Wemby vs KAT

[KG4Ever]

Congrats to the Spurs and Wemby! They are building something special! KAT and Wemby are two of my faves and glad that one of them will be a champion. This should be fun!

[60WinTim]

Congrats to the Spurs and Wemby! They are building something special! KAT and Wemby are two of my faves and glad that one of them will be a champion. This should be fun!

Yeah, I feel really great for the Spurs, especially against the Thunder! (I live just north of San Antonio in the winter, so the Spurs are my "2nd" team...)

[Coolbreeze44]

My worst nightmare, one of Popovich or Spike Lee is going to be happy.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

I'm happy for both of these guys, their teams, and their fans.

These fans
You can hate New York City all you want, and you can roll your eyes at the courtside celebrities, but the average Knicks fan is a fucking maniac and I salute them all. As for the Spurs fans, they've had so much success over the years it's a little harder to feel good for them, but their young superstar abandonded them seven years ago and this is basically their first time back in the playoffs since, so I'm happy for them.

These teams
I've always liked individual toughness of a lot of Knicks players (Hart in particular), but this year, they really reinvented themselves from the isolation-heavy offense under Thibs into a more fun, movement-oriented team that really fights for each other defensively as well. You might think of the city as glitzy and selfish, but the team plays gritty and selflessly. And I honestly love the way the Spurs play. They took every game seriously this year and outperformed expectations significantly. They play hard without much ego, and they are just really poised and mature for such a young team.

These guys
I criticized KAT for years because of his immature whining and poor defense, but he legitimately started to grow up on both counts by the end of his time here in Minnesota, and he was mature about accepting Ant as the face of the team. Wembanyama kind of blows me away. He's playing this season with an intensity like it's the last season he'll ever get to play, or like somebody who had a near-death experience and realizes how precious life is. I'm serious. He singlehandedly turned the All-Star game into a real fucking game. His effort and mentality have set the tone for this team all year. Although it caught me a little offguard, I honestly loved how emotional he got when they won last night, especially when he said something like "these guys have no idea how much I love them." Holy shit! Coming from an MVP-level talent, can you imagine how that sort of thing would affect his teammates?! They would run through a brick wall for him now! That's leadership. We've talked all year about how immaturity and bad chemistry can hold a team back, because we've seen it with the Wolves. Wembanyama is basically leading his team in the opposite direction, setting an example with his mental and emotional approach to the game and his teammates. It's just incredibly impressive, especially from a guy so young.

[Q-is-here]

I'm happy for both of these guys, their teams, and their fans.

These fans
You can hate New York City all you want, and you can roll your eyes at the courtside celebrities, but the average Knicks fan is a fucking maniac and I salute them all. As for the Spurs fans, they've had so much success over the years it's a little harder to feel good for them, but their young superstar abandonded them seven years ago and this is basically their first time back in the playoffs since, so I'm happy for them.

These teams
I've always liked individual toughness of a lot of Knicks players (Hart in particular), but this year, they really reinvented themselves from the isolation-heavy offense under Thibs into a more fun, movement-oriented team that really fights for each other defensively as well. You might think of the city as glitzy and selfish, but the team plays gritty and selflessly. And I honestly love the way the Spurs play. They took every game seriously this year and outperformed expectations significantly. They play hard without much ego, and they are just really poised and mature for such a young team.

These guys
I criticized KAT for years because of his immature whining and poor defense, but he legitimately started to grow up on both counts by the end of his time here in Minnesota, and he was mature about accepting Ant as the face of the team. Wembanyama kind of blows me away. He's playing this season with an intensity like it's the last season he'll ever get to play, or like somebody who had a near-death experience and realizes how precious life is. I'm serious. He singlehandedly turned the All-Star game into a real fucking game. His effort and mentality have set the tone for this team all year. Although it caught me a little offguard, I honestly loved how emotional he got when they won last night, especially when he said something like "these guys have no idea how much I love them." Holy shit! Coming from an MVP-level talent, can you imagine how that sort of thing would affect his teammates?! They would run through a brick wall for him now! That's leadership. We've talked all year about how immaturity and bad chemistry can hold a team back, because we've seen it with the Wolves. Wembanyama is basically leading his team in the opposite direction, setting an example with his mental and emotional approach to the game and his teammates. It's just incredibly impressive, especially from a guy so young.

Yup, I'm really looking forward to the matchup Drew. It would be easy to say the Spurs will win in 5 or 6 because, after all, they just won the Western Conference, a far tougher test of basketball than the East. But....the Wolves were injured and so were the Thunder, whereas the Knicks didn't just win the East, they absolutely dominated!

As for Wemby, yeah, he checks pretty much every box you would ever want in a franchise player.

[rapsuperstar31]

I wonder if Wemby will defend Kat, or if they put him more on Hart so he can sag off of him and put Castle on Kat like they put Castle on Randle.

[AussieWolf3]

I wonder if Wemby will defend Kat, or if they put him more on Hart so he can sag off of him and put Castle on Kat like they put Castle on Randle.

Hart is shooting 41% beyond the arc.
I'm hyped for a KAT legacy finals, I hope he gets it this year cause it probably isn't happening again

[Q-is-here]

I wonder if Wemby will defend Kat, or if they put him more on Hart so he can sag off of him and put Castle on Kat like they put Castle on Randle.

Hart is shooting 41% beyond the arc.
I'm hyped for a KAT legacy finals, I hope he gets it this year cause it probably isn't happening again

I think they will put him on Hart as Rap suggests. I know Hart can hit open 3's, but he does so in low volume, meaning he only ever takes them when wide open. Even a partial contest by Wemby will probably distract the shot and it doesn't take him much to go from the paint to the 3-point arc.

[Monster]

I'm happy for both of these guys, their teams, and their fans.

These fans
You can hate New York City all you want, and you can roll your eyes at the courtside celebrities, but the average Knicks fan is a fucking maniac and I salute them all. As for the Spurs fans, they've had so much success over the years it's a little harder to feel good for them, but their young superstar abandonded them seven years ago and this is basically their first time back in the playoffs since, so I'm happy for them.

These teams
I've always liked individual toughness of a lot of Knicks players (Hart in particular), but this year, they really reinvented themselves from the isolation-heavy offense under Thibs into a more fun, movement-oriented team that really fights for each other defensively as well. You might think of the city as glitzy and selfish, but the team plays gritty and selflessly. And I honestly love the way the Spurs play. They took every game seriously this year and outperformed expectations significantly. They play hard without much ego, and they are just really poised and mature for such a young team.

These guys
I criticized KAT for years because of his immature whining and poor defense, but he legitimately started to grow up on both counts by the end of his time here in Minnesota, and he was mature about accepting Ant as the face of the team. Wembanyama kind of blows me away. He's playing this season with an intensity like it's the last season he'll ever get to play, or like somebody who had a near-death experience and realizes how precious life is. I'm serious. He singlehandedly turned the All-Star game into a real fucking game. His effort and mentality have set the tone for this team all year. Although it caught me a little offguard, I honestly loved how emotional he got when they won last night, especially when he said something like "these guys have no idea how much I love them." Holy shit! Coming from an MVP-level talent, can you imagine how that sort of thing would affect his teammates?! They would run through a brick wall for him now! That's leadership. We've talked all year about how immaturity and bad chemistry can hold a team back, because we've seen it with the Wolves. Wembanyama is basically leading his team in the opposite direction, setting an example with his mental and emotional approach to the game and his teammates. It's just incredibly impressive, especially from a guy so young.

Yup, I'm really looking forward to the matchup Drew. It would be easy to say the Spurs will win in 5 or 6 because, after all, they just won the Western Conference, a far tougher test of basketball than the East. But....the Wolves were injured and so were the Thunder, whereas the Knicks didn't just win the East, they absolutely dominated!

As for Wemby, yeah, he checks pretty much every box you would ever want in a franchise player.

Atlanta was the team that gave the Knicks the most problems but it definitely has seemed the Knicks have found another gear. How healthy was Embiid? Sweeping the Cavs is impressive but the Cavs had played back to back 7 game series.

One of the big contrasts between these teams is playoff experience. The Knicks are relatively playoff tested with lots of vet guys. Most of the Spurs this is their first playoffs. Mike Brown is in his first year with the Knicks but has coached various teams and been around a few winning organizations. Mitch Johnson learned from one of the best but he has only been an NBA head coach for a while and now he is in the Finals. None of this means the Spurs can't win or whatever but it's definitely interesting.

[FNG]

Interesting that the Spurs are 2 to 1 favorites given how dominant the Knicks have been the past 3 weeks. Just like the Spurs were the smart bet with the Thunder being 2 to 1 favorites, the Knicks have to be the smart bet here. That said, I still like the Spurs to win this series.

We all gotta have someone to cheer for, right? And this is a tough one for me because I like so many of the guys on both teams. I've decided to cheer for the Spurs though. Unlike Cool, I've always kind of liked Pop...he's got a lot of "old school" in him, and his short halftime answers were always hilarious. And I also don't mind Spike Lee too much. But it's the rest of the front 3 rows in MSG that I despise...celebrities who wouldn't go to a game unless they could be seen in the front row (okay, I guess that's Spike too) and insufferable investment bankers. As much as I like KAT, I don't want the front three rows to win, so I'm going with the Spurs.