Jalen Brunson DEFENDS Tom Thibodeau 👀 + Should Knicks MAKE MOVES for Giannis Antetokounmpo? | Get Up

Jalen Brunson DEFENDS Tom Thibodeau 👀 + Should Knicks MAKE MOVES for Giannis Antetokounmpo? | Get Up

And over the weekend, we lost the Knicks. The Knicks falling to the Pacers. And so the questions are what now? Let’s run through their playoff run quickly. It began with a tight series against the Pistons. The Knicks winning in six very tough games. Only eight points would separate the two teams in those six games in round one. Next up for New York came the defending champion Celtics in a series that will always be remembered for the back-to-back 20point comebacks the Knicks had in games one and two. They also came from 14 down to win game four, the game in which Jason Tatum got hurt. And then in the conference finals for the Knicks, they just ran into the opponent they could not beat, blowing a 17-point fourth quarter lead in game one and losing in six to Indiana. After Saturday night’s elimination, Jaylen Brunson was asked if Tom Thibido is the right man for the coaching job moving forward. Listen to this. Do you kind of feel that going forward he’s the same guy to lift you guys the rest of the way that next level? Is that is that a real question right now? I mean every time I turn out you just asked me if I believe that if he’s the the right guy. Yes. Thanks guys. Come on. He wasn’t having it. Now I’ll tell you what we are having. And I forgot to say hello to Jay Will who was with us this morning early as well. I was so thrown completely by Bartholomew’s uh the breakfast that I couldn’t even keep everything focused. Let’s start with that because look, this is a it is a bubbling sentiment. All right, you Allan, you have your finger on the pulse, which means you take phone calls from fans every single day on your radio show on ESPN radio in New York in the afternoon. Is the sentiment of the Nick fans, the Tom Thibido, is to blame for this team not making a run all the way to the finals? It feels like it’s the first place a lot of fans go. I don’t want to say all because I think there’s but there is a loud I don’t know if it’s minority or not but it might be 50/50 but that’s the first place they go they go to Tom Thibido they go to coaching decisions they go to moments in the playoffs especially this year they point to that and they feel like he’s the guy that gets him to this far but he can’t get him over the top and I try to tell people that Jaylen Brunson is the most important person in that organization and he gives him a full endorsement and as long as he does that Tom Thibido is going nowhere And you heard Jaylen Brunson’s comments and his and how he feels about it. So clearly Tom Thibido is going nowhere, nor do I think he should. Yeah. Here’s let me just do very quickly. I want because I wrote this the the last 25 years the Knicks have um sucked. They have sucked very much. There has been an unbelievable amount of the Knicks and now all of a sudden they make this unexpected run. They beat the defending champs. They run up against a very good and underrated opponent by the way since January 1st. The two best teams in the NBA by record are OKC and Indiana, the two teams that make it to the finals. And all of a sudden, Nick fans want to blame Jaylen Brunson and Tom Thibido, who have as much to do with them being where they are as any two people alive. It drives me insane. I said it on on last week, and I’ll say it again. This is why we can’t have nice things. Tom Fibido has been the best coach the Knicks have had in a very long time. He isn’t perfect because he’s a human being and no one is perfect, but that’s my opinion. Jay Will, what do you think? I feel like Nick’s fandom politics, it’s all heat, no nuances. And and and frankly, when I look at Tom Tibido, I I think look, there are there’s a there’s some questions about Tom Tibido and his playing methodology. U but back-to-back 50 win seasons, getting them to the Eastern Conference Finals, Jaylen Brunson giving him his endorsement. Like, I think he’s going to be the head coach next year. I just wonder what this ceiling is with this team. I don’t think that’s more of a Tom Tibido situation. I think that’s more of a Leon Rose uh roster construction situation because of some of the hindrance of this team. If it’s Annov’s rebounding, if it’s Josh Hart’s shooting, if it’s McBride’s playmaking, if it’s Mitchell Robinson’s endurance, I think there’s some more retooling around the roster construction more so than Tom Timbo. Completely agree. And we’ll dive into that in just a second, but let’s just put a final ribbon on this because you’re around this team literally every day. Monica does the radio for them. like what what sense do you have of the relationship of the coaching of all that sort of sense the the sense you get around Tom? I’ve spent the day sort of thinking about how you button up the season to your point Greeny. Uh I remember sitting at this table and our good friend Bobby Marx who said this might be the best starting five in the Eastern Conference when it came together with Carl Anthony Towns right I have been around the city and had conversations with fans and it was like well what do you think about Boston if it goes six I’ll be proud as in six and an escape right um and so you get past Boston the starting five doesn’t emerge as the signature defense right that was your signature last year but it’s a high-powered offense the highest you’ve seen in I want to say at least five seasons for sure and you run up on a Pacers team who I think is underrated. Is there room for everyone to be evaluated? Yes. Does that include Tom Civido in my mind? Yes. Because did you see glimpses in the Pacers um series of some of the conversations around his use of depth? Yes. Right. And so, but I don’t think that this season to me is at all a failure. I don’t think Tom Tibido should be removed. But I do think that there are very glaring moments that everyone, which is what you do in sports, can point to in terms of evaluating and figuring out how you move forward. I thought Jay said it really well and to me I may be in the minority on this. The defense wasn’t the issue for me in the series. The offense crashed. The defense has not been particularly stellar all season. That wasn’t new. So let’s turn our attention to the piece of this that does make sense. The roster, the players. We all know what name is going to come up. We are going to have the NBA finals for the next two two and a half weeks and then we’re going to have the week of the draft. In the week of the draft, the two most prominent names spoken are going to be um the the the rookie from Duke whose name just jumped out of my head and Cooper flag inexplicably and Giannis Anttompo. That’s going to be the other name. Jay, should the Knicks be moving heaven and earth to find a way to bring Giannis to put them over the top? I mean, if you can find it, look, I I’ve said this before. I think what puts Jaylen Brunson in the best position long-term is to be 1A when you need him to be 1A the most at the end of games. Allen Han has referred to him as the Mariana Rivera, right? Mariana Rivera didn’t pitch for seven innings. So all I’m going to say is throughout the longevity for Brunson’s career due to the fact that he absorbed so much physicality. I don’t need him to carry the load every single night during the course of an 82 regular game season schedule and into the playoffs. I I need him to remain fresh and that’s going to help the longevity of his career. A guy like Giannis can carry that load and actually I think their games are are are comparable together. They work together. Now look, you’re going to have to give up a lot of pieces and assets in order to get that. But I think in the best long-term interest of Jaylen Brunson, if you want to keep him around, Giannis is the player that I think matches that and helps sustain a longer career for Brunson. Allan, do do you think this is a conversation that is going to be hot around these parts? Oh, it’ll be scorching hot. This is my big fat Greek summer in New York when it comes to Gianniso. I mean, that’s what that’s just going to be. Whether or not the Knicks have the pieces to do it is, of course, the debate that we’re going to have now on and on. And if you listen to Bobby Marks, who’s very smart, he’ll tell you they really don’t. But it doesn’t mean that if Giannis is watching the Knicks in this playoff run, and he watched them in that series against the Pacers, and he wants a market like New York, he wants a big market, and he wants a shot at another ring where it’ll resonate big time. He’s got to be saying to himself, I can help that team. And if that’s the case, and he believes it enough, he is the guy that’s got to drive the bus when it comes to coming to New York. It is not something the Knicks can do where they’re going to outbid other teams. If he leaves it open to where I’ll play anywhere, the Knicks probably don’t have a shot. But if he’s got a say in this, then they they might they might have a shot. And if you’re the Knicks, you have to listen. You have to think about it. But continuity is an important thing there, Monica. They haven’t had much of it. They tore up the roster last summer. Can you keep doing it over and over again? Yeah. And I’m glad you brought up the continuity piece, Han, because to me, this is why this year is a success for the Knicks because how often do we see you team up superstars, if you will, all NBA guys, if you will, and you did that with Carl Anthony and Jaylen Brunson, and it worked in year one. That to me is unheard of and should be an asterisk in this conversation. But I’m going to quote exactly what you said and what Jay said. Jay said, “Give up a lot of pieces and assets.” You said whether or not the Knicks have the pieces to put it push it all together. The thing about it is, and I’ve asked this question about Giannis, in terms of other destination, is what is your timeline? Because if they do this this summer, I have a hard time believing that it’s a formula that’s going to equal championship in the next year because you’re going to have to fill in the rest of that roster. Now, we all have sat here greedy and put up Giannis’ stats yearbyear, and somehow it seems to be sleeping under the radar that he’s still in the top five in terms of MVP conversation. So, when you look at Giannis’ game and you look at Jaylen Brun’s IQ, yeah, basketball, it totally makes sense. But where do you place continuity? Where do you place what it does in terms of your franchise, in terms of your treasure? The hardest part. That’s why he has to drive it. And by the way, there was just a question on the screen that I know we had planned to get to today. Is was this season a failure for the Knicks? Again, there are some things I just laugh at. If if someone had said before the season began, the Knicks are going to make make it to game six of the Eastern Conference Finals. Any realistic fan would have done a little dance. Now, if if you would, but you didn’t know who would be against. It’s how it ended, Greeny, which is why it’s bittersweet. But the best team 25 years, but the way it ended is bittersweet. I know. But but if the Indiana Pacers played in Boston or if they played in somewhere else besides where they play, these people would have had a completely different perspective. A team is just so much better than anybody wants to give them credit for being, the Knicks ran into a better team that was a bad matchup. And they were a bounce of the ball here or there away from possibly finding a way to win. Let’s play a game of NBA fact or fiction as we work our way towards the NBA finals beginning on Thursday. Allan, if someone said Tyrese Hallebertton is an NBA superstar, is that fact or fiction? Fiction. You know how I am about this stuff. Superstars are rare. There’s only a handful of them. You can count on maybe they’re under 10. He could get there though if he pulls off this massive upset in the finals. If there are under 10, then I completely agree with you. I think the most interesting part of that is how we define superstar and everyone has a different definition. Monica, looking back on the Eastern Conference Finals, if someone were to say, “Look, the Pacers just control this rivalry against the Knicks.” Is that fact or fiction? Currently, painful facts here in New York. I mean, this is two years in a row where the Pacers put the Knicks out. And this one in particular, I think really stings. People will look back at game one. The personal one that stuck in my crosshairs is game four in this series. But yeah, right now the Pacers are up in this one. Bottom line is when the Pacers beat the Knicks last year, I think the Knicks felt like, “Oh, we weren’t healthy. We weren’t.” And this year they were and they still didn’t get it done. Jay Will, if someone said Jaylen Brunson can be the best player on an NBA championship team, is that fact or fiction? Got a new one for you, Gritty. I’m going to say faction. I think he can, but the probability is very, very slim. everything would need to be perfect for it to crystallize to the most efficient degree. The only concern you have about him is that for a guy who’s so small, getting to a spot and defense is loading up on him will be a challenge. So, I think it’s possible, but 5%. There’s there was literally no one in the world better at finding a nuanced reason not to answer a question than Jay Williams. He’s just incredible. He has taken fact and fiction, combined them into a word which was not on the option uh list that we gave you. I like it. You’re like my wife. You order off the menu no matter what else. My wife continue considers the menu a suggestion. So I I like that you’re willing to do the same thing. Okay. Bottom line of it is this. Let’s talk about Jaylen Brunson for just a minute. Jaylen Brunson is a terrific player. My feelings on him last week, if you were watching the show, you’re well aware of what they all are. M Jaylen Mson cannot win its thing alone, nor can practically anybody these days. And the one thing the Knicks desperately need or any team that depends on a player like him desperately needs is what they do not have. H how did the the um he plays a similar style to Luca Donuch, right? Not the same game, but a similar style. Dribble the ball like crazy. What What do you need? You need to spread the floor. You need shooters. You need all that kind of stuff. They don’t have that. They don’t have they have not built a team around him winning an NBA championship. Do I have that right? They they think they did. I mean again, Muel Bridges is a good shooter. He was a good corner three OG, one of the best corner threes in the game. That’s a spread the floor kind of thing. Carl Anthony Towns, you bring him in. That’s a big man who shoots threes. The best of any big man ever is 40% three-point shooter. The whole idea was that’s what you were supposed to have built. It’s just in the playoffs you didn’t see it nearly as much as you did regular season. They were an efficient highscoring starting five. In the playoffs, the weaknesses were found and exploited. You and I disagree. I think it was more defense that was the bigger issue. But Jaylen Brunson is like if Steph Curry didn’t have Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, we’d be saying the same thing. A great player who you have to have the right pieces around. Steph Curry had two excellent pieces around him. Then you add KD and he got some championships out of it. They’ve got to figure out if this is the best combination around a guy like Jaylen Brunson. But Monica, he’s already proven he’s a winner. Yeah. The guy optioned 30 a game in the postseason. He’s shown you he is a guy that can be a 1A. It’s the rest of the group. Yeah. I mean, if you ask me if I wanted to build a franchise around Jaylen Brunson, sign me up. Right. And twice on Sunday, every day of the week, the scoring, the basketball IQ, the character, right? This is a guy that is a winner. I mean, his foundation is called Second Round Foundation because he’s a second round pick, right? And he goes on to exceed expectations. So, he is familiar with the work that is required, but I think Han is right in terms of you have to evaluate the landscape of who you’re competing against. And as much as they did that this offseason in terms of going to go get Wingstop to get past Boston, Indiana to me represents just a sort of unique shift in the tide. And this is probably why we don’t necessarily give Hallebert and the superstar level because they are the sum of their parts. and their depth was frankly the antithesis of how the Knicks have been successful. So this wasn’t just a Jaylen Brunson bad matchup. It was a Knicks bad matchup. Jay Wool, I I I I don’t think being a second option is such a bad thing, especially when you can close as a number one option. So I look at it more as a 1A 1B. I actually think the real question is I rather have Jaylen Brunson as a 1B to become a 1A when I need him to be that A the most. Right. And I I think finding another legitimate star that can carry the offensive load, that can do a lot of the things that where Jaylen Brunson doesn’t need to exert that energy all the time, puts the Knicks in the best position to optimize when they need Jaylen Brunson to be the best. And we make mention of a guy like Steph Curry, but Steph Curry’s game is very different, guys. He moves on the perimeter. He floats around. Um, you know, he doesn’t absorb as much contact and the level of physicality isn’t there. So, who relieves Jaylen Brunson of carrying that load throughout the course of the season? And that’s why I think 1B is better for him to become the 1A when you need him to be the Mariana Rivera the most.

On Get Up, Jay Williams, Alan Hahn and Monica McNutt debate whether Tom Thibodeau is the right coach to take the New York Knicks to the next level, discuss what moves the Knicks should look to make this offseason and more.

0:00 Is Tom Thibodeau is the right coach to get the Knicks to the next level?
3:30 What is the Knicks’ ceiling next season?
3:50 Monica McNutt says the Knicks shouldn’t move on from Thibs
5:30 What moves should the Knicks make to become a championship team?
10:00 Fact or Fiction?
12:00 Is Jalen Brunson better as a 1st or 2nd option on the floor?
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