When a guys banging you…

One-man spitroast

Yeah, Castle is forcing the issue and playing playoff defense like you should. What will suck is when the refs fail to be consistent across games, like in game 5 or 6 of our series. He will need to adjust his play style quicker.

Not to mention he’s getting whacked on the other end. There was a possession where hart fouled him, he played through it, and then OG fouled him at the rim with no call.

Less than a week ago Knicks fans were adamant that his success this postseason had nothing to do with going against Tyrese Maxey/rookie VJ Edgecombe/CJ McCollum/36 year old harden/Donovan Mitchell as the guard defenders he had seen the most

He’s not a dirty player, I don’t see that at all. He’s strong and very physical. The way he’s playing Brunson is borderline fouly, but by now it’s clear he’s on the right side of the whistle. That’s not dirty and it’s killing Brunson and the Knicks offense. It’s the single biggest adjustment the Knicks need to make if they want to win two more games.

Yeah people dont actually watch the games. He’s the most consistent Spur when it comes to getting into early foul trouble lmao

They fully brought back handchecking without saying it outloud. Castle is a great defender but he constantly has his arm(s) stretched on the opponent he is guarding. He did it with SGA too. And it’s clearly allowed again in the NBA playoffs

This x100000

No your just restarted.

Nobody is complaing about Castle playing hard defense and getting away with blatant fouls. That happens in the NBA. Most fans (like you) do not fundamentally understand what a blocking foul is.

The issue is that if the Knicks even sneeze on any Spurs player, they get a flagrant foul. The only legit foul by the Knicks is them holding Wembys arms on rebounds. Which is smart. A foul is > a free put back and is a smart basketball play.

Is issue is that Castle can hack Brunson all he wants, but Jalen gets a foul for touching castles hair……

This is the worst officiated series in the history of American televised sports. Adam Silver really destorying the NBA for the billions that game 5-7 bring in.

*Edit*- Their are literally 50+ plays like this one below. FROM EACH GAME.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1u15bez/lowlight_clarkson_airballs_the_fadeaway_late_in/

Well people have neen calling Caruso dirty and he plays less physical than how Castle is playing. I guess it’s just natural to be called dirty when players gets really good at playing defense.

Yea since the refs let Castle play Rugby out there. The second the refs call fouls on him, he nearly fouls out as we saw against OKC in game 5

The stats show Brunson is absolutely killing him. In general he’s good but he’s absolutely minced meat for Brunson. His slender frame and lack of lateral quickness hurts a ton in that matchup

Champagnie(and a few other spurs) get beat by brunson consistently. It just doesn’t matter when wemby sprints to the basket and if Brunson swings the ball then wemby is quick enough to recover.

Wemby is the most visibly noticeable “makes any team’s defense elite” guy ever

They have a solid bench and they do fine while Brunson sits. Mikal and OG can create their own buckets but play more passive when Brunson is on the court.

Brunson aggressiveness allows everyone to play more freely, but I think he needs to find a balance this series. OG, Mikal, and KAT are too reliable for Brunson to start chucking the first 3q.

Get his teamamtes involved early, save energy to create runs and take over the fourth.

They Spurs have gotten a 10 point lead in ever first quarter

Yea and this isn’t to take away from Castle playing fantastic defense, but Wemby’s presence is what changes everything. If you know you can’t drive to the basket, it limits your options and makes every play more predictable, which in turn makes an already good defender in Castle look elite.

It’s the true measure of Wemby as a defender is how good he is at just his presence stopping shots

Wemby is the secret sauce for Castle and Harper’s great defence for the whole season. They’re good defenders, but their job is a lot easier when they’ve got GOAT rim protector behind them

This was the painful part for me. Under pressure, Brunson and the Knicks went back to playing like it was 2025. All the ball movement and shooting that allowed them to excel in GM1 and 2 went out of the window in game 3, very frustrating.

Moreso this game, because they finally took off Wemby from KAT. Their rotation looked a lot better.

People betting who aren’t watching.

Brunson’s been clutch in the 4th when needed and they don’t win game 1 or 2 without his efforts. In a world where there’s someone else starting, are they even in that position? Questionable.

Name recognition, I guess?

Because Wemby was off too in those minutes. Even in the Brunson off Wemby on minutes in this series Knicks have kept pace

After Jdub and Ajay went down the Thunder didn’t have the ball handling to attack the Spurs

Yeah. Shai is just better at passing the ball.

They also doubled/shaded Shai far more aggressively cause they were happy with Dort/Chet getting the ball

Top 1% commenter making a circlejerk narrative driven comment. Color me shocked lmao

Castle plays physical, yes. When he takes it too far he gets called for it. He’s averaging like 4 PFs this series. The first time all post season the knicks played a real defense and certain people are losing their mind over it.

Harper is going to be their offensive closer very soon.

This Wemby/Castle/Harper trio is kinda scary.

Absolutely, I’m not criticizing it, they just weren’t falling for him last night and Julian is a much better shooter in general.

I think he is the best poa defender in the league. Wemby is the best rim protector which is a lot more valuable.

For me personally, it’s not a judgement call of who’s a better defender (or I would’ve just said Wemby). Ausar/Wemby guard in alien ways (Wemby length and ausar teleportation) such that i can’t even really imagine what that would be like. But the way castle gets into you is genuinely the stuff of point guard nightmares and I think he generates a different type of frustration in ball handlers

Ausar would clamp me in unthinkable ways. Castle would clamp me in the most frustrating way thinkable. That’s worse to me lol

you might be right. this is the second youngest team to ever be in a finals…they look so scary if the GM can keep this core together

100% he was punked by Nem he had to head butt him. And that wasn’t called a flag. 

I think that’s an excuse.. He takes some really bad shots and does not pass the ball. He forces it too much. Like a young Kobe without Kobe game. 

No he’s on his hip to the side or slightly behind while bumping and tugging, leading him to Wemby. Not to mention all the hand checking. Normally jump shots with someone that tight doing all that is a foul but the league doesn’t call those in the playoffs anymore.

Difference being, he is getting a decent whistle.

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