'll dig into some of the issues with the Spurs
offense in a little bit, but in that early run

(11:17):
in that sixty three to fifty kind of lead that
the Spurs took in the third quarter. It had more
to do with Sean Sweeney and the Spurs going back
to that kind of like Victor one man's own where
he's just kind of guarding whoever's in the weak side corner,
and so one possession, he's on Cat one possession, he's
on Hard one possession, he's on Michail Bridge is one possession,

(11:37):
he's on Ojanonobe Like he's kind of just guarding someone different,
sometimes multiple times in the same possession, just because he's
staying low as much as he can. And even if
Brunson does manage to pull him out to a ball screen,
he just like shows and then they rotate to the
pop and then he sprints back to the rim. And
that ended up giving the Nixt some offensive issues there
for a minute there at the start of the third quarter.

(11:58):
But early in this game, Wenby guarding Kat in more
of a traditional context, and Kat frankly just kind of
kicked his ass. He was using, once again similar to
what we were talking about with Brunson, the ground leverage
battle just kind of quick rip through moves understanding what
his advantage was. His advantage against Wemby is he's a

(12:18):
little bit faster, and he's got a lower center of
gravity and he's got a little bit of strength, So like,
don't fuck around, just make a quick move and go
and get your kind of momentum going and Wemby can't
catch up at that point.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
We'll dig a little.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Wenby, I thought was making some defensive errors in that
moment too, but I want to kind of sideline Wemby.
We'll talk more about him in his game in just
a minute. But Karl Anthony Towns just like getting those
early drives, like he got the activity on the offensive glass,
the work that he was doing as a passing full
grim at the top of the key. He ends up
having another massive run, so the Spurs go up sixty
three point fifty in the early third quarter. Wemby ends

(12:56):
up catching a knee like and ends up checking out
of the game, and a cornet group comes in. And
the cornet group that comes in, Kat just eviscerates that
group and it's like, oh you Champennie, you're overplaying mckal
bridges a little bit. Here's a beautiful soft touch pass
over the top from cat to it for an easy

(13:17):
little left handed finish for mckail bridges at the basket. Okay,
here's Cornett pressing me just like Wemby is too high,
ripped through to the left, get to the basket, and
one layup at the basket. Every single time, the whether
it was because Wemby got pulled out or Wemby was
off the floor, Kat just was a monster in the

(13:38):
offensive glass. He had four offensive rebounds in this one
as well. Again not like a super super impressive box
scory at eighteen points, twelve rebounds for assists, two turnovers,
no steals in a block. But I thought he was
the Nick's best player tonight. I thought that he In
that same run, there's a play where you know the
Spurs are attacking Jalen Brunson in ball screens, and so

(14:00):
how do they attack Jalen Brunson in ball screens? You know,
they bring Champagnie up and he slips out. What does
Brunson do? He hedges and recovers. Brunson shows on the
screen Champenni slips out, the pass goes to Champenny. He
beats Brunson attacking the clothes out and goes into the
lane and who's there, Karl Anthony town swatting his ass
out of the lane. Just like big defensive sequences, the

(14:21):
job that he did on Wemby and a lot of
those drives, and he lost some of those battles too,
but for the most part, I thought he beat him
to spots, had that physicality again, like it was similar
to the Hartenstein dynamic, where he's just bigger and stronger
at a lower center of gravity point which allows him
to win the battle on the ground against Wemby. And

(14:41):
there's a team effort there too, because I thought the
Nicks did a really good job of dig downs on
Wemby's drives, which is a big part of how he
had those six turnovers. But I just thought Carl had
a brilliant game.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
I thought he had.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
I thought he spearheaded several key runs in the game.
I thought he did an awesome defensive job on Victor
women Yama. I thought he was great on the glass.
I just thought it was a really nice game from
Karl Anthony Towns. We talked about Ognanobe's run that he
had there at the end of the at the beginning
of the fourth quarter, so I won't stay there for
too long. Landry shamontt ended up hitting a lot of

(15:14):
big threes in this game. He had won on the
right wing in the first half. That was disgusting off
of like a pump fake, ripped to the right, step
back back, going to his right, square up in mid
air and knocked it down. That was just a ridiculous shot.
The next team effort on defense, the job that they
did punishing the Spurs in transition going the other way,
just really really impressive showing from them in Game one

(15:37):
on the road in San Antonio. Before we talk about
some of these Spurs and some of the specifics around
some of their players who struggled tonight, and some of
the things I think they have to work on as
they go into Game two. I want to I always
kind of like tap in a little bit with my
prediction after each game to tell you guys how I'm feeling.
And I'm never going to like completely change my mind

(15:57):
after one game by any stretch of the imagination. But
a lot of this stuff that I saw from the
Knicks tonight are things that I expected going into the
series and things that actually ended up being a little
more glaring than I thought they were. I thought the Knicks,
especially in the first half, just missed a lot of
clean looks. Today's show is brought to you by presenting

(16:18):
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Speaker 3 (16:26):
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Speaker 2 (16:28):
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New Jersey, and Tennessee. And So I'm not about to
sit here and predict a Nick sweep or anything like that.
But I do think this burs are in some trouble,

(18:13):
and I think that they're going to have to find
a way to control some specific phases of the game
and build some more margin for air, because if they
get into a close game, it's just gonna be really
difficult for them to keep pace with the Jalen Brunson
crunch time attack, and the Knicks will have games where
they shoot the basketball better than they did tonight. There's
a certain amount of like adjustment to length. I've told

(18:35):
this story before, but like I grew up in Tucson, Arizona,
there's not a ton of talent there basketball wise. I've
lived in other cities. I've lived in Phoenix, i lived
in Charlotte, and I lived in Denver. Now, so like
I'm aware of what it's like to live in a
bigger market that has a ton of high level basketball talent,
where every time I go play, there's a lot of talent.
But like every summer in Tucson, I would work out

(18:56):
with a group of guys that were like playing overseas
or they would play you know, high may your Division one,
and and I would host these private runs at the
school that I would coach that I coached at the
high school, and I invite all these guys out and
every single time at the beginning of the summer, the
first couple of days, I would just like every little
thing that I got away with against the lesser talent.
The rest of the year, it would take me like

(19:16):
a solid game or two sometimes day or to adjust
to just because they're more athletic. They're just there's more length,
there's more the passing windows are smaller, the rim finishing
opportunities are narrower. Like it just takes a minute to adjust.
You can still do it, but there's a certain like timing, pacing,
and like there's decision making. Oh that pass, I can't

(19:38):
make that pass, or like you know that lazy dribble
move that that one doesn't work. I kind of have
to gather and tuck the ball more as I'm going
through traffic or whatever it might be, And I thought
there was a little bit of that affecting the Knicks
shooting tonight, where like I thought, just the the Spurs
are almost like they are certainly a much more talented

(19:58):
defense than anybody the Nicks have played to this point.
The Hawks had some of that kind of like athletic switchiness,
but they didn't have the rim protection that Victor women
Yama presented. That Sixers team had an incredibly slow footed
center that they could constantly attack an action. The Cavs
had multiple bad perimeter defenders on the floor at all times.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
They it was clearly going to be a little.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Bit of an adjustment for them to walk into a
series where it's like, oh shit, all of their guys
off of Wemby are like six' five to six seven
good athletic perimeter defenders And victor freaking Women yama's trolling
the basket, Right, so LIKE i expected more of a rust.
FACTOR i picked The knicks to win this. SERIES i
did not think they'd Get game, one and there were

(20:43):
stretches Of game one where you, know obviously they mostly
controlled things in the second half after that early run
from The. Spurs but there were stretches there in that
first kind of two thirds of this game where you
could tell The knicks were like everything was just a little.
Off the timing was just a little, off the windows
were a little, shorter the closeouts were a little, tighter
and they just missed some of the shots that they normally.

(21:05):
Make and that's what would scare me IF i was
A spurs, fan is just The knicks going Into game
two and paying off more of these sequences with. Makes
The knicks had more. Turnovers i'll pull up the numbers
when when we get into our, mailbag but THE i
don't know the exact ones off the top of my,
mind off the top of my, head but The knicks

(21:26):
had the majority of their turnover issues in the first.
Half they, Adjusted they took amazing care of the basketball
down the stretch of the. Game like The knicks kind
of made their adjustment already over the course of this.
Game AND i think there's a better game in there
for The. Knicks So game two is going to be
a really tough battle for The. Spurs they're probably gonna

(21:47):
be a slight favorite at home just For game, two
AND i would pick The spurs to win that. Game
BUT i would not be the least bit surprised if we, were,
like holy, shit.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
The knicks just won.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
Again now they're up two to zero headed home TO
ms and they've won thirteen straight playoff. Games like that
is on the. Table This knixt team is capable of
playing better than they did. TONIGHT i did think despite the,
win that they struggled adjusting a little bit to The
spurs length on the defensive end of the. Floor, hell
they had forty eight points in the first. HALF i
want to dig into some of the guys on The.

(22:17):
Spurs we'll start With victor Women. Yama so on the one,
hand LIKE i said, EARLIER i was proud Of victor
for emptying the, clip like there's a certain amount of
you look around and there's not really anybody to have
it had it. Going fox was brutally. Awful Steph castle
was seven for sixteen And heart started to win some

(22:37):
battles on him against the. Stretch hart had a big
win on a pick and roll kind of going down
the left lane line Where steph flopped and threw up
an airball Right Like victor was the only real option
to try to score and to his, credit he just
manufactured points at the foul line and like once, again
like twenty six. Points it was not an efficient scoring,
night BUT i was impressed at least by the level of.

(23:00):
Aggression wenby's mentality is not the. Issue as the years go,
by that will serve him extremely well as he starts
to kind of tie off some of these loopholes in
his game from a skill standpoint or from a processing.
Standpoint but those skill and processing holes were on display
tonight in a variety of different. Ways we talked About

(23:20):
Carl Anthony town's individual defense On. Victor one of the
specific things That victor struggles with when he's handling that
kind of problem is when he's trying to turn the
corner against a physical perimeter defender that's up underneath, him
he kind of dips his head and just kind of
dribbles with the ball kind of, exposed and he makes
himself very vulnerable to dig, downs and that in a

(23:42):
lot of cases is what causes those. Turnovers he's so
focused on beating the man in front of him that
he misses those dig, downs and a lot of that
is like very, simply, Hey, victor if you're throwing a hard,
drive the easy swing passes the next read, there that
kind of kick starts the next drive in that chain
that might get you a better look to try to

(24:02):
Get victor some more opportunities to drive without worrying about dick.
Downs one of the clear examples from the tail end
of the game was a cleared side iso for him
Against kat on the left side where when he ripped
baseline there was no dig down there because that side was.
Cleared and so especially For victor in this phase of
his career before he kind of really learns how to

(24:24):
process every little thing that's happening around him on the,
floor more of those cleared side opportunities for him to
just go to rip through. Moves that's the other piece,
Too like dancing around with the basketball is something THAT
i think has some, value but specifically against the guy
Like Karl Anthony towns that can be pretty handsy and
can commit. FOULS i like the idea of just going

(24:46):
more simple and just catching and ripping as hard as you,
can covering as much ground with that first step as you,
can and Getting kat out of position so that then
when you try to power through he ends up committing a,
foul and you have an opportunity to either get him
into foul tr to get him out of the, game
or bullsher your offense through opportunities at the free throw.
Line so that's a big part of. It the jump shooting,

(25:08):
Piece Like i'm a LITTLE i feel like there's a
lot of people that are, like, Oh victors should just
never take a jump, shot AND i don't really agree
with those. People first of, All victor's jump shooting has
been more reliable than you'd think under the, Circumstances like
his off the dribble jump shots have been worth zero
point nine to six points per attempt in the first

(25:29):
three rounds of the, postseason all of his jump shots
overall have been worth zero point nine to five points per. Attempt,
again not, great but for his first postseason run to
be getting damn near a point per. Attempt and, like,
secondly because he's a high center of gravity, guy like
he kind of is gonna have to take jump shots
in his, creer it's a big part of. It should

(25:50):
he take as many as he, Takes like should he
have taken nine threes? Tonight maybe, Not but LIKE i
think people are insane if they just Think victor is
going to be. Shock that's not what he's going to.
Be center of gravity is too. High jump shooting is
going to be a big part of his game in
the long, run and this is the worst jump shooter
that he's ever going to be over the course of his,
career and even in this postseason when he's been wide,

(26:12):
open he makes.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
That he makes.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
It that goes back to his PRE nba days where
if you dug into the, numbers his stands still catch and.
Shoot three point shooting was super. Reliable it was really
anything else that fell. Apart he's a bigger. Player it's
easy to disrupt his. Base he has a lot of

(26:36):
distance to cover in his gather where the ball can
get disrupted by rechions and stuff like. That it's a
big part of why his jumper becomes less accurate when
he's not wide. Open but that stuff will get polished in.
Time the real question, is over the course of this,
series can he cut down on just a couple of
the bad jump shots and a couple of the bad

(26:56):
turnovers to limit his, mistakes because, again like, this this
game was a lot closer than it. Looked if they
secure the rebound on the ogn And obi miss and
they go down and score their up three. Late it's
a very different type of, game. Right even though The
knicks pulled away in one by ten late with some
garbage time free, Throws wenby was only a minus three

(27:18):
in this. Game even with all of the. Issues he
was dominant on. Defense he made some plays down the
stretch to close the gap on. Offense it's just his
team at this point in this matchup needs him to
be better in order for them to win this.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Series and to, me that comes down.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
To just two or three fewer of the incredibly difficult
kind of like meandering baby deer falling over jump, shots
and two or three fewer of The i'm just trying
to dribble through three guys And i'm turning the basketball.
OVER i want him to shoot jump. SHOTS i want
him to be aggressive off the. Dribble this team needs

(27:56):
him to. BE i talked about before the. SERIES i
think this is a victor Wemen yama scores the basketball
series if The spurs. WIN i just think there's a
little bit mistake making going on here with him as
he kind as a twenty two year old who's learning
how to play in THE Nba finals where he needs
to trim some of that fat in order to give
his team a chance to win this particular. Series but,

(28:18):
again not good. Enough i'm not gonna sit here and
skewer the guy to the wall because he had twenty
six and twelve and this team had a one point
lead in the final minutes and a couple of mistakes
don't get. Made you're right there with a chance to.
Win it's more just he has to be better in
this matchup for his team to have any chance to.

(28:39):
Win speaking of guys who have to be better for
their team to have any chance to, Win Darren fox
three for thirteen from the, field just seven points on thirteen,
shots five assists and just three. TURNOVERS i thought he
made a couple of the most crucial mistakes of the.
Game he had a decent look at a little pull
up jump shot in the lane there down the, stretch
BUT i thought he rushed.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
It you could, hell because he.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Kind of like alligator armed, it like he didn't follow,
through and it just pitched long and came off the
back of the. Rim and then you, like really good
close out To, devin not To Devin. Vessil excuse, me
to McHale bridges on that like flash cut to the,
elbow but like you've done your, job just wall up
and make him make the, shot like when you don't
want to compound your mistakes by like your poor shooting,

(29:22):
night by making. Mistakes we talked about this all the,
time like there's always time to make another. Play just
make another, play and it's like you did your job.
There you flash to McHale bridges and you don't foul,
him and you force him to shoot that tough shot
over the top and he misses and you get the.
Rebound you're only down by, two you go down and.
Score it's a completely different basketball. Game so it was
this bad combination of just missing these like wide open,

(29:43):
threes the inability to make any of his little short
mid range pull, ups the, turnovers The seilly mistakes down the,
stretch like that was. There there was a lot of
that that didn't have anything to do with an ankle.
Injury fox just has to be, better especially as like
the veteran in the. Group when we're talking about mistake,
making it can't be the air and that's making those.
Mistakes steph, OVERALL i like the jump shot has just

(30:08):
not been there for him over the course of the
last two. Rounds he shot really well in the first two,
rounds has just been unable to make the wide open
catch and shoot threes since the start of The thunder.
Series that kind of is what it. Is his on
ball REPS i actually thought were pretty good. Tonight he
has enough size to Punish josh in a lot of.
Ways one of my adjustments for The. Knicks IF i

(30:28):
was The, KNICKS i would Move og and AND i
don't see the point of Having og and And obi Guard.
FOX i think he did a fine job, tonight BUT
i Thought fox missed a lot of.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
Like pretty good.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
LOOKS i Thought og played him into some, misses BUT
i didn't think that that was just Oh og Had
fox And jail kind of. Thing Steph castle is a
little bit physically too much For Josh hard at, times
and SO i think that The knicks should consider at
least Moving og over there for stretches of the. Game but,
OVERALL i Thought steph did a pretty good. Job Devin

(30:57):
VESSEL i thought got some really good looks and Miss
those are shots THAT i think he can make over
the course of the. Series JULIAN champenni has torched The
knicks all season, long So knicks fans know damn well
what's going on. There The Harrison barnes minutes were. BRUTAL
i thought he really struggled to Guard Jalen brunson in.
Switches still looks like he's incapable of knocking down a
BIG Nba finals catch and shoot. Three that's been something

(31:17):
that's been going on for eleven years. Now Dylan, harper,
though just continues to be absolutely amazing in his rookie.
Campaign goes for sixteen. TONIGHT i thought his ability to
generate dribble penetration against The knicks backup guards was one
of the key kind of like shot creation dynamics that
benefited San antonio over the course of the. Game so

(31:38):
just really quick to tie off with some of the
adjustments THAT i expect from San. Antonio they were at
their best when they were in transition in this. Game
that was more of a factor in the first half
less so in the second. Half we talked about that
before the, series like cross matches and how everyone's guarding
somebody different on either end of the, floor and so
a big part of the success for either team is
those exchanges from offense defense and moving the ball up

(32:01):
the floor quickly and taking advantage of those gaps that.
Exist The spurs won that battle in the first. Half
The knicks won that battle in the second. Half The
spurs have to win that. Battle that's not a battle
they can afford to. Lose with the advantage That Karl
Anthony towns And Jalen brunson have in the half Court
victor Wemen yama in the cleared side. Actions with those
cleared side, Actions wemby has an opportunity to be more

(32:24):
of an on ball. Score we saw a little bit
more of this in the first half than we did
in the second. Half BUT i want to see The
spurs kind of get back to what they did In
game seven as well as in the first half, tonight
where just focus on Using wemby's role gravity to generate
advantages on the. Skip, now one of the things The
knicks did is they started rotating to the, cornerman but

(32:46):
the wingman is still open there, Right, so like as
you're setting your double drags or your forty five action
or whatever it is you're doing with the two ball
screens up, top as the ball handler is working down
the lane line as The knicks are kind of pushing
him towards the, Sideline it's a really difficult pass back
across your body to the top of the. Key so
having that double drag guy or the forty five popper

(33:07):
just kind of extend a little bit out towards the left,
wing so that if The knicks rotates to the, corner
you just rifle that skip pass right to the left
wing and then guys are gonna have to knock down
the catch and shoot. Threes eleven three eleven for forty
three is not gonna cut it with the quality of
looks that they were getting at many of the stretches
of the game. Tonight So i'll dig more into this
concept when we get into the. Film we'll have a

(33:27):
film session tomorrow, morning and in That i'll kind of
dive into some of the opportunities THAT i see this
for The spurs to make some adjustments as well as The.
Knicks we'll have a, full a full scale film breakdown
to tomorrow. Morning but that is just kind of my
thirty thousand feet look at game one of the. Series,
Jackson let's take some questions from the.

Speaker 3 (33:45):
Chats let's do it let's do.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
It we're gonna start with a super chat From. Chase he,
said it's only game, one but at what point can
we Put Jalen brunson in top five than the world.
Conversations he can attack coverages in so many different ways
and can always get his shot. Off it is impossible
to contain his.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Volume so we talked about this in Our friday show
or excuse me our this morning. Show, sorry the days
are starting to get twisted. Up BUT i don't think
there's any case For, brunson even if he averaged thirty
this entire series in one FINALS, mvp for him to
be a top five. Player he's just not better Than
yannis when he's. Healthy he's just not better Than luca
when he's. Healthy he's just not better Than. Wenby he's

(34:28):
just not better Than. Shane he's just not better Than.
Jokich the point THAT i made in that, piece WHICH
i stand by even after game, one IS i think
that there's been like this kind of tag along guy
over the last few, years the guy that's been better
than all the guys In tier two but worse than
all the guys In tier. One and that guy has

(34:49):
been either Like Jason tatum Or Anthony edwards over the
course of the last few. Years AND i, think especially
If brunson were to win the title this year and
win FINALS, Mvp brunson would kind of slot perfectly into,
That like he's now the tag along guy underneath the top,
Tier so he'd be like the clear number, six who's
better than all the guys In tier, two but worse

(35:11):
than all the guys In tier. One like there's a
certain amount of like he's still a little physically, Overwhelmed
like he had thirty points tonight but came on thirty one.
Shots there's the limitations on the defensive end at. TIMES
i don't think he has the overall impact of those
guys above, him BUT i think he's done enough to
where you can be, like he's certainly a more reliable
offensive engine Than Anthony, edwards And Anthony edwards is a

(35:33):
very mistake prone defensive, player and So Jason tatum obviously
has struggled to be an offensive engine in the same
caliber That Jalen brunson. IS i, mean we even saw
that head to head last year in the. Postseason So
brunson's made some real headway Against tier. TWO i think
he's cleared all those, Guys but it's just man you're
talking About when you talk About luca And giannis And
shay And wemby And, jokic you're just talking about an

(35:55):
entirely different classic.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Player, YEAH i think WE'RE i, mean he's certainly one
of the better playoff, risers and he's certainly one of
probably the best clutch.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
Player as you.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
Mentioned earlier in the, show it's just the longs and
the clutch stuff definitely matters more than some other parts
of the. Game, so, LIKE i understand where the sentiment
is coming from over arguing for arguing him over guys Like,
jannis for, example who don't have that sort of like
clutch time.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Prowess but from like a.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Big picture of thirty thousand Foot vie, perspective it's tough
to put him over some of those other.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
Guys tonight is a perfect example of your, Take, jackson
that like that clutch who can get you the best
shots over the final few minutes of a game is super.
Valuable Because brunston was ye had a couple of runs here,
there but he was pretty much asked for three and
a half Carewer, yeah, yeah, yeah and then he was
amazing down the stretch.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
Right, Right uh super chat from. Unk he, said any
thoughts on The spurs now becoming the ones who are
the overly physical team getting away with all sorts of
egregious contact defensively and their opponents not being allowed to
be as physical with. Them there's and a little bit
of complaint about Some spurs. FLY i don't want to
get too deep in the officiating, conversation there's been a

(37:05):
little bit of talking about The spurs of physicality on
defense compared to the whistler getting on the other end
of the.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
Floor SO i think, again it was never the dynamic
where The thunder were being physical on defense that pissed people.
Off it was The thunder were being physical on. Defense
and then shake Gillss alexander was able to grift the
way that he was, grifting and that kind of went
away with the postseason Where shay wasn't being rewarded for those.

(37:35):
Grifts and SO, i LIKE I jackson AND i have
talked about. THIS i have been overwhelmingly satisfied with the
officiating in this postseason. Run LIKE i think they've done
a really good. Job it hasn't been. Perfect there have
been bad. Games game five And. Oka see The Tony brothers.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
Game that was a.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
Travesty there have been other travesties around the, league but
for the most, PART i think the officials have done
a really good. Job the specific dynamic with The spurs
that is different with the the free throw differential THAT
i think people are. Missing wemby is not getting to
the foul line by falling down on jump shots eighteen
feet from the. Basket wemby is getting to the foul

(38:14):
line on hacks and grabs right underneath the. Rim and
this is where it kind of aligns with a lot
of the talented role men IN nba, history whether it's
Like Anthony davis for, example or you, know even like
other bigs Like Dwight howard back in the, day a
lot of their a lot of their trips to the

(38:37):
foul line were like he's rolling to the basket and
someone throws up a lob and it's, like if we
don't foul, him he's dunking, it or he's opening the dunker.
Spot if we don't foul, him he's dunking. It he
got an offensive. Rebound if we don't fall, him he's
dunking it like, Tonight i'll dig into The i'll kind
of address this in the film, Tomorrow but Like wenby

(38:58):
got to the foul line a ton and the vast
majority of not, all of those free throw attempts were
earned on fouls within just a few feet of the.
Basket and that's the like when you have that type
of vertical spacing, presence it's it kind of just naturally
lends itself to like players panic fouling him because they're
trying to stop him from. Dunking there is not a

(39:19):
dynamic here with The spurs where they have a bunch
of guards drawing fouls on the, perimeter grifting that that's
not what's happening with The, Spurs and SO i think
that's the difference between that dynamic specifically.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
And with With.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
Okac the other, thing, too is like the foul rate
stuff was a little bit strange With. Okay, see AND
i don't want to get too much further into, this
but like we talked about this earlier in the, postseason
they just for how physical they were on, defense they
were an extremely low foul rate. Team they were like
seventh in foul, rate like least number of fouls per
one hundred possessions in the regular, season which is like

(39:57):
kind of insane for a team that's as physical as
they are, defense whereas It i'll pull the numbers up
later with The, spurs but The spurs just simply got
called for more fouls relative to the amount of physicality
that they that they. Had but, yeah LIKE i think
that the story this postseason has been really good, officiating
not rewarding, grifting like the flopping conversation has been more
about aesthetics than anything.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
Else, yeah the two Things i'll say about this OR
i know there were a couple of times That wemby
did try to grift and he didn't get the, call
which like that's the appropriate way that the referee should do.
It it's not cool When wemby does, it and he
the rest of the correct thing of not giving him
the foul call on a couple of those drives he
tried to like flail on Cat and then the one
late That i've seen some people point to in the

(40:39):
chat as well as sort of On, twitter is the
foul call On shaman on the push in the back
on the lab. Attempt and it's, like, guys if you're
in the air you can't get pushed in the back
or you're gonna get caught for a foul no matter how.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
Like it didn't look like that much.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
CONTACT i, Agree but like that's gonna be a fat
if you're if you're, pushing if you have a forearm
on someone's back as they're jumping in the air for a,
lob it's gonna called for a.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Foul, Yeah uh to your, point the, Uh LIKE i
thought that that call was a little, weak but like
it was also a, foul but it was also a little.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Weak. Yeah my thing is LIKE i hate, That, like,
hey look at this.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Play this shows you how rigged it is kind of
approached because, frankly like every single basketball game just has
a half dozen to a dozen sometimes more bad. Calls so,
like if you want me to say that's a bad,
Call i'm gonna say it's a bad. Call by the,
way foul rates in this postseason per one hundred, possessions
The thunder had the third lowest foul rate at twenty
one point eight fouls per one hundred. Possession The spurs

(41:38):
were sixth at twenty two point. Three so, like for
whatever you're complaining about with the, physicality With San. Antonio
they've been called for more fouls than the thunder half
in this postseason. Run that's just a statistical.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Fact next, question speaking of the, lobs Super chad From,
tie he, SAID i swear The spurs guards don't look
For wemby enough on those pick and roll. Lobs The
spurs should try to force teams to prove they can
defend it and stop it.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Consistently so two things. There, ONE i do think that
The spurs it's more of like a timing. THING i
think they just get a little bit ahead of their.
SKIS i thought one of the classic examples WAS i
think it Was Steph, castle but it might have Been
Dylan harper drove out of the left baseline and turned
the corner And victor was open on a tee up

(42:21):
right underneath the, basket and instead he rifled like a
bad pass To Devin vessel in the, corner which Then
vassell tried to rifle it as he's falling out of
bounds To wemby who kind of flashed to the high,
post And Josh hart beats him. Too the ball gets a,
steal leads out the other, way AND i Think brunson
ends up getting a. Layup it was in like the

(42:42):
early fourth, quarter AND i was sitting there just thinking, like,
hey like you beat your man on the baseline instead
of just going one hundred miles an, Hour like slow
down a little, bit play off at two feet and
you have an easy lob To victor women yam underneath the.
BASKET i think one of the biggest pieces of like
long term development for The spurs is their guards figuring
out how to Use wenby is a vertical, spacer AND
i think that will come in. Time the second piece of,

(43:04):
it and this is just the honest to god truth The.
Spurs When wenby rolled to the, basket The knicks the,
thunder everyone just send the kitchen sink at him and
like he's often swarmed on those. Rolls and once again,
tonight by the, way The spurs generated nineteen unguarded catch
and shoot, threes which was seven more than The.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
Knicks they just shot like shit on.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
Them they got zero point nine to five points per
attempt and The knicks got one point twenty five points per.
Attempt so, basically The knicks got an extra third of
a point off of every single one of their unguarded.
Threes even though they got less of them and like.
That that's where it's just Like wenby rolling is doing the.
Job it's it's occupying, defenders it's creating. Openings you have
to just make the skip passes and guys have to

(43:47):
knock down the. Shots by the, way last thing on
the turnovers before you go. On seven of The knicks
eight turnovers were in the first, half so they completely
cleaned that.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Up one second half is very very.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Impressive, yeah zero the four quarter or.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
Two we have a handful of questions About Dylan harper,
says you, know with the spur is struggling to create
offense a little bit from the guards in the wing.
Spots Should harper be more of a central figure in
clutch time was a question that we.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
Got Should harper start Over?

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Fox we are getting some Is Darren harper or, Sorry Dylan,
harper which is more suited for this? Matchup is he
just better right? Now because part maybe because of the,
injurine maybe not To. Fox Is harper is a better
option right?

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Now if you're convinced that you have to Play champenni for,
shooting then SURE i would consider going With harper Over.
Fox BUT i still think that the direction of the
series is going is playing all three of. Them because
one of the other things, too is like you, know
you end up having to go Against kat IN iso
With wenby a lot down the stretch of the game
because you don't like your pick and roll attack and
you don't like any of YOUR iso, matchups and the

(44:49):
hedge and recover against against The brunson targeting was, working
so at a certain, point like what If brunson just
had to guard somebody that can score the basket. Ketball
that's where like if you Take champenni, out you start
Tugging vassell in the weak side corner if you're running ball,
screens Because vessell can still knock down those. Shots but

(45:11):
you also have the ability Of brunston's Guarding vassell to
literally just attack him one on one With Devin vassell
or put him into, action just Bring cat into the,
action like If kat's being guarded By, wemby or excuse,
me If wemby's being guarded By cat AND i Have
brunson straight up as a matchup Against Devin. Vessel Now
i'm just clearing the side And i'm Having wemby dribble

(45:32):
At vassell And vessel come off of a dho coming
out of the, corner And i'm Forcing cat And brunson
to guard in action with my guards off the, ball you,
know and either if they step.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
OVER i Love i'd Have fox.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
In the weakside corner because he's your most reliable catch
and shoot, guy although he couldn't shoot for shit. Tonight
and then you Have Steph castle And Dylan harper crashing
the offensive glass Like matt if mckail bridges are og
and And obi help off of. THEM i think in, general
one of the best things you can do is four
sprunts into guard a ball handler rather than allow him

(46:05):
to do this hedge and recover, scheme which The knicks
have executed really well this entire. Postseason the second piece
of it is like it just gives you more opportunity
for cross. Matches like that's if he actually gets back
in time to get back On, vassel there's gonna be
a lot of those possessions where he just Draws Dylan
harper and he just Draws Steph, castle and he just
Draws deer And fox and now it's like screw a ball,
screen get out of the, way and we're attacking.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
Him one on.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
One SO i THINK i think for all to talk
About harper And Hell i've been talking about this in
the big, PICTURE i just envision them all playing. Together,
YEAH i DON'T i don't understand why it has to
be two of, them like the you, Know Tim leigler
was talking about this during the game, tonight, Like, oh
The spurs guards are such great. Rebounders, yeah which means

(46:50):
like you don't have to worry about LIKE i have
to play a traditional three or a traditional four in
order to have my two guard lineup be physically capable of. Competing,
no like you could play forget about like you could
literally Play, Fox, Harper castle The Cell wemby and be
just fine physically in every phase of the. Game.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Yeah and part of that has to do with the
athleticism across the. Board and like the, size the size
Among Dan harper is just not a small. Guard that
that's a great point about The harper. Thing AND i
just can't stop thinking about all the different ways that
would help The. Spurs we had we had a question
as well about why don't The spurs just pick On brunson?
More AND i think the answer is that they're probably
the best team in THE nba at the hedge and

(47:32):
recover like they're just amazing and executing get a heart
and bruns and have mastered a lot of the like
how do we find the space around each other to
get that hedge and? Recover and on top of, that,
though defensively for The, Spurs, CHAMPAGNE i, MEAN i think
he's solid. Defensively he's not a bad, defender but he's
clearly the guy that in last Round shay was most comfortable,
against and In game One brunson was most comfortable. Against

(47:54):
he's Not he's not nearly as comfortable Against Dyan. Harper
if you Have Dyan harper in the, game you don't Have,
again not That champagne is a bad, defender but you're upgrading,
defensively and SO i think you you not only Make
Jalen brunton guard more that, way you are giving him
less favorable options to sort of hunt on the other
end of the.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
FLOOR i Think vicell had a good rep Against brunson late.
Too brunston hit the crazy, shot BUT i thought that
was a good. REP i THOUGHT i agreed with the
no call there, too And champagne got. Cold he made
all those threes in the first, half but then he went.
Cold so like there's a certain amount of LIKE i,

(48:34):
LIKE i do Think champagne brings real. VALUE i think
he's an important player on this. Team i'm not saying
you play all your four guards forty eight. Minutes champagne's
gonna have a big role to play in this. Series but,
yeah LIKE i think. THAT i think that if you
don't play all four, guards you Force wemby to be
your offensive. Engine and right, now he's just a little

(48:54):
bit flawed and a little bit like limited in his
a kind of like approach to the game in terms
of like his shot selection and his. Processing so LIKE
i want went beyond the ball, more but, LIKE i
think you need to give him a reliable second, option
and right, now your best bet at doing that is
having someone on the floor That brunson has to guard
who's also a viable scoring.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Threat we'll think a couple more Questions nick's. Related first,
one This nicks team has not lost since Late. April
we are now In. June is this really does it
feel like a team of destiny to you in a
similar way to The pacers last? Year does it not
feel that? Way what is your stance sort of The.
Knicks they seriously haven't lost in six weeks at this.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
Point, Yeah Like.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
I've talked about this already on the. Show i'm incredibly.
Impressed AND i also think it's a product of some
of the factors that. Play there's a lot of, factors
Like brunston's playing some of the best basketball of his.
Career kat is certainly playing the best basketball of his.
Career the role players are all. Clicking Mike brown has
been leaning on the depth more than. Ever they have

(49:56):
more variety in their offensive style than. Ever they're better
just overall on a string defensively than they've been by
a mile in this entire. Era but then there's also
like you played a seven seed to six seed in
a four, seed And i've been talking about How i've
been talking about how The knicks matchup well with The
spurs literally since Like February march in Our contender, rankings so,

(50:18):
like and what HAVE i been saying about The knicks
in every Single Contender rankings video since since basically The
All Star, Break, like if you get to the finals
and you get The, spurs you have a great chance to.
Win if you get to the finals and you get The,
spurs you have a great chance to. Win if you
get to the finals and you get The, spurs you
have a great chance to. Win so the story of
the dominance to me is all those things we talked,

(50:40):
about the internal, improvements the, depth the variety in their offensive.
Attack Mike brown deserves, Credit cat deserves, Credit brunton credit deserves.
Credit they all deserve.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
Credit the like what we're.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
Witnessing in terms of them like having an opportunity to
win the. Title it pretty simply comes down to the
fact that they turn out to be the best team
in The. East AND i actually do genuinely think, That
LIKE I i after WHAT i saw From boston in
the first, Round LIKE i was leaning Towards boston against
The knicks if they were to face each. Other but,
like after seeing everything we've, Seen LIKE i don't think
The knicks got lucky to Avoid, Boston BUT i think

(51:16):
if they would have Faced, boston they wouldn't have swept.
Them LIKE i think they probably go to six, games you. Know,
so like the same goes For, Detroit like DO i
think The knicks would have Beat?

Speaker 3 (51:25):
Detroit, like, YEAH i. Do DO i think they would
have swept. Them, NO i think.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
THEY i think that's that team is more physically, resilient
like The cavs literally quit after they Lost game, one
like that was just so So like there's a combination
of these factors involving the matchups that are that have
allowed them to win what is a twelve consecutive playoff.
Games but it doesn't make them not the best team
in The. East they were the best team in The.
East and it doesn't make what they're doing not. Impressive

(51:50):
it's super freaking. Impressive they also caught the one contender
out of the Eat Western conference THAT i thought they
matched up best, against and that's WHY i picked you
guys to win the.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Series last question a super chat from THE. Uno he,
said If brunson wins a, title does that make him
a greater Than Luka doncic from a career like, accomplishment
like a greatness, standpoint not as an individual as a player.

Speaker 3 (52:13):
Necessarily, No, no it. Doesn't i'm.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Sorry guys Like jackson And i've been talking about this over,
text like the the takes that are gonna fly around
or just how interesting it is for.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
Takes, yeah if either of kat.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Or brunson wins a FINALS. Mvp it's just, like it's
just it's immaculate to. Me i'm gonna be honest with you.
Guys to, me it's more about just the beauty of.
Basketball AND i one of the, takes And i've gotten
into arguments with some of my listeners over the course
of the last few. Years one of my like overarching
basketball philosophies is the most valuable archetype of player is

(52:55):
the offensive. Engine Because Mike brown is clearly demonstrating if
you have quality role players and you coach them up really,
well and you have really good scheme, discipline and everyone's
in the right spot and everyone does their, job having
a dude who can just create shots is like the
thing that pushes you over the, top, Right and sometimes
like you can have a team that's got a lot of.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
Really good two way.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
TALENT i, mean, hell The spurs are an example of.
This they have a lot of really good two way.
Talent but they scored thirty four points or whatever it,
was thirty three points over the course of the final
twenty minutes of tonight's. Game why because they didn't have
a single guy who's kind of in and of himself
an offensive. Engine the closest thing Is, wemby and it's
just he can generate clean looks from three just by

(53:37):
rolling hard to the. Basket but he doesn't have the
like full well rounded offensive engine package yet that's probably
still a few years. Away so brunts in to me
is the best offensive engine that's off the top tier superstar.
List but, like, guys like Like i've Seen Luka, doncic
like on a pretty limited team single handedly takeout a one,

(54:00):
seed like take a one seed and snatch their soul
in their building in A game seven with Like Dorian
Finney smith And Dwight powell playing major minutes for, them you,
know and like Obviously Jaylen brunson was on that team as,
Well but, LIKE i Think luca is a tier Above. Brunson,
STILL i Think brunson's hanging on to that, tier but

(54:20):
he's like clearly kind of like in that void that
exists between the top tier and the second. Tier all, right,
guys it's all we have for tonight is always a
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting, us in supporting the.
Show keep an eye on the feeds tomorrow we'll have
a film breakdown from game one of the. Series no
video On friday, morning but then we'll be back live
on YouTube friday night after the final buzzer Of game.

(54:41):
Two