Two weeks in with the 76ers, time to overreact and say they're the team to beat in the East?

I mean, I picked them to go to the finals, and that was a blind pick just looking at their talent, looking at LeBron.

You know, the health is always going to be the biggest bugaboo for them.

Joel Embiid, LeBron James being old.

Like, hearing LeBron talk about being chased down for a block because he didn't want to put the burners on because he felt like, man, if I put the burners on and try to dunk this, I might be hurt, and I might be out for two weeks.

That lets us know, A, age comes for us all.

Right.

How many? Give me your top five.

two weeks in with the 76ers time to overreact and say they're the team to beat in east

i mean i picked them to go to the finals and that was a blind pick just looking at their talent looking at lebron you know the health is always going to be the biggest bugaboo for them joel and bead lebron james being old like hearing lebron talk about being chased down for a block because he didn't want to put the burners on because he felt like, man, if I put the burners on and try to dunk this, I might be hurt, and I might be out for two weeks.

That lets us know, A, age comes for us all, right? But secondarily, he's playing the long game.

I think talent-wise, Jalen Brown is a little bit, I won't say underrated, but... underappreciated when you look at some of the advanced stats.

He makes plays late in games, like last night against Cade Cunningham.

Cade Cunningham was bringing the Pistons back, and he blocked a three-point attempt that would have cut the lead to one with maybe 15 seconds left.

It's little things like that.

How many? Give me your top five.

seeing from the next perimeter defenders and how much of that do you think can be addressed through scheme versus individual effort that we're seeing with the next right now

i think it's more individual effort than anything else uh when you look at Defense is so much effort.

Defense is presence.

Defense is making them feel you.

Whatever that is, right? Sometimes it's even following, right? Just making them feel you, but knowing that they're not getting like free chili or anything like that.

The thing to me that gives me, I would say, Nick fans, cover your ears.

I'm about to say something encouraging.

here and I personally I had some concerns about losing Mitch and Andre Drummond signing so I'm gonna put that out here I had some concerns here do the Knicks have a backup center problem already with what we're seeing

Philadelphia came in, it's like, "Um, you guys done with this, uh, party here? 'Cause we're gonna win this game." What do you see from the Sixers, and what would be concerns the rest of this season for them?

Well, the...

What I saw from the Sixers, Dan, man, they're fast.

Like, you know, uh, fast and powerful, like Tyrese Maxey, BJ has come, who didn't...

They did not exploit a lot of...

Like, I'm, I'm very, I'm, I'ma say very concerned.

I, I want to see them give him space as a second-year player to start figuring things out, because he's a lever that they have not, that they can afford to sort of leave in the background because you have so many te- ti- tier one type players.

Wow.

What do you see from the Sixers and what would be concerns the rest of this season for them?

Well, when I saw from the Sixers, Dan, man, they're fast.

Like, you know, fast and powerful, like Tyrese Maxey, VJ has come, who they did not exploit a lot of.

Like, I'm very concerned.

I want to see them give him space as a second-year player to start figuring things out because he's a lever that they have not, that they can't afford to sort of leave in the background because you have so many tier one type of players.

I just like the way, the spirit in which they play.

They were not awed at all by being at Madison Square Garden on ring night.

I know it's one game, but what do you expect out of the Celtics?

Where do the Pistons fall? in the hierarchy for you? Could they still say they are a contending team or is that something that they have to come in and maybe prove? I think they have to come in and prove

that.

I think if you go back to last May, a lot of people, their questions around the Pistons was, can you play playoff style defense? from the regular season and ramp it up again in the playoffs? And if you don't have enough three-point shooting to lay off a Cade Cunningham, would that come back to haunt you? And both of those answers, it showed, right? There were times where it looked like the Pistons didn't have the gas, right? It looked to me from a distance because I wasn't in Detroit for game seven.

But I'm sitting on my couch watching game seven and I'm like, they look gassed.

Like they had absolutely nothing left emotionally, like emotionally playing every other day on the razor's edge from being down 3-1, not having a break and everything else.

Right.

So it kind of felt like they tweaked a little bit of their identity.

Do you feel like this team got better or is it just different?

So w- in your mind, if you're LeBron James, what took you to Philadelphia for two years and 8 million?

Then you know what, you know what it is? He told us, "It's about being happy.

It's about playing with joy," all that stuff.

You know, it's about, about winning another championship.

'Cause if you wanted to play with joy and all sort of type of stuff, he could've gone to San Francisco and played with Steph Curry and Draymond Green.

It wouldn't have been no chance of winning there, but he could've played with some gray beards, played with Steph Curry, replicated some of those, you know, Olympic things that they had a few years ago, and it could've been fun, right? Going back to Miami would've presented some level of nostalgia.

That's where the best of LeBron James ever was.

Do you think this was the best basketball fit for him when it comes to winning a championship this or next season?

Why do I wanna go to the Cleveland Cavaliers if they have James Harden?

That's a question for LeBron James, 'cause I don't get that one either.

Like, he closed that book, to me, in 2016.

If there was anything that he needed to ma- make amends for and everything else, he did that.

That 3-1 comeback, winning the championship for that, that Cleveland market.

When I look at this team now, Dan, what they need, number one, I don't look at it and say, "Man, you know what? LeBron James makes that team tougher.

LeBron James makes that team not be the team that folds like they did against the New York Knicks." Not saying LeBron doesn't make them better, but it's saying that what they need is toughness, and how can you figure that out with Evan Mobley, with Dare- uh, Da- Da- Say, excuse me, Donovan Mitchell, excuse me, and James Harden.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

But pairing him with an organization, when I look at the relationships that he has with the Lakers or lack of right toward the end, I wonder about the relationships that he has or that he b- could, very well could have, again, with Pat Riley, with Erik Spoelstra, with that Heat organization that made him into the fully actualized player that he is.

And on the floor, my thing is why would you have to do the heavy lifting? That's Bam.

That's Giannis.

You wanna be an orchestrator? You wanna be a better spot-up shooter, which you have been throughout the course of your career as your career has aged? Yeah, do that.

I, I...

And I think getting Giannis is a huge part of this story because y- you are where Giannis was, is now.

Yeah.

It has everything to do with this is organizational structure, right? [laughs]

There you go.

And that was, that's what I'm trying to say is like, it's nothing, anything towards ...

It is nothing that they want than a very talented talent-

They gonna call you out on it

... on their Twitch stream or whatever.

You know, I mean, their podcast, they show, whatever they got going on.

So JB's one of those guys.

What should your reaction be as a Knicks fan?

If I'm a Knicks fan, I'm still basking in the glow of June.

Like, I'm worried about the rest of that stuff later.

You know, I've been waiting 53 years.

Like, we talked to Spike Lee last night on the broadcast.

He still had a glow, an orange glow about him.

Now, maybe that's because he's wearing an orange jacket, which is pretty – when you're wearing an orange jacket and it's all over and you're, you know, Spike's height, that's an interesting wardrobe twist, but that's where the Knicks fans are right now.

What do they do for a team that's been there repeatedly and gone to the Western Conference Finals a couple of times and been in the playoffs again this year if hands not hurt? Who knows where that goes? What do they do from here to try to build this thing once again around Dan?

I wanted you to get more for this," and I wonder how could Milwaukee have gotten more than what they did if it was at the trade deadline or maybe to start this past season?

It depends a lot of times on what your organizational priorities are.

Because the lottery rules changed, I think it worked out better for them because had you traded him last summer, that'd been before lottery reform.

So you'd have been more focused on future draft capital and not the players, because you're thinking about, okay, Oklahoma City got all the draft capital, and they got every bite at the apple for the coming future.

But now we see that the rules have changed, Dan.

You couldn't have predicted that last summer.

You didn't know what the draft was gonna look like in the future.

Biggest question mark tonight leading into the, the, uh, draft is...

[laughs]

And when you've been setting up to have a star, and you get your star, that enables you to do the things that you're good at.

The one thing, Dan, that the Heat are great at is finding high-value, low-cost players.

The Duncan Robinsons, the Gabe Vincents, the Max Struses.

Guys that you surround your superstar with that don't necessarily cost a lot of money.

They don't have the resources.

Like, they're gonna lose Norman Powell in free agency by and large.

Biggest question mark tonight leading into the, the, uh, draft is?

Right, that's

what I'm saying.

But you know who you can rely on when it gets down to it.

And that's what I'm saying with Jalen Brunson.

Now, face of the league conversation, that's really interesting because people are trying to thrust that onto Jalen Brunson because best player on the New York Knicks.

I think you have to have a magnetic personality to be face of the league, CeCe.

Magnetic personality, great story, extremely great athlete, and you have to want it and go above and beyond with the media.

Big time.

Mm.

The...

They have so much on the line for tonight.

The pressure is all on them.

If this series goes back to San Antonio 2-2, you have done... undid all of your great work throughout the course of this series.

So as far as Jalen Brunson goes, there has to be someone that says, "We have to protect our captain.

We have to protect our leader." What that looks like can be on a multitude of things.

[laughs]

the MVP of the team, the reason they're here, the number one fan favorite, number 11, make him do as much as possible because it limits everyone else.

You gotta be able to lose on your terms.

You know what I mean? Like, w- we all think, "Oh, there's an unacceptable way to lose." The unacceptable way to lose is if everybody from the Knicks is killing you, 'cause you can't defend them.

The acceptable way to lose, because this team is that good, is to say, "You know what, Jalen Brunson? You the guy.

But you're gonna have to do it against Steph Castle and Dylan Harper and all these young and long wings that are gonna be in your face from the moment that you pick the ball up at half court." They ...

He's the one shot creator.

He can't really play off, off the ball, dribbling it up the floor, and you don't think that that's, like, a fatiguing thing, but it has a cumulative effect over the course of the game.

if you keep Wemby in the corners defensively, that's a problem for, for the Knicks.

Mm.

Like, fan desperation.

Like, l- the Laker fans, they've been, what? 17, 18 championships or whatever it is.

They done seen different eras.

Like, they know what it looks like.

They know what it feels like.

Like, they're not desperate, and why should you be when you've been accustomed to winning for the past 40 some odd years, right? The Knicks, once again, they haven't won a championship in the modern NBA.

Isaiah Thomas

But based on what you've seen so far this postseason, has he shown in your mind that he's capable of doing that, of being the best player on a team that holds up the Larry O'Brien trophy at the end of the year?

Can't see.

That's a great question.

Because for a player at his size, there's only been two players legitimately two players at his size who have definitively been the best player on a championship team.

And those two guys have done it multiple times.

I'm talking about Isaiah Thomas.

Yeah, that's it.

Well, BG, with that being said, because Kenny Atkinson is going to get the brunt of the ire from all of the Cavs fans, I wanted to ask you, if the series continues to go the way that it went last night, if the Cavs lay down and this thing is over in four games, what's more likely to happen? The Cavs changing coaches or the Cavs changing their top three players?

game one tonight Spurs Thunder Western Conference Finals you've obviously got maybe the best player on the planet right now in Wemby going up against the guy who's just voted the best player in the NBA and SGA handicap this series for me and what's the pathway for each of these teams to be able to pull this out

Well, Tom, I think we all understand that when we made our MVP votes maybe five or six weeks ago at the end of the regular season, like for one, man, the playoffs are long.

When you think about all of that, you think about Shea Gildas Alexander, you think about His consistency, the 30-point streak, the 20-point streak, shooting over 50% from the field and 40 from three and everything else that he does.

And then you look at the other side of Victor Wimbenyama, and he's just this irresistible force.

And you're wondering, do the Spurs have to go through some playoff pain like NBA history has told us before? 40 damn years that you cannot go from being a non-playoff team to winning the championship without having some atrophy, without having some scar tissue.

But I think it's going to come down to not necessarily Victor Wimbinyama and Chet Holmgren as in the Battle of the Skinnies.

As someone who used to be skinny himself, I appreciate them fighting over a very slim block.

What's going on in Minnesota, and what does their offseason look like here if their window is even still open at this point?

You are, both of you guys.

We're, we're talking about, to me right now, Giannis is already arguably the second greatest power forward right behind Tim Duncan.

Right.

To...

Right now.

You're talking about a generational talent of one of the most dominant players to ever play the damn game of basketball.

Granny, he has at least three years of this Giannis that we've been seeing of late between the lines.

Mm.

Wow, okay.

None of these games have been competitive.

They've lost two games by a total of two points, and they've won these games by a total of 196.

This is a generational run that the New York Knicks are playing right now.

You said it.

Karl-Anthony Towns in the Draymond Green sort of Arvydas Sabonis position of point forward.

It's almost Golden State-esque.

Thank you.

Uh, but moving forward with EmbiidCan Nick Nurse come up with a game plan where you're not sure day to day or game to game what exactly you have with Embiid?

That's impossible because, Dan, you know it from being around these players, the series don't get easier as they go along.

They don't get less physical, they get more physical.

And if there is a vulnerable part of your body, let's say you got a bad hand, you know what they're gonna do to your hand? They're gonna whack your hand every chance they can because it's vulnerable, and they're gonna see how long you can go before you say uncle.

And I think with Embiid, he, him getting nailed on that screen by Mikal Bridges, who's not the most, you know, he's not the physically toughest dude in the world, and he nailed Embiid.

So if you're Nick Nurse...

And he did some good things last night.

[laughs]

Uh, but moving forward with Embiid, can Nick Nurse come up with a game plan where you're not sure day to day or game to game what exactly you have with Embiid?

That's impossible because, Dan, you know it from being around these players, the series don't get easier as they go along.

They don't get less physical, they get more physical.

And if there is a vulnerable part of your body, let's say you got a bad hand, you know what they're gonna do to your hand? They're gonna whack your hand every chance they can because it's vulnerable, and they're gonna see how long you can go before you say uncle.

And I think with Embiid, he, [laughs] him getting nailed on that screen by Mikal Bridges, who's not the most, you know, he's not the physically toughest dude in the world, and he nailed Embiid.

So if you're Nick Nurse ...

And he did some good things last night.

[laughs]

What would you grade him? I mean, you know, in the, in the last five minutes, he gets A from me, but what would you grade him in the game?

I'd probably give him about a B-minus 'cause I, I felt like there were, there were plays, like the one play where he dove and every time he dives on the floor, you're like, "Dude, what the hell are you doing? You, you have on the Cam Newton flak jacket, but you still have a punctured lung you're recovering from." I, I thought he played solid, I thought he played solid, I won't say solid defense.

I thought he played really good defense, especially on James Harden, forcing that backcourt violation.

You know, like him and Osar Thompson, well, let me just say this.

Osar Thompson is a different sort of animal on defense.

Like, he's just a different, a different world.

But for Cade to grind the game out, he didn't turn the ball over a lot, finding Duran.

Hopefully he can and I'm wrong, but it's not, it's not great.

Yeah

... that I'll be chronicling, uh, for hopefully seven games.

The rivalry part of it, I think, is, is really interesting, the Joel Embiid, Karl-Towns of it, the Joel Embiid, Mitchell Robinson of it.

Remember a couple of years ago, Mitchell Robinson get dragged down by Embiid on the floor, wound up missing the rest of that series.

Embiid has had some really big games against the Knicks in the playoffs.

Don't forget about this, Paul George, a new equation to this whole 76ers-Knicks rivalry, along with BJ Edgecomb.

Like, Tyrese Maxey has put up big numbers against the Knicks as well.

Would you say the Magic is potentially a more attractive job, and could Golden State's job come open as well, Vincent? What do you think?