Knicks eliminate Pistons, Gregg Popovich steps down, Can New York beat Boston? | FIRST THINGS FIRST

Knicks eliminate Pistons, Gregg Popovich steps down, Can New York beat Boston? | FIRST THINGS FIRST

guy from New York. What’s that? A double. Okay. He He’s under the misconception. What that the Rockets are going to win the series. That had nothing to do with it. That would be nice. That would be good for KW. It would be great. Uh it’s first hour. It’s celebrating Friday edition of First Things First. Classic one by me. Which is what? You’re going to find out very soon. He needs a victory. I do. So, this will be We all know where he’s going. I really don’t for No, we we’ll see you in a moment. All right. Today we’re going to start with Jaylen Brunson. Brunson’s clutch buckets. Jaylen sealed a comeback in Detroit with this three to send the Knicks into the next round. I don’t know what this He knew what it was because Brew remembers Brew remembers last year, right around this time when Club Superstar 3.0 0 opened. There was only one controversial admission. If we can remind, by the way, Club Superstar 4.0 coming later this month. If we can remind the audience what Club Superstar 3.0 and our very, you know, perfectly curated guest list. We allowed in, zoom in if you would, the man tossing the apple in the air on the second floor, Jaylen Brunson. And Brew was like, “Listen, great season, MVP candidate, but not yet a superstar.” Club superstar knew that this young man had this in him. We knew that his dad looked like Jason Kitten Summer League. True. And he had the the the clutch gene. And now Jaylen Brunson adds his name to this list which is pretty remarkable when you consider how few postseason opportunities he’s really had in his career because he wasn’t a main uh you know the main guy until the last three years most 40point playoff games among active guys. Only Harden Durant and LeBron have more. He has the same number as Steph, Luca, Giannis, Jimmy, and Devin Booker. That is a remarkable feat given that, you know, everyone on that list has far more playoff games and everyone on that list has way more playoff games as the team’s number one option. He’s only had these three years with New York. And I agree with Male Bridges in this regard. I did think the Knicks were going to blow it last night. You know, I mean, they were down eight with is it three minutes left. They had blown a lead. They had blown a lead. But when you saw, oh, wait, they’re going to get the last shot because I thought Detroit kind of made a mistake not going two for one and allowing them to get the last shot. It felt like, well, Brunson’s going to find a way. And when you saw Sir Thompson, who’s been awesome, Yeah. loses balance. It felt like a sure thing that was going in. He is a superstar and he is vindicating even though it’s regular season award. Bru’s clutch player of the year ballot. Thank you cuz I was about to jump on you. You’re jumping bad cuz you prematurely put him in club superstar. He is a superstar. Yeah. I didn’t think he was last year because it was only two years of doing it. This is now three straight years of being elite. He’s in there and it’s he’s he doesn’t feel like he clearly plays at a superstar level. He doesn’t feel like a superstar at least to me. I don’t know if it’s his pedigree as a guy that came in was a role player for a few years, second round, you know what I mean? Stayed three years in college, which is unusual for the stars today. and his persona is very just laidback even you know not charismatic or anything like that but he is a superstar player and uh so you like you said he proved he’s a clutch player of the year that move like if we could see that again it wasn’t only a tremendous crossover move but he went between his legs from the back like that’s a move you don’t see every day it’s not a typical crossover I think he you didn’t want to give Assar a chance to maybe swipe at the ball, but that was tremendous. And like you said, Assar is a great defender, has the length on him, the athleticism. He’s also Brunson the latest bit of evidence that skills matter. Skills matter. There was a time shortly after Jordan emerged and took over when the game for 10 plus years, it became about athleticism. like teams were drafting guys that were just long and athletic and could run you talking about like in the 90s like when are you talking early 2000s too 90s early 2000s and Steph Harden the international guys and now Jaylen Brunson are showing it’s about skills and this dude it’s been hard work intelligence saying three years in college learning the game and skills that have elevated him to this level there’s been some talk out there about where is he ranking among Knicks greats. I think some people are foolishly saying he’s like the greatest Nick ever. Look, the Knicks, despite being one of the most prestigious franchises, don’t have a great basketball history. Let’s call it what it is. I mean, they their last championship was 1973. So, but here’s what I’ve got. I Fre Walt Frasier, Willis Reed, and Patrick Euing. Even though you didn’t win a ring, they’re at the top tier. that second year I still got Bernard King right below him ahead of Brunson but after that it’s to me it’s Brunson after that Carmelo is not I put I put him ahead of Carmelo now Carmelo was seven seasons with the Knicks six and a half but seven postseasons his last four years with the Knicks with all due respect he’s he’s a better player at this stage of their careers you know than Brunson we’ll see what Brunson ends up doing but I’m not saying Brunson is yet a Hall of Fame or anything like that Melo’s a legit hall of famer obviously, but his last four years with the Knicks, he didn’t even make the playoffs. They didn’t have a winning record any of those years. And his first three years, they went out twice in the first round and once got to the second round. This is Brunson’s third straight year carrying the Knicks to the second round. So, and finally, Nick, he’s the best player in he was the best player in the series. Cade pro may eventually become that. Town should be. I mean, when you look at the pedigree, Town should have been the best player in the series, but Brunson was the best player in the series, and he proved it. Move on. Yeah, sure. Okay. Uh, game one in Boston next Monday. Knicks winless against the Celtics this year. Yeah, I mean, I think that’s fair. Just beat the Pistons. Uh, this season, the Knicks are 0 and4. The Celtics are averaging 125 points by shooting 50% from the field, shooting 43 and a half% from three. The Knicks are only shooting 35%. And if your name is not Jaylen Brunson or Carl Anthony Towns, you’re shooting under 29%. So, is anyone buying that the Knicks can upset the Celtics? No. Okay. You want go ahead. Um, you saw it 40. All right. And I I feel bad for the Knicks. I I told Ramsay I was teasing him, but I believe this Boston in five. If the Knicks get to six games, if it’s a tough, which I hope it is, a tough, hotly contested game where some of them, if not all of them, come down to the wire, the Knicks, and they losing six, they deserve applause because they got trounced not only by the Celtics during the season. I don’t know if it was on that graphic, the average margin of victory was 16 points. Um, they were one and 11 against the top two seeds in each conference. OKC, Cleveland, Boston. They beat Houston. That was the one team they beat, which, you know, Houston’s not of the caliber of those other three teams. Unfortunately, the Knicks aren’t at that next level. And it’s, you showed it on the graphic. The problem with them against the Celtics, the Celtics are the most prolific three-point shooting team in the league. They shoot 48 a game. And the Knicks are one of the worst defensive teams against the three-point shot. They’re the fifth worst team in the league in defending the three. So you look at that. 43 and a half% from three. That is astronomical. Yeah. 35% from the Knicks is not bad. No, it’s not bad. It’s It’s okay. But 43 and the first two losses to the Celtics, the Celtics shot 48% and then 49% in the next. like you’re you you won’t be anybody giving up that from three. And so yeah, they’re they’re going down probably in five games. But I I hope I’m wrong. I hope they make it a real series. Well, listen, if they make it if they do get to a sixth game, it will be and this is kind of an unintentional I guess in reference to the mellow part, mellow disc. The it will be the biggest game in Madison Square Garden this century. Game six to get to the conference finals will be the highest leverage, biggest game played in MSG since Spreewell and Houston were taking them to the finals in the lockout year in 99. And so like I I agree with you that would be awesome. And by the way, that’d be a tough game for anybody to win game for anybody any road team to come into MSG under those circumstances. I know Detroit just won twice at Madison Square Garden, but this will be so the crowd will be up and rabid for this game, which is also the other weird thing. Simmons was talking about this between Celtics and Knicks for storied franchises in the same conference, the same region, the same division. There’s not a lot of great playoff moments between these teams in modern basketball history. There’s a great Bernard King, Larry Bird duel and I think 84 and then obvious like and then obviously way before there were some good moments in the 70s, but there’s not the Knicks just haven’t the Knicks haven’t been consistent. Um I sadly don’t think the Knicks have any shot. I would love for like Bruce said to be wrong. And the reason I say sadly is not because I live in New York and I’m a Knicks fan. I’m not a Knicks fan. I don’t dislike it. My wife is claims she’s a Knicks fan. I didn’t know this, but she told me this year. She’s like, “I decided I’m a Knicks fan. Who wants to go to games and root for the Knicks?” Great. Um, the reason I say sadly is because they did everything this off seasonason with the Celtics in mind. They did every move they made this off season was to prepare for this matchup they hoped would be coming in the conference finals. Instead, it’s coming in round two, but it was to build their own faximile of Boston’s roster. five legitimate high quality players in your starting lineup, a switchable team, you know, long wings that can defend, a a big that can shoot in Carl Anthony Towns. There’s a lot of it that and Brunson, listen, Tatum is taken, it’s too early to say he’s taken another leap because he was already at such a high level. What he does in round one, you can’t leap based on that when you’re already a champion. But Tatum has raised his game this postseason compared to last postseason. Brunson’s done the same. Like, so it’s not fair to say like, ah, Brunson can’t match Tatum in the series. He could, but I don’t think the Knicks have the horses for it. The most optimistic viewing of it for the Knicks is, yeah, we got absolutely annihilated the first three times we played Boston, but in the final matchup right before the end of the regular season, they did lose, but it was in overtime. Celtic starters, right? No. And that was a game that meant a lot. And if you can take them to overtime, you can compete with them. I just I don’t think they can do it. I want to piggyback off a little bit of what Nick said. When you look on paper now, the Knicks don’t have much depth. No, some of that I mean, uh, Tibs hasn’t cultivated it during the season either, but still, they don’t have the depth of the Celtics. When you look at starting fives on paper, you say two superstar or two stars on the Celtics, two stars on the Knicks. The Knicks, I believe, well, at least in my ballot, they had two allNBA players. Cat on the second team. Yeah, Celtics just had Tatum and Brunson I had on third team. And then Ana is nice. Hart is nice. Bridg is nice. So on paper, you’re like, they should the first five. I on paper I like the Knicks against the South. Like it’s it’s right there. I think what the Knicks will have to do, assuming they do go out pretty easily, as great as Brunson is, and we just praised him rightly so in the first segment, I think they probably they got to get a more egalitarian offense where there’s more ball movement, everybody’s involved. T this is what Tibs did with Derrick Rose when those Chicago Bulls teams were great and uh you know they obviously never got to the finals and so I just think that’s the next step for them. That’s what took Golden State to another level with Steph. We saw that in um Cleveland as well like Donovan stepping back a little now everybody’s involved. So I think that’s the next step for the Knicks. Can that happen under Tibs? For as many flowers as we want to lay at the feet of Jaylen Brunson and he deserves them. There is part of the end of the game where you’re watching be like, geez, that’s the play, huh? Jaylen Brunson make it happen. Four guys watch him. Maybe a kickoff. And Tibs did that with Rose. Like I don’t mind it as much. I’m not a hero ball guy. I like running some options. But that’s not even my issue. The issue is the first 47 minutes when it’s all Brunson, he’s ball dominant. And again, not out of selfishness, I think that’s just how their offense is set up. And if I can speak to the final play last night specifically, this might sound like a small thing, but I actually think it’s a huge thing. the difference between what type of play you’re going to run on a last or close to last possession scenario down one or two versus tied is enormous because because tied you like Brunson Brun well Brunson he made it so it doesn’t matter but he started his move and took his shot way too early to where when it happens it’s like oh the the only hope the Pistons had to get to overtime was him doing that, which is shooting it with 6 seconds left. The reason you do isolation in that spot is so you guarantee you’re taking it, you know what I mean, at three or at two. And so I don’t have a problem with it there if you’re because if you try to run a play it’s very hard to tackle less that it’s more of the entire fourth quarter where it’s just like Brunson that why else are they not on the level at least the level not that they necessarily beat him of Cleveland and Boston and OKC because again line up the five starters of all those teams and the Knicks are right there. Well it might be that the it might be what we’re not talking about which is the guys who aren’t the five starters. I mean, the difference might be that Boston’s got sixth man of the year and Al Horford. The Cavs have Ty Jerome who was in the running for, you know, sixth man and the Knicks, it’s campaign and that’s, you know, and Deuce McBride and so like I think that does hurt him a bit. Teams win the series 12% of the time after going 0 and3 or worse versus that opponent in the regular season. Fun fact, not good though. No, not better than zero. But if you say you gave the Knicks a 12% chance, that’s by the way that’s what Vegas that’s what Vegas is DraftKings is giving them only about 12%. The Celtics are like minus 800 to win the series, which is crazy. Not crazy, but a huge number. Before we go, the end of an era in San Antonio. Greg Papovich ends his coaching career and will move to team president full-time. His coaching resume outstanding. Fivetime champion, three-time NBA coach of the year. over 1,400 wins, which is the most by any head coach in NBA history and 22 straight playoff appearances. That’s a crazy tied for the record. Your reaction to the news? Obviously top three coach of all time, top five, whatever you want to say. I the two things I love about his coaching. One, he understood as a even as he was a hard-nosed coach, he understood it was about the players. So he always said, I’m fortunate seriously that Tim Duncan let me coach him. He’s right cuz if Duncan didn’t want to put up with the yelling and all that, that could have ruined everything in San Antonio and probably had pop out of there. So, he understood that. Secondly, unlike and this guy’s a good coach. I actually think he should be a Hall of Famer. But Mike Danton, Danton had his style and everybody was gonna fit into that no matter what. Phil Jackson, same thing with the triangle. Now, it worked out. But it worked out very good. But yeah, but you can’t like he and Pat Riley who was showtime with LA and then hardcore defense with the Knicks. Papovic adjusted to his players. So when he had the twin towers of Duncan and Robinson, they played big. There were times when they were more offense focused, then more defense focused. Duncan was a centerpiece. Tony Parker’s a centerpiece. like he adjusted to the players not having the ego where they’re going to play my way and that helped him. I got a funny story about P cuz we all know he was hard on sideline reporters, right? And so I was obviously a sideline reporter for ESPN. So my first game I’m doing with the Spurs, I go to the PR director before the game. I’m like, “Look, what how you got any advice for me?” I’m not trying to get embarrassed by Pop, right? And he says, “Look, just ask the question. Don’t lead into the question like with, you know, P, you guys have five turnovers. They score 15 points off your turnovers. How do you just how do you cut down turnovers?” Like go. So I did that and it was great. He was fine. All good. A few years later, I told another sideline reporter, it was their first time with Pop and we would all know him. I won’t mention his name, but and I said, “Look, this is what you do.” and he didn’t do it for whatever reason. He led into it and Pop did embarrass him. And I’m not that wasn’t right to Pop. I never thought he should have treated, you know, the sideline guys mean spirited or kind of just like his thing like kind of bleaching and like sometimes mean a mean guy. He’s a good guy, but he was mean spirit like he didn’t have to do that to to guys. You know what I mean? While you were working and I was watching, I started to look forward to it. It was right. you wanted him as uh so the and we don’t have to have this debate or ranking now. There’s an argument he’s the greatest coach ever. Yeah. That you know what I mean? Like I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as Phil Jackson has 11 rings, red Arbach has however many. Like I think he you if you were like putting your hand up like, “Hey, I want to make the case that Greg Papovich is the greatest basketball coach of all time.” You’re gonna have a long case to make. And I think the most impressive thing of that full screen was the 22 straight playoff appearances. It’s just a remark and the 50 win consecutive seasons, 50 plus wins. The only thing that broke it was playing a 50game season. Even when there was the 66 game season, he won 50. I think the single, arguably the single most impressive coaching feat in basketball history was the 2014 San Antonio Spurs winning the championship after having their heart ripped out in 2013. I think the the having that team have a championship one the way they did before the Ray Allen shot. the rope famously the ropes are up and then they lose that game in overtime, come back in a game seven and lose and then famously pop after that game seven held a team dinner and they all got together you hours after that crushing defeat and for them to then respond and collectively come back the next year and when LeBron and the Heat are going for a three Pete, not only avenge that loss but annihilate them and in that entire era as that’s the type of loss that when we see in sports we say can ruin a team can you know what I mean ruin guys instead they avenged it and I think his I think all of that and I will add his whatever you thought of the man’s politics his fearlessness in saying I have a public platform I think I have important smart things to say I don’t care that I’m in the heart of Texas and it might not be as popular with some Spurs fans I’m going to say I thought was incredibly admirable. Just to add to that, I’ll add two things and we can we can roll out with a with a funny video if you want. Um, Hubs and Christina, there’s two moments that I I didn’t think we were going to get to, so I wanted to bring them up. One, when Kawaii is back in San Antonio and he’s getting booed and pop in the middle of a game, which I don’t even know if you’re allowed to do like like the principle of That’s a great point. That was great. we don’t do this. Stop booing. This is not who we are. And it was almost it was a a very unique moment, I’m going to say, in sports history when you are like, hey, this is who we are as an organization in the middle of a game to a former players, especially when there was a little bit of animosity. It was a lot of pop. Why Kawai does not want to deal with I thought it was a gracious move. And the second thing I agree, he also proved that we see a lot of coaches who are a little one-dimensional. I’m gonna be the I’m locked in. He proved that you could be socially conscious. You could be a little bit curt with the media. You could be a players coach, but at the same time, u, you know, stern and funny at the same time. So, I just want to roll out when he decided to foul Sha at the opening game of the season. Yeah. Uh, it’s one of the, you know, it’s one of, it’s an alltime NBA moment and it just shows how sort of funny he is the game within the game. Congratulations to Greg Papovich on all time career. Thanks for watching. Subscribe here to get more from the show and to check out clips from other shows on FS1.

The New York Knicks eliminated the Detroit Pistons in Game 6 by a score of 116-113. Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes react to the series and ask if the Knicks have a chance against the Boston Celtics. Plus, they discuss Gregg Popovich stepping down as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs.

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Knicks eliminate Pistons, Gregg Popovich steps down, Can New York beat Boston? | FIRST THINGS FIRST

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