“Knicks have 3 of the top 4 players in the series” is the kind of delusional take that only exists in Knicks group chats.
Wemby is the best player in basketball. Brunson is very good. After that it’s a steep cliff — and pretending Mikal/KAT/whoever clears guys like Castle and the rest of San Antonio’s young, switchable core is comedy. This ain’t a 1v1 league, but when one team has the clear #1 and the other has a very good #2 with role players, the team with the alien usually wins.
And “banged up OKC starting Jarred McCain” is some Olympic-level cope. They were the defending champs and the #1 seed. Spurs beat them in 7 on the road in Game 7. That’s not a participation trophy — that’s surviving the hardest path in the West while your “11-deep” Knicks were busy sweeping a team that looked dead on arrival.
Wemby doesn’t need 48 minutes to cook. His presence alone collapses defenses and creates easy looks for everyone else. That’s called being a superstar. You’ll see it soon enough.
Spurs just beat the actual defending champs in a 7-game slugfest on the road in Game 7. That’s not “awful bench” — that’s a group that held up when it mattered. Wemby doesn’t need to play 48 minutes for the supporting cast to be functional; he warps the entire floor so the role players actually get clean looks instead of contested everything.
And the size cope is adorable. Your “long switchable wings” are about to spend 42 minutes chasing a 7’4” alien with an 8-foot wingspan who can guard 1-5 and drop 30 while blocking everything in sight. The Knicks starting PF might be 6’7”, but he’s playing next to the single biggest mismatch advantage in basketball.
Knicks can go 11 deep. Cool. Most of those 11 are about to find out what it’s like getting hunted in space by an actual superstar instead of whatever the Cavs threw at them.
The regular-season gap (62-20 vs. 53-29) wasn’t a mirage. San Antonio’s defense ranked elite, their depth is absurd, and they just survived the hardest possible path through the West. The Knicks, meanwhile, swept a Cavs team that looked gassed and now enter on extended rest that usually produces more rust than redemption. New York’s physical style works against most teams. Against a Spurs roster full of long, switchable athletes who can actually score in space? The east didn’t stand a chance vs thunder or the spurs. The finals was actually played in the wcf this year