[Bill Simmons Pod] Bill: “This was an incredibly disappointing Wemby series. For the future of the league, face of the league, this was a catastrophe for all those storylines.” Zach: “Storywise, this is the better outcome for the league.”
It is pretty crazy that the team with the best defensive player by far gave up the most leads I’ve ever seen in a series.
They also had 15 point leads in every one of the WCF games including the ones they lost IIRC
They somehow have incredible shooting ability every 1st quarter
But they can’t for their lives make any good decisions late in games. Full of bad turnovers, contested mid ranges, and just low iq plays, including non existent time outs
Maybe Mitch is great at planning a gameplan, but very bad at adapting to the changes his opponents make to theirs during the game
While I think some of it is definitely on him. His players just choked. You could see him yelling from the sidelines on very basic strategy things that they weren’t following. Like not fouling Mitchell Robinson in the 4th when KAT was out (before he came back in and fouled out - outside of the last 2 min).
They didn’t punish KAT’s foul trouble enough
knicks went small ball and they barely punished that lineup with wemby on the floor
It’s insane that going small against Wemby actually worked. But he was basically invisible in the fourth, and he wasn’t the only one. Maturity is the cliche explanation we’re gonna hear over and over but it’s not wrong.
Figuring out how to best utilize wemby on the offensive end and get him in better spots is gonna need to be a big thing going forward. That along with wemby working on his game and developing more go to moves in the post and on drives is what is gonna determine if he really becomes an all time great. He’s clearly incredibly physically gifted and talented but is still very raw. Not dissimilar to lebron when he lost in 2007. A ton of raw talent that still needs refinement and experience
Man barely played
Its like a football team who has the “first 15” game script down to a T, but when it gets to nut crunch time they dont have the fundamentals and mental clarity to make right adjustments to the other team
I don’t watch football, what’s the basketball equivalent?
The 2026 San Antonio Spurs
95 Magic too
Shaq wasn’t lakers shaq but he still had a pretty great series
Young coach. He will also get better over time. Similar to Erik Spo
Bro him screaming during the 4th and pointing for the trap and double team on Brunson and the players just not doing it for 4 straight possessions was crazy. Meanwhile Brunson was killing them.
Opponents close the lead when wemby’s out. And he’s not as effective in the 4th because he’s gassed. They need a better backup center and PF to help wemby with rebounding.
The only game wemby was dominant in the 4th was when there was a lot of freethrow
I know all the clamour is for Harper to start and obviously there’s an argument there but Vassell can’t be the second biggest player in their starting 5. Wemby is dominant but he’s so active on every possession for the whole game, it’s no wonder he’s absolutely gassed by the 4th.
Bench Fox and get a proper PF, Harper can be the new Ginobili. He’s instant offense, whether or not he starts makes little difference.
Whether or not he starts is an ego thing. He has to start. What young max player comes off the bench ? None. He’ll almost become ineligible to become an all star and such if he comes off bench. Why gamble on having a potential young star be unhappy and walk away for nothing ? He could easily want to stay for 5+ years if spurs start him soon.
Well he’s a rookie plus a future RFA. They got some time to manage the ego
yeah their guard heavy lineup works really well for some matchups, it’s why they did so well against OKC, but when you start working with that all the time it’s a serious drawback
From what came out yesterday sounds like he wants to start and be important.
I don’t blame him. That kind of talent doesn’t belong on the bench
It’s hard to get much better than that from your backup C without spending significant $
Kornet is also one of the best backup Cs in the league, the only one I think is better is Timelord, but then you have the durability concerns.
MRob is up there too
Also while I get why they do it, it’s maybe not surprising that a guy who averaged less than the 30 a game in the regular season wasn’t ready for deep playoff minutes
This is all very normal for a young team, I don’t understand the panic. Their best players are 22, 21, and 20. The fact that they made the finals is an amazing accomplishment for such a young team. They’ll be so much better next year after this experience and won’t be surprised if they make it back to the finals soon.
Not to mention just how good the 20 year old looked through the playoffs and finals. Any other team has a rookie perform like him in the postseason and the hype would be crazy for their future.
No one is saying they should panic, but there’s like three spots the spurs need to address and there’s no guarantee they make it back to the finals
Last year we thought OKC would win at least a couple rings
I said very soon, not necessarily 1 year later. Okc could still win a few rings with this current core. Shit happens, they didn’t have jay will. They are still one of the youngest most talented teams in the league. The nba is very deep and only one team makes it out of each conference. I’m just saying they will have more shots at the finals over the next 5-10 years if they keep the core in tact.
Nothing is guaranteed over a 5 year span
OKC barely won 40 games three years ago
And in two years, foxs contract will be an actual problem with wembys and castles extension, I’m assuming Julian gets a big pay bump next year too
They still don’t have a decent backup for Wemby, a decent 4 that can rebound, and Fox still wants to start
Could the spurs be in the mix 5 years from now? Sure but if I had to bet on it, I’d say that fox contract makes them a totally different team in three
Making the Finals again is no guarantee. If you asked people do they think the Nuggets would make it back after winning theirs, most people would have said yes.
How much of that is playing full court press all game? They come out strong and smother out the other teams offense then play gassed in the 2nd half.
I was saying this the whole series.
They would play the most suffocating defense you ever seen for at least the first qtr usually the second qtr too. But idk how you keep that intensity all game. It’s not possible.
Then when they’re gassed the defense eases up AND they start missing shots and making mistakes offensively.
They should have saved it for later in the games or just pick their spots with it.
But damn it is hard to score on them when everyone is flying around.
The spurs were an all time great 1st quarter team
Having Wemby sit back in the paint allows their guards play a very aggressive style of defense that wears their players out. It’s not sustainable for 48 minutes. You can blame Mitch Johnson as well for not making the proper in game adjustments but it’s not a coincidence this happened multiple times in both the WCF and the Finals.
Blazers created a monster showing them how to give up big leads
This has literally been a problem all year long. We call it the turd quarter.
They didn’t really lose because of their defense though. They lost because their offense turned into a flaming hot pile of garbage over and over.
Agreed, the Knicks offense looked great in comparison to the Spurs but it was not exactly scoring at an elite rate. The Knicks won this series defensively/the Spurs lost it offensively
One team had a reliable ball handling scorer. The other team had Dearon Fox and a rookie playing that role. Every championship team ever has had that reliable guard/wing scorer who can create his own shot off the bounce when scoring gets tight. And this is even more important when your best player is a big. Even Jokic and Giannis had Jamal Murray and Khris Middleton
And when Denver does well, it’s not because joker does well. It’s because Murray decides to play like the opposing ball dominant guard made fun of his mother.
When like came up on stage and started yelling who let the dogs out, I could practically hear Fox’s pathetic meow in response
He gassed out in the 4th
40mpg for somebody who averages 29mpg in the regular season. That’s just too big of a jump.
You can’t just expect to up someone’s minutes and get the same level of production. It’s not a video game. He should’ve gotten more regular season reps playing 40 minutes. The Knicks never looked as gassed because they had those high minutes Thibs years so they can adjust to the higher minute load.
The Knicks never looked gassed because Mike Brown utilized his bench and made sure to rest his players when they needed it all season. How in the world did you manage to credit Thibs for the Knicks not being gassed in the 2026 Finals?
I felt this at the end game 5 watching Wemby just getting bodied under the rim by guys playing 20mins less than him
Mitchell Robinson just walking him down under the rim lategame was a huge part of that, he could not handle that
It’s also just harder for a guy his size and playstyle to be that conditioned. Dude covers more ground than any other 7’ guy in the league. Takes on the brunt of the work on both ends. Not saying he can’t be better conditioned but don’t think him cruising through 40+ minutes like Hart types is realistic either
Almost all games this series. He was good in the thunder series in the 4th because it became a FT contest. He had time to rest
We also can’t discount how much that series took out of him mentally/physically.
Homie cried after. Took a lot of both out
It’s always hard to win the finals your first time there cause you won’t know the insane stamina/intensity requirement until you experience it for yourself
That. And the entire spurs team seems mentally exhausted. For a young team it’s hard to be mentally locked in for that long, esp after 3 other big series
So gassed. Couldn’t bend his knees for leverage on the FT box out. Very obvious in replay he’s bending from the waist. First q he’s flexible and low to the floor, 4th he’s gassed and folded over
What’s not at all crazy, is that the youngest finals team we’ve seen in over a decade
gave up the most leads ever in a series.
This narrative that the Spurs losing is disastrous or wetf is ridiculously premature. The Spurs have incredible players on rookie contracts, and this is their first real postseason. I would argue they are HUGELY ahead of schedule
Their offense was really bad. Largely speaking they played great defense this series. But you can only do so much on that end if you can’t generate buckets when it matters most. Blown leads are often the fault of poor offenses and not poor defense. Every lead they blew happened because they couldn’t make shots and it got the Knicks out running or creating matchup mismatches.
I’d like to know how many defensive players of the year have won the chip in the last 30 years. I can’t imagine it’s that many unless coupled with another player who is a star offensive force
It’s only happened 5 times in NBA history I believe, so incredibly rare
Thanks to Gemini
Michael Cooper (1987, Los Angeles Lakers)
Dennis Rodman (1990, Detroit Pistons)
Hakeem Olajuwon (1994, Houston Rockets)
Kevin Garnett (2008, Boston Celtics)
Draymond Green (2017, Golden State Warriors)
And all those teams had a lot more offensive fire power than the spurs
Much more experienced too
His blow by percentage was higher than Luka’s in the finals at one point
He’s a center, it makes sense if you think about it
Yea, I don’t get why people harp on smaller fast dudes blowing past bigs when they get a switch on the perimeter.
Like no shit, lol.
There’s stuff to clown Rudy on, but when a a guard got past him? I’m like, ok. I would think so, lol.
They got him involved defending the PnR and took advantage repeatedly. As great as a defender as he is, he has real weaknesses on that end when he’s not just playing a roaming weak side help around the rim.
They just don’t have anyone who can generate their own shots in the 4th quarter like Brunson. Brunson also a vet guard who got a lot of free throws from rookie errors.
Also this is a young inexperienced spurs team so they will make silly turnovers and errors in the 4th quarter. Castle was disappointing though and Fox.
Wild statistic showed the Spurs FG% dropped in every quarter. Lots of blame to go around but I think they settled for jumpers late in games when they couldn’t get around the relatively fresher NY side. Tired would be an excuse.
The dude plays like 3 minutes at a time then gets a rest
Wemby is 22. I remember almost all of the great ones going through this. He just started the title clock before most of them.
Yeah, even among legends, the vast majority of them get exposed in the first round or so of the playoffs. Some dont even make the playoffs for years when they get in the league
Wemby was caught out in the finals on his playoff debut, he’s further along than most of them
Should have lost before the finals /s
you say /s but theres people out there who unironically think this
If they has lost to the Wolves or Thunder people would have said they overachieved and did great. Somehow making it to the finals and losing there is worse
Yeah if they lost in 7 to the Thunder, people would have nothing but praise for him right now
Welcome to 23 years of LeBron vs Jordan debates.
See you in 2039 when people say Wemby can’t be the GOAT because he only won 9 out of his 10 finals appearances.
For sure, people clown LeBron for his finals record and overlook the accomplishment of making the finals all those years in a row
He’d 100% have a better reputation right now if they jsut lost game 7 to okc its so reactionary
Yeah, now he’ll never be as good as MJ
Most legends don’t go to a great organization with 2 other top 3 picks.
If he won a title and FMVP this year at 22, and someone asked what if he wins 4 more, never hops teams because he never has another losing season for the next 16+ years people would be like yeah he’s prob the GOAT. Yet that’s just what Timmy did and nobody puts him in that convo for some reason
Edit: this post seems to have sent a lot of people frothing. Maybe stop getting all your basketball takes from Nike, Gatorade, and ESPN talking heads
Because Timmy too humble and doesn’t have dozens of sneakers named after him. Real ones know about mr fundamental.
It’s because Timmy is no where near top points (20th), rebounds (6th) or blocks (5th). He’s a system winner and it’s ok for people not to have him in the goat conversation.
I’m not saying he’s top 5 or anything, but it’s genuinely dumb as hell for anyone to say he was a system winner. He won 3 titles where “the system” on offense was give it to Tim and let him work. 2003 in particular was an all time carry job. Not to mention he was the best defender on one of the best defensive teams of the dead ball era.
I get the feeling that a lot of younger people on this sub just were only around for the 2014 title and let that influence their perspective of his career.
It’s about peak and trophy haul
Timmy had the rings, but no one is putting him on that LeBron/MJ level
Timmy won at 23 though (birthday in April). At 22 they got beat by the Jazz in the 2nd round
Timmy was boring/
This is the dumbest shit I’ve read all day. Nobody would say Wemby is the GOAT if that’s his career resume. And nobody puts Duncan in the GOAT conversation because he’s clearly a tier below LeBron, Jordan, Hakeem, and Russel. Everyone acknowledges Duncan is top 10 all time, but not top 5.
Exactly, this feels like such a shortsighted way to look at Wemby. I don’t think many people expected the Spurs to absolutely make the finals this year, let alone win sixty games. I think there are reasonable criticisms with his mental toughness fading away near the end of games with missed free throws, as well as his inability to consistently get to the paint and have a solid post up move when the pressure is high. But if your three stars - Harper, Castle, Wemby - are <= 22 and you can’t rely on a stable veteran presence - Fox - I don’t think this was such a disastrous outcome.
I think it’s the manner in which they lost, not the losing itself.
Like to shoot yourself in the foot every game damn near is insane. They could have had this series in the bag.
The drake maye piece
It’s crazy how much Wemby and the Spurs overperformed. They should be applauded for their run. The media and fans built up a narrative around him that was unrealistic and are using it to unfairly criticize him.
Right? Its like that saying - You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Wemby made the finals. Losing in the finals shouldnt be viewed as a case of being a fraud, especially after they took down OKC who were the favorites this season.
We gotta shed the binary - fraud or goat type shit
Everyone is a fraud. Either you lose, and are a fraud, or win against frauds, which makes you fraudulent
The Jordan vs LeBron debate has conditioned people to parrot “4-6” as if losing in the Finals is worse than not making the Finals at all
That Game 1 against OKC was the premature crowning moment for a lot of folks. There were a lot of crazy takes going on after that game.
That’s true, they overperformed. On the flip side, people should dial back expectations on Wemby “owning the league”.
And the expectations that they’ll just automatically be back.
100%, especially in this modern NBA that seems allergic to dynasties and consistent success.
Yes they overperformed but all the “Spurs will sweep the Knicks” and “the WCF was the real finals” takes were ridiculous.
They shouldn’t be applauded for blowing double digit leads in all 5 finals games. That is a sign of bad coaching and weak mental. It is actually bad for the sport that the team that made the finals is that weak mentally. KG was right that they blew their load thinking they’d won it all when they beat the Thunder
The media keeps trying to force the “face of the league.” That’s not something that can be forced. You don’t get to pick who fans get behind.
Face of the league doesn’t necessarily mean people get behind you. LeBron was basically 50⁄50 loved and hated for his whole career up until he got old and it became mostly love. Wemby will probably be similarly viewed.
Media promoting players always does help. Not for hardcore fans but most are casuals and if one player is talked like second coming of MJ it will draw them to him,they will tune in just for their games etc etc .
And most will go for home players instead internationals
The media can force it in the short term, but it results in the media and the league ultimately looking stupid in the eyes of casuals after they spend a whole year prematurely pushing someone for example like Ja as the fAcE oF tHe LeaGuE
People were calling Lebron the king before he was in the NBA and saying he would be better than Jordan before he ever won a ring, which he didn’t win until he was 27
Dude will totally be the face of the league regardless of if people think hes likable imo as long as he stays healthy. Hes a 7’5 dude that scores on all 3 levels. That’ll always attract a ton of fans.
he already is the face of the league. that title is and will always be determined by the “mom who doesn’t watch sports” test. my random family members who watched some of the games i told them to and no other basketball all year can’t stop talking about this guy cause when he turns it on it’s unlike anything they’ve ever seen.
I don’t think it’s just the media, fans absolutely feel like he will be the face of the league
He can still be the face of the league, but not without getting held to the same standard that lebron is held to.
Considering the amount of posts pointing to Fox, or the coach, or anybody other than Wemby (or the posts calling it a success) it’s clear he isn’t being held to that.
Tbf fans were more than willing to get behind the idea of Wemby as the next face of the league until he threw away all those good vibes with his dirty plays this postseason.
It’s just the 2020s version of “The Next Jordan” talk that people had from 1993-2003. Annoying and needless.
There’s simultaneous narratives of “face of the league” and people hating on said narrative. Both are equally dumb. Future will tell
It’s already happened…people want to talk about him good or bad. No one chooses this, it just happens.
[removed]
I mean he reached finals, unanimous DPOY, 3rd in MVP voting. If he is considered top-3 player in the league, he should be held to that standart. No top-3 player should fall off a cliff like he did in second halfs.
You cant praise him top 3 when he is winning and just give him a pass for being young when he loses.
He can be held to a standard while understanding the nuance that he’s 22 years old. Yes - he should have played better, but yes he’s 22 years old and so you expect some growing pains.
I mean he reached finals, unanimous DPOY, 3rd in MVP voting. If he is considered top-3 player in the league, he should be held to that standart.
Michael Jordan was second in voting in 87, won it in 88, and was second in 89, third in 90. Didn’t win a chip though. Must have been a bum unworthy of praise 🙄
Counterpoint it’s a team sport. Outside of Harper NOBODY was consistently scoring. If they lost because the team was playing well and he was stinking it up sure but that was not the case. Fox scored 7, Castle 6, Keldon 7. His supporting cast was on a mission to leave no bed unshit
I mean besides Wemby the Knicks had the next best 3 players? Brunson, kat, OG. Hart was probably more helpful than castle and fox. Wembys only consistent help was Harper
Wemby is just being held to the same standard as guys like Shai - a player who was killed for falling short despite unfair circumstances. Comes with the territory
Jokić and Shai both fell off hard in the playoffs, too
Did you see those Nuggets Wolves threads? Jokic was getting clowned by pretty much everyone
Bill Simmons set the expectations then calls not meeting them disappointing
Simmons is a narratives merchant, it’s all he actually cares about
They surpassed expectations but it’s still false to say it was a success or that there isn’t any negative to losing. Wemby has had multiple weaknesses exposed. People penciling him in for multiple MVPs and rings can’t take this run as a complete win after that.
They were up 10+ each game
That’s what he means by disappointment and catastrophe lol
I don’t see how this isn’t a great story, and it makes the spurs ascendancy have more narrative weight to it. Also, it really felt like the finals was the making of a star with Dylan Harper — I’m sure he was great before, but now I’ve actually had the chance to see him and wow.
I don’t see any world where Harper doesn’t become the second best player on the team. Castle looked truly awful at times.
Castle it’s a very good player but he is also gas because he was asked to defend the best player on the floor every game. His offensive game is bulky ball it can be understandable that gets throttle when he is tired
Harper looked the better player in the finals, but Castle was an absolute beast in the previous rounds. I think he just ran out of gas (dude at the highest two way usage ITL). Guarding the best opposing player while dropping 18/5/5 on 60 TS% at 21 y/o is nuts
Castle also had a number of big moments and bossed the WCF at times, plus had the SGA and Brunson matchups and did better than most would
Castle had the toughest job on the court since the start of the playoffs. He has been guarding some of the best offensive players in the world in every game, and has done an incredible job at that.
I already consider him a top 3-5 perimeter defender in the league after seeing him clamp SGA and Brunson consistently.
His biggest issue is that he lacks a reliable jump shot, and either him or Harper need to work on their playmaking.
But both are very young, and Castle has proven to be THE clutch FT shooter on his team. Harper seems to have more upside, but we’ll see. Bright future for both of them anyway
Winning it all without the growing pains would’ve definitely been more impressive
Also New York getting their hearts ripped again, can’t forget that part of any potential storyline
Oh definitely would’ve been more impressive and as a spurs fan of course you should prefer it. I think the narrative of failure building to success is a strong one which the Knicks players have and the spurs now have.
Once the Knicks went up 2-0 I agree with you on that storyline but coming in they were the decent underdog, most people who hadn’t watched them didn’t really appreciate the level they were on I feel.
Either way if we go past narrative this was the best 5 game finals one could’ve imagined, every game was a close fight that came down to the final minute.
Dylan is a future Hall of Famer, and it’s going to seem crazy to everyone in 10 years that he was ever compared to Fox.
Dude average 26,12,and 3.5 with blocks while playing with zero all NBA level players and it’s considered a failure….
NBA narratives are so lazy
0 all nba players is quite harsh especially right off the thunder series where everyone was crowning castle and Harper as future stars (which they are). They are talented but that’s not enough to win as evidenced by the finals.
I don’t think a single player outside of Wemby received an all NBA vote.
Harper wasn’t even top 2 in rookie of the year voting. Like yes. He will be a future star
But right now they have no all NBA level players besides Wemby. If that changes then they will absolutely win a title (and likely they will change with Harper)
Also he played with a domestic terrorist
It’s really, really lazy, exactly. He’s 22, going up against a very poised and veteran team. We should expect that he and his teammates would struggle in down-the-stretch situations.
Lowe is right that some aspects of his game were disappointing, but that overall this is the best narrative for the league. Anointed superstar loses and learns while leagues biggest market ends a 53 year title drought. It’s kinda perfect.
You may want to look at the percentages he shot.
So Anounoby is the MVP then because Brunson was awful, percentage wise, until this game.
I mean. Brunson had worse percentages on the series.
Man, he’s 22 years old, give him a break lmao. Lebron got his first ring after 9 seasons.
While it was very disappointing the way they lost the games, his first playoff scar being the finals is pretty insane, and they also won against the defending champs.
The Knicks did everyone a favour because the Wemby glaze is already at nauseating levels by people in the media.
Did the NBA a solid here too - now they don’t have to review and try to justify not upgrading the Wemby landing zone foul to a flagrant.
Crazy that that’ll be forgotten
Adam Silver would have called in a drone strike on anyone in the media who made that an issue between today and Tuesday.
Media thrives on controversy so this is a perfect combination for them. They’re just going with where the wind is blowing
Now we Knicks fans get to hear about how the Spurs lost the Finals when in fact we kicked their ass 4-1. Maybe the Spurs choked again and again because the Knicks are the better, more experienced and mentally stronger team?
Wemby is 22, storyline wise it’s much better for the star to lose a lot first. People say Jordan is 6-0 but that ignores all his failures in the 80’s.
Bird and pistons did a number
Most projected the Spurs barely making the playoffs. Disappointing is a strech.
Wemby is incredible, at times he DID dominate us on both ends.
However it was always short lived, always a flash in the pan. Spurs did an injustice only playing him 29 minutes per game after the all star break. His stamina constantly drained.
He’s 7’6”.. he may never be able to play 40+ minutes well. That heart working quadruple over time. He definitely needs to figure out how to be more efficient. He’s doing way too much out there.
Yeah, this isn’t talked about enough.
There’s a reason marathon runners or other endurance sport athletes aren’t this tall.
He just needs to gain strength - easier sajd than done with that body frame.
‘He’ll be an all time great’ - people that tall have injury and health issues.
So nothing is guaranteed, especially for someone with his physique.
They need another decent big/PF.. That solves a lot of problems imo. Or at least try a 2 big lineup at times.. Maybe they did and I missed it
Indeed, “storywise,” yes it’s absolutely the best thing for the league. It’s too early for Wemby to conquer everything. We all know he’s going to own the sport soon, but to have him come up short, both individually and as part of a wider team collapse, drives a better narrative going forward.
All that being said, narrative stuff is so unimportant to everybody except the sports media. Did the Bucks failing as the #1 seed in 2019 and 2020 make 2021 seem sweeter? To an outside party, sure. To a Bucks fan, fuck no, I don’t want to remember or place value in those sad playoff exits.
Wemby conquering everything on his first try didn’t sound too bad to me…
That is just reactionary sports media bullshit from Bill.
Said differently, a 22 year old third year player just led a team full of similarly young players past the defending champs to a Western Conference Championship and despite being limited by that immaturity in the finals, managed to keep his team close in all five games through sheer talent.
I don’t like the guy after this series, but to act like what he just did with under 200 games played wasn’t incredible is just stupid.
Im so sick of all these insanely high expectations being put on a single 22 year old player. Shaq got swept in the finals early in his career, LeBron got clapped by the Spurs early in his career. For Wemby to be so dominant in a Finals run early in his career should be commended and not torn down. The Knicks were older and more experienced and had several players playing in their career primes.
The people criticizing that he was too emotional, he had a very threatening condition last season and played 46 games. This postseason was 23 games with him also getting a pretty severe concussion during the playoffs.
The series would still be going on if Shai advanced instead.
The Spurs had a chance to close things out in 5 games. They failed in 4 of them and the one they did was because of Fox
OKC would have given the Knicks a better challenge tbh
Probably would have ended up losing without Dub and Ajay but it’s a league of matchups and we’ve matched up well with the Knicks.
I think we played them in the regular season without Dub even and won both games, although they were close.
Nevertheless, I don’t think we have enough offensive firepower without those two and unless Shai plays every game like he did game 7, I don’t see us having enough to get 4 wins in that series.
Their team is a better matchup forsure, much like how we matchup better against the thunder than the knicks
Who are these clowns, all they want are perfect golden storyline, pathetic.
News alert: Celtics fan thinks Knicks winning is terrible for the league
I think it’s more of his anger issues and sore losing than his poor play.
Wemby will never be face of the league cause he’s French
Did you see social media after Game 1 of the WCF? He does not need to be American, people love Wemby
People just loved anyone beating the Thunder. Then people watched him against a different team and yikes.
Meh. Obviously if you get beat up 4-1 in the finals you’re going to get hate in today’s day and age.
I haven’t seen social media explode like that from a young player maybe ever
I think Ant will be the face of the league if the Wolves ever become a consistent championship level team.
He meets all the major criteria of being a clear superstar, American, charismatic, well liked, fun playstyle to watch and embraces the spotlight.
Please I need this
The discourse around Wemby just shows how awful the hot take industry is now. When LeBron was 22 there was not this kind of insane whiplash every 2 weeks about him. He was allowed to just be 22 and learn.
I mean that’s absolutely not true lmao LeBron always had the weight of expectations on him to an even greater degree than Wemby! At 22 he was in the finals getting swept by the Spurs
Not disagreeing it’s gotten worse, but it was already pretty bad when LeBron started
I just know the Wembitch chants coming in his future
we all saw the duncan speaking to lebron clip right? this is all part of his story.. no one would say lebron hasnt had a storybook career
hopefully wemby didnt lose his chance for that duncan lebron moment bc he stormed home
Yeah LeBron got embarrassed in his first 2 finals. 2011 in particular was damning
Non-story. Wemby is 22 years old, in only his third year and his first Finals. Also, if you think back a ways, he just knocked out the defending champs. It’s rare for even the greats to win titles this soon, and Bill knows it.
Also, Wemby’s Finals stats were pretty much right at his season averages. And things like missing late FTs on the road—in the highest pressure situation a player can be in—imo are not things you can fairly hold against him.
Wemby acting like a sour patch kid. Didn’t shake any of the Knicks hands after the game, got on the post-game podium & left quickly while saying “see yall never”. Facts are Victor took a page from the OKC series & played extremely dirty in the finals. When the moments came for him to step up down the stretch he wasn’t clutch.
He has all the size & talent in the world, just not the maturity yet to really become the face of the league. The New York Knicks really humbled him. With all that being said, there definitely was immense pressure on his shoulders but he did fold. He just needs more time to grow mentally, Spurs team is still young. He needs to take this loss not personally, but as an opportunity to become a better person. Definitely some growing pains that will come with more experience.
He answered every question he got from the press for over seven minutes, many in detail. He also praised Brunson specifically, and stated neither he nor the Spurs were ready to win yet.
If you didn’t watch the press conference, don’t talk about how long he stayed or what he said during it
I don’t get the “It was too soon for him” narrative for Wemby, or for any young star. Was it too soon for Tim Duncan to win in his second year?
Before the season started, most analysts predicted the Spurs would be a play-in team. No one expected them to be a championship contender. I think this series did show it was too soon for them. A more experienced version of this team would probably have done better.
How old were you in 1999?
If Wemby had David Robinson they would have swept y’all lmao
People who rely on drama cultivating drama; riveting
The real catastrophe is, the mask is off, Wemby is a dirty player
Lowe was reading off the stats to try to give him credit but 42% from the field for a guy who is 7’5 is insanely bad
I need less conversations about the state of the league. It’s pathetic and just time-filler.
I remember many on here saying Wemby would be the GOAT if he won this championship. Disregarding MJ’s 6, Lebron, Kobe, Duncan, Kareem, etc.
He has to get stronger, he has to get in better shape, and the Spurs need to get him easier shots at the basket from closer. Baseline screens and such. Wemby also needs a go to move. Hopefully he stays healthy. Guys that tall in the NBA working on the perimeter…
he also averaged a flagrant per game
Classic Bill Simmons hyperbole, i can’t disagree more, he has been the 2nd best player in a Finals series and arguably the best player through all the playoffs. This can’t be a catastrophe, no way you can tweak the narrative to say this.
Am I disappointed with the Spurs? Sure, 100%. Am I disappointed with Wemby? Also sure, mostly for game 2 and game 4 mistakes in the clutch (yet it will be forgotten all the good stuff he did in those games…). Overall this 5 games he was bad? Absolutely not.
I think the last 4 games Wemby was good, even last night he just showed why he was the DPOY. Afterall his superpower is defense, probably the issue was the Spurs targeting Fox last year, rather than someone else.
This is classic ‘if you aren’t first you’re last’ mindset. A plague upon american sports. He had a great season. The narrative should be ‘wow he made it to the finals in his first playoff run’. And i’m not even a wemby fan.
Just the worst possible take.