I, I trust you guys.

Yeah, I, I think maybe part of it was also that Victor just barely made the 65 game mark last season, which is what he would need to do again to win the awards again next year in order to qualify for the Supermax bonus that he would've gotten if he signed for it.

So, uh, he probably will hit that again, but who knows? He barely made it.

So at least at this point, it's off the table.

He's locked into the idea that he's willing to make this small sacrifice in order for the team to be able to re-sign Julian Champagnie, which they just did, uh, to a three-year new deal.

They're gonna have to pay Steph Castle coming up.

They're gonna have to pay Dylan Harper down the road.

What, what do you think the future holds for Steph Curry?

Um, any, any comments before we move on?

I, I think that inherently they're gonna have to cycle out of Keldon, probably Vassell, um, obviously Fox at a certain point.

Fox we've always known was gonna be a medium term play because I, I think once they, when they traded for Fox, and you know, extension is set at that point, um, that was before Harper was in the picture.

And once Harper got in the picture, it just changed everything.

And we just saw in this playoff run, Harper changes everything.

He's, he's gonna be an elite star.

So we, we know that Fox is probably gonna be there next year.

Yeah.

And let me tell you, every defense in the league is, like, just breathing a sigh of relief when he pops instead of rolls.

It's...

I, I think it starts with that it has to utilize their guard play.

They have three downhill guards that, once they get into the paint, usually can own that possession, and then they either have Victor rolling behind the coverage and they go over the top, or Vassell and Champagnie are wide open.

That's, that was their bread and butter throughout the year.

But then I think getting to the solving the issues for the future, the significance of all this is just that Victor couldn't own the post, and he doesn't, he doesn't have the pinch post face-up yet, where he can catch at 18 feet and he can reliably get into the paint from there.

He was trying, and there was a play, like, I think, like, later in the fourth quarter in game five where he just finally went through the point of attack defense on the mid-post, and he got into the paint and he...

Have you had these kinds of conversations with him or heard him talk about these things?

That's a

good question because I know Pop's presence.

doing a good job with it and I think I know that the finals did not go well and there were some things he did that I don't agree with but I think overall he had a very good playoff run and this team doesn't get to where they are without Mitch coming in and really establishing their principles and managing the personalities like they had it's so easy to forget that they were projected to win like 44 games coming into the season.

And they ended up winning, I don't know, somewhere close to like 80 games, I guess, if you add up all the wins in the postseason.

So they, I guess it was 75-ish wins.

So they...

they had a great year he had a very impressive year he deserved to be top three in coach of the year voting but there's a reason i mean we should be doing the awards after the season's over because everyone always talks about the playoffs are what matters and we give the awards based on the regular season and the finals truly exposes you it's the highest level of competition and i think the toughest thing mitch had to do was just to no longer rock with the air and fox with the game on the line at the very end and ask somebody else to take those shots but and you know De'Aaron missed some huge shots and De'Aaron had a great year but he was not himself in the finals and so you know there were tough decisions like that that Mitch should have made and you know the decision is way more layered than that and there are many layers that we don't even know about publicly but I think that he did a very good job running this team.

got

Mm-hmm.

'Cause I mean, uh, uh, this...

I, I don't remember when we talked exactly, but I think I remember us going over the fact that, listen, this team goes as Wemby goes, which is not br- groundbreaking analysis.

Their best player, when he plays really well, they're gonna play really well.

That's their big advantage.

When Victor is on top of his game, he is easily better than everybody else, even though Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns are both great.

Wemby eating both ends is just an advantage that trumps everything, and when they get that from him, it just allows everything else to flow.

What's the biggest, uh, single biggest adjustment each team needs to make here? Who, who should feel better about where this series stands right now, the team leading 2-1 or the team that may have finally got this, uh, got this sorted?

Right

...

he had a rough start to that series.

I imagine he was gonna come around at some point.

He's been so good in the postseason.

He, he was gonna score at some point.

And hey, maybe Jared McCain just made up for it.

[laughs]

Yeah.

Yeah.I'm with the l- lineup that I thought was playing well, and I think the plus-minus for their starting lineup, which is what closed the game, like was good for most of the game until Jalen just went crazy, and they were missing their shots at the very end.

But like, people will always be like, "You have to play Dylan Harper more minutes." Dylan Harper didn't play 35 minutes 'cause he didn't close the game.

If he had closed the game, he would've gotten the minutes that you expect from him.

It's a real hard decision for Mitch Johnson to decide, do I take out De'Aaron Fox, who is integral to running their offense, and they really struggle to run a half-court offense without him, but like he's not making his shots? Do you take out Julian Champagnie, who is their kinda their go-to corner shooter, but he was like O for five in the second half? Do you go to Vassell, who's their best two-way shooter? Um, there's like no good options 'cause you're not taking out Victor and you're not taking out Castle.

Those guys are locks to finish the game.

So he's gonna probably have to play Harper at the end of these games when Harper's having a good game.

[laughs]

Yeah.

It, I mean, it was a very physical game where there were a lot of missed shots, especially in that first half.

And you s- you basically saw, I think, the speed of San Antonio.

You mentioned this, uh, last series, but when it's a lot of free throws, and, and for San Antonio tonight it was, you know, 13 for Wemby-

... like, he, this is why he, you just can't take him out of the lineup.

Yeah.

But to the point about Wemby, it's like if you start the game with him guarding Hart instead of him guarding Kat, I think you'll have more solutions defensively.

Uh, I think the Knicks won't be able to put you in rotation a little bit more.

Do you have a behind the scenes anecdote or anything about Wemby that you feel like the general public doesn't yet know about this guy?

You know, I think people don't know that he is really kind.

'Cause most of what they see from him is the intensity on the court, the, you know, like, kind of like the philosopher on the mic kind of stuff.

But he's also, like, just, like, a pretty friendly guy.

And you know, when, when he's in the locker room, he's very locked in.

You don't really see that side of him.

But when he's outside of the locker room, you get to see that.

What are your expectations for game one?

If the Spurs win the series, how did it happen?

Think it's the start of the countdown to GOATdom for Wemby if it happened, right? That means that Victor ...

You know, it's a different challenge for him in this series than what he faced before.

Portland, Minnesota, Oklahoma, they beat him up.

They had bigs that really wanted to battle him in the trenches.

But there was always a shooter that he could help off of or something like that.

Uh, in this series, that, that is the case with Josh Hart, but the Knicks are gonna play five out a lot, and they might be able to force Victor to run in circles on defense.

That's what I was saying to the judge.

If the Spurs win the series, how did it happen?

I think it's the start of the countdown to GOATdom for Wemby if it happened, right? That means that Victor ...

You know, the, it's a different challenge for him in this series than what he faced before.

Portland, Minnesota, Oklahoma, they beat him up.

They had bigs that really wanted to battle him in the trenches, but there was always a shooter that he could help off of or something like that.

Uh, in this series, that, that is the case with Josh Hart, but the Knicks are gonna play five out a lot, and they might be able to force Victor to run in circles on defense.

And the big thing with Victor is that he needs to be able to kinda take a breather on defense most of the time, and have that position on the low man where he's, you know, helping off of that corner, and that allows him to get some breaks during live play so that he can go balls to the wall in transition and on offense.

I was sitting in the church.

Um, when you think about the advantages that the Spurs have, you know, it starts there, but wh- where else do we talk about, like, the advantages the Spurs have over the Knicks?

Their, their guard defenders are monsters, and I don't know if it's an advantage, but they have guys that can get into Jalen Brunson's body.

They can do that without fouling.

They can steer him effectively.

They can force him to just, just work for everything that he wants to get in the series in a way that Cleveland obviously could not do.

And so this, this defense that the Spurs have is just miles beyond anything that the Knicks have had to face so far.

And so it's, it's more than Wemby, and Wemby is so good and can park in the paint because his guards do such a great job up at the point of attack.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

And, you know, it, it's, it's ironic 'cause Victor got the Magic Johnson Award from the Pro Basketball Writers Association for excellence in media cooperation, and, and he, he deserved it.

It wasn't, like, a fraudulent award, but he did not live up to it in that moment.

And this is the big thing, is when you're a star player, you get paid a stupid amount of money.

Like, I can't even count that high how much they make a year, and that's why I'm a writer.

And they, a big part of that job is you show up and you face the music after these games.

You're the one that consistently does the press conference afterwards.

Yeah.

How, how is this group that's so young, so raw in so many ways, as, as you mentioned, to in a legitimate position to win a title al- already?

Yeah.

I mean, they-- I think there's a lot of similarities to what the Celtics did over the last few years where they-- I mean, it starts at the very top where their front office has put together a very good locker room full of personalities that fit the mold of what they want.

They, you know, they've betThey've bet well on guys whose drive, open-mindedness, willingness to be coached is going to outshine their talent level.

And so they have a lot of fast risers in their careers because of that.

And then you have Dylan Harper, who's just like all of it, you know? And so they, they did a good job putting the personalities together.

I think Mitch Johnson's done a really nice job as a coach this year.

Uh, what did you make of them losing to a Philly team that I don't think anyone imagined beating them in that series?

Yeah.

So they're gonna have to find a way to get him into the low post.

That's the hard part for them.

Can they run actions where he can emerge from underneath some sort of action and boom? They call it a fist action usually for this.

Just get him into the low post, give him that catch where he has enough room that he can either turn baseline and go to the rim, or he can pass over the top to the weak side elbow.

When he can do that, and they can play slow that way, it eases the burden on their point guards offensively and allows him to play in a way where he's not dribbling into, like, those tight little gaps that Wallace has-

Yeah

...

Right.

Like, it was, it was just, like, mind-blowing, but the right thing.

And he decided to just take a crap shoot and put the whole game on the line.

If he misses that shot, it's over.

They don't win.

They, they cannot win the game if he blows that, and he decided to put it all on the line, and he didn't even have his legs under him, which is probably why he hit the shot, 'cause he's too strong to shoot from 38 feet-

Yeah.

Caruso's arms just straight out and just shoving Wemby out of position.

Yeah

...

I don't know which defense is better, but it's two different types of defenses that I think depending on the tempo of the game, like half court versus transition, one of those is gonna win out.

And so these games where it's up-tempo, Spurs are gonna win them.

The games where th- things really, really slow down, that's where Randle has his advantage, and he can really make the w- ways.

But you know what? Carter-Bryan came in, and this was the interesting thing.

Mitch, uh, Johnson, I almost said Robinson.

Mm-hmm

Mm

... there's a 48-hour recovery period where they have to sit out, relax, recover, be in a dark room for 48 hours and, you know, the, the Spurs are flying Thursday afternoon to Portland.

So I think that's within the 48 hours.

So they're gonna have to get him on a PJ or something like that to meet the team if he's gonna meet the team.

But so Mitch Johnson comes out after the game and clarifies he does have a concussion, which means that 48-hour rule went into effect, I think presumably at the time of injury at that point.

So he, he won't make the team flight presumably at, at that rate, and he will maybe have a chance to participate in game three if he's really lucky.

But, uh, I, I think no one's come back within like four or five days of a concussion in the postseason that we have documented.

Yeah

Yeah.

Like they're shooting lights out.

Dylan Harper's shooting like 70% at the rim in the last few months.

Like he's actually like one of the best finishers in the league.

Castle is a triple-double machine.

He had his, it was his fifth triple-double of the season.

Like he's sixth in the league in triple-doubles in his second year.

Yeah.

It's just like, what, what is he like in terms of, like, I guess as a person and, and also as a competitor in this instance?

He, he's such a, he's such an enigma because i- for one, you ha- you have to frame everything for Victor in- through the lens of he has been, he has not been able to hide from his celebrity and, and just, like, how, how, how much he fills a room.

He's n- he hasn't been able to hide from that for- forever.

No matter where he goes, he is gigantic.

Everyone knows that he is someone.

Everyone's paying attention to him.

And so, you know, a lot of celebrities recede, and they push the spotlight away, and they push the public away, and, um, a- because it's overwhelming.

They're annexing these sections.

More of a three-and-D guy in the Boston matchup, but how does Hunter change this Cavaliers team and what they could be in the postseason?

I, I think the big difference between what Hunter brings and what, like, Caris LeVert brought, and I think LeVert was having a good year, is he's just a guy that not only can you plug and play him in different lineup combinations, but he's a pretty quick and reliable decision-maker when he's playing off the ball on the wings.

Like, you know that when you swing it to him, he's going to give you quick spot up or he's going to hit the, he's gonna hit the lane really quickly and make good decisions, and he's just not somebody who's looking to kind of impose himself in the game.

He kind of finds his way into the game, and that's really important for this team that has such great harmony between their starting guards and then Ty Jerome coming in there, and he's, you know, obviously he's had a great year.

And so I think they needed to maybe pare down who their creators were and who are their, kind of, um, their fulcrums in their offense because their offense is super random.

Like, it's complete read and react at a very, very high level.

You know, one of the most open-minded random read and react offenses we've seen, and I think it was important that the, the guys that are kind of improvising and aren't just fitting in directly into the channels that they're trying to create, they need to limit that so that everybody's on the same page, and I think Hunter just allows them to do that a little bit more effectively.

Never.