- 6 weeks ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:15what's good everybody welcome back to another edition of new york got game dexter hermory
00:20alongside my guy brian fonseca yo moving along we are here late in august dog days of summer
00:28training camp uh i keep saying it's getting closer it's crazy it's crazy we're getting closer to
00:33training camp as the time goes on but we're going to do something on this episode we are going to
00:37look
00:37at the three biggest unknowns for the knicks heading into the 2026-2027 season we went through
00:45the schedule we've talked about that now we want to talk about the three biggest unknowns so what
00:50brian and i did is we came up with a consensus of our three biggest unknowns and it wasn't even
00:56much
00:56of a debate from us we did this pretty quickly like pretty pretty quickly we're like okay there's
01:01this and we're going to talk about it it really wasn't that deep but i think they're all good
01:04things that fans will enjoy they would probably expect us to talk about here um that's not that
01:11shocking so with that being said let's get into it unknown number one and we've been talking about
01:18this all off season long and the fans will also and i think the fans i this they've been very
01:24fixated
01:24on this and for good reason this is not we haven't ranked this in any way i do think this
01:31is the
01:31biggest thing fans are going to want to talk about going to the season and that is the backup center
01:35position now the question for me the unknown for me with the back center position brian is
01:40can andre drummond defend well enough to be the answer at the backup center position because look if
01:47we're keeping it a buck here and we always going from mitchell robinson to andre drummond okay and
01:55i understand a lot of people wanted mitchell robinson back wanted a team to go to second abram didn't
01:59doesn't happen whatever right but i think going from mitchell robinson to andre drummond has
02:06is a downgrade i don't think i'm going on any stretch defensively for the most part is a downgrade
02:14this is a deep nicks roster backup center is now to me the clearest weakness on this roster
02:20clearest weakness on this roster i i don't i don't think that there's really much of a debate for
02:27that yeah it could be that or the size that guard is really the other thing the thing is and
02:34maybe
02:34it's matchups and stuff you saw them survive that yeah not specific to brunson by the way more so the
02:38back the backup backup with chamet and and deuce guys like that right alvarado but i agree it's
02:45the backup center look we're gonna talk mitch is not here anymore we're gonna talk about it he gave
02:49the nicks rim protection he gave them switchability on defense rebounding also rebounding even more so
03:00on the offensive glass yeah you know it's one thing the nicks had at the five right you had an
03:04elite
03:05offensive rebounder mitchell robinson and an elite defensive rebounder and carlity towns right
03:10mr robinson's a good defensive rebounder too but you had both those things at the stage of his career
03:15that andre drummond is my thing is he can't replicate any of that now we've talked about this
03:22and i talked about this in one segment of new york i can't forget which one it is we did
03:26a dex's
03:27clipboard and i said you're not asking him to actually be mitchell robinson like andre drummond can't
03:32do that you ask him to do certain things that he can do to hold down 12 to 15 minutes
03:39at a minimum
03:40hopefully it doesn't always work like that during the regular season right i think the most important
03:47the question i have for you here to discuss this is does andre drummond have to replace mitchell
03:52robinson or does he just have to like what i really think and i've been saying this for a while
03:57keep that seat warm till they can upgrade what for his own sake he has to do the former not
04:02the latter
04:03because if he does the latter you don't know how much longer you're gonna have a job if that's the
04:07case so i think that for his career to continue to extend because we're 15 years in with andre
04:15drummond at this point or about to be 15 years in with andre drummond at this point he was in
04:192012
04:19draft also came out very young the offensive rebounding for his career is obviously very good
04:25um comparable to mitchell robinson although in recent years mitchell robinson's been better like
04:31even per 100 possessions his offensive rebounding was better than mitchell robinson last uh better
04:36than andre drummond last year was at 10.6 and led the league at that um you know per 100
04:43possessions
04:4310.6 offensive rebounds which is a stupid number and then andre drummond was at 7.8 mitchell robinson was
04:49better the year before also and last year is more significant because he actually played more of the
04:54season than he did previously like mitchell robinson actually played 60 games andre drummond 63 so
05:00about the same um and i think the the main thing andre drummond needs to do is keep a job
05:06and keep
05:07a job on the floor not to stay on the roster so whatever it is whether it's just adding the
05:12rim
05:12protection because i think the rebounding is going to be there it's always been there for him
05:16whether it's going to be adding the rim protection whether it's going to be um adding a quality rim
05:23protection um as as mentioned i think the offense you know if he's an effective roller if he's
05:29effective at finishing that's great i think that's most important is finishing plays rolling passing
05:35out of double teams if the double team comes i don't think he's going to see a lot of double
05:38teams
05:39though um and i know the corner three is fun but again it's just i don't think it's going to
05:44be super
05:45impactful unless he's hitting like a stupid amount of them because ultimately whenever he's on the floor
05:50he's likely going to be option number five for the offense four at best and other teams no matter
05:56how many threes andre drummond is making they're going to be like okay continue to make this three
06:01because that means the ball is not in the hands of jalen brunson or mikhail bridges or og ananobi or
06:07jose alvarado or deuce mcbride or anybody like any of the guys who you really fear from three-point
06:13range and you really fear just from a ball creation perspective you're not worried about that from
06:18so like if he wants to shoot 11 corner threes any other team is going to be like knock yourself
06:24out
06:24good luck to you if you make four of them like that's really it yeah and it's not you've been
06:29saying this all summer not something you want to bank on i think you brought up the rim protection
06:33the thing for me defensively when you look at last season i just pulled this up and i don't
06:39individual defensive rating i'm only throwing this out for context because sometimes this so much of it
06:43has to do with who you play with it's very imperfect stuff um it's not a perfect stat
06:46individually at drummond had a 113.6 defensive rating individually mitch 109.9
06:55drummond hasn't posted a defensive rating below 110 since 2019 2020 that is a long time ago okay
07:04now again some of this depends on who you play with and his worst two years were the last two
07:08in that metric right so it's pretty much his defense has gone his impact on defense what i'll say
07:14individually has shown to go down here's my concern a little bit with andre drummond and why i think
07:20this is such an unknown all we have to do is look to the last playoff series where the knicks
07:28played the sixers knicks swept the sixers the knicks kind of showed the league the blueprint
07:35on how to attack andre drummond you know what i mean that's the thing they showed and joellen b too
07:42because he was also getting cooked the knicks showed the blueprint on how to do it and other
07:46teams have now seen this and they're going to do it too and now the knicks are going to be
07:50like
07:51we have to deal with it you had such a great luxury and having mitch robinson come off the
07:55bench and know the teams couldn't attack you like that it was to degree some luxury that carthy
08:00towns defended as well as he did throughout the postseason so you weren't really getting torn up
08:06for lack of a better term when it came to people trying to attack your centers yeah so for me
08:12where the conversation gets interesting is like all right well when a playoff opponent and this is
08:18what we got to talk about because the regular season is one thing playoffs are another thing when
08:21a playoff opponent sees andre drummond are they looking at him the same way the knicks did last year
08:26where it's like that's food that's how the knicks were looking at him last year you know who will
08:32philly team that he just came from they knew this tyrese max is gonna be like come here let me
08:38get
08:38you in space vj edgecomb at like any any one of the guys who you really fear quote unquote because
08:45i
08:45know knicks fans will say like oh they don't fear anybody which i i get it i wouldn't fear anybody
08:49either you just want a championship but there's just gonna be matchup problems all over the place
08:54and you felt better about mitchell robinson in space although you know that that wasn't always
08:58perfect at times it's never going to be with the big but like you felt better about him in space
09:02because you've seen what he can do in terms of his recovery in terms of being able to read defenses
09:08and process things and just get to get to spots before you know other players whereas andre drummond
09:14it's a little more um mechanical we'll say yeah and at the stage of his career i think good teams
09:21are going to put him in action time and time again which begs the question
09:27how soon do you have to upgrade this i think you're going to have to upgrade this it's how soon
09:33i've
09:33said it's a sound so like it's a sound so like messed up but it the game is the game
09:38this is what
09:38here's it like am i am i believing that andre drummond will somehow significantly get better
09:44guarding in space by the time we get to this point next year no i think this is what i
09:50keep saying i just
09:50think he's got to hold down the fort till the knicks can look at upgrades now what you hope is
09:55in october and november and most of december that it just doesn't look so bad where you're like
10:02we gotta we gotta do something like immediately right because i think he just needs to be playable
10:06right and it's how long is the playability right are we talking like i said 12 to 15 minutes
10:12can mike brown protect him 12 to 15 you'll take you'll take that you'll take as long as he's solid
10:18and he's not you know traffic cone out there and he's he's doing what he's supposed to finishing
10:22around the rim rebounding he's effective as a pick and roll partner he's effective you know uh just
10:29you actually getting offensive rebounds similar to mitchell robinson like can he
10:33keep that element of the team because that's an important element of the team to have coming off the
10:38bench that's a good point because like does the rebound the rebounding ability which he still has
10:42and still is really good at does that compensate for what he might give up on the defensive end yeah
10:47because mitchell robinson used that to compensate for the fact that you couldn't give him the ball
10:51on offense right right so if he can do that then that's that's fine um i i think it is
10:58what we're
10:59talking about is andre drummond a regular season answer for you but the way the knicks are coming
11:06off a championship you were thinking about may june main june this is what you did april major this is
11:12what you're thinking about and when i think about that i'm like i have concerns and i think the bigger
11:19concern for me is what happens when cats not if cats gets hurt what happens if cat gets hurt if
11:25cat is
11:25hurt oh and you're asking which has happened before like he's right he's he's had injuries in the past
11:31and then you're asking him to play 25 or 30 minutes do you feel good about that
11:36i mean if you're asking me no uh yeah to be clear i was really i mean it's yeah slightly
11:41rhetorical question but yeah and then i'm thinking about like yeah and and and the knicks know this
11:46which is the key which we should end on right the knicks know this because we saw them try like
11:51the eve misi rumors and try to get musa cse and you could see the type of players that they're
11:57looking
11:57for we've talked about nick richards in the past although it appears that the heat i don't know if
12:02they're signing him but he was working out with them practicing with their players and wearing
12:08what look to be team issued gear so he might be off the board by the time we finish this
12:13who knows
12:14but with uh with with the other center spot if you're looking to fill it out i do think the
12:22the
12:23mentality makes sense of like a musa cse even me see where they're trying to look young they're trying
12:29to look for upside which is how i think you should want to push this backup center spot like you're
12:35trying to be like looking for upside in that way you have the six second round picks which i think
12:40i i would i would bet that if the me see negotiations went anywhere all of those picks were not
12:46on the
12:47table i'm sure of that because it's just a ridiculous number of second round picks but how many
12:52will it take to get to get that done and i think that's ultimately what it's going to be it's
12:56like
12:57you're going to cash in those second round picks probably at a backup center spot unless andre
13:00drummond's good enough to where you feel like hey maybe the third string guy could be a two-way but
13:05then again you know what happens if somebody goes down so i i think whether it's before training camp
13:11or whether it's before the trade deadline like i have no doubt they're going to fortify that spot
13:15but i do think that there will be an urgency there if andre drummond doesn't look great um great
13:23basically by thanksgiving i people will be pointing it out and people will be writing to
13:27us like yeah this this needs to change because they're used to mitchell robinson who was maybe
13:32the best backup center in the nba yeah i mean yeah look this is going to come down to the
13:38line we'll
13:38wrap and move to the next one i agree with you the knicks know this leon rose knows this yeah
13:42it's a
13:43matter of do they think that it's two things one do they believe that he can play in a playoff
13:48game
13:49and give you 12 to 15 minutes and hold up defensively they do not have to change everything
13:54you're doing defensively around him that's one if they don't believe that then the other thing is
14:00okay is this somebody that could just get us through 50 games of the regular season before we really have
14:05to make right right right and the two things kind of go together because if you feel like the person's
14:09just a regular season player to get you through then you will have to also answer what you need to
14:14do
14:14right for the postseason it's gonna happen any either way i think so too there's regular season
14:20players and postseason players and i think where andre drummond is and what we saw the knicks do to
14:25him last year yeah regular season player we'll see yeah we'll see yeah i hope i'm wrong i yeah and
14:32that's the thing too i think i think the the mind is willing the iq is there i do is
14:38the is the body
14:38still able that's more the thing this is not an effort thing i think with andre right i don't think
14:43so
14:43it's more of a mind to physical thing and that's i'm not you know saying andre drummond is but he's
14:48not also terrible it's just to the level of what you're going to need in the postseason that is a
14:53different thing of what i'm talking about 33 entering year 15 967 games uh in the nba in his career
15:02and
15:02if you add in playoff games then yeah you're looking at about around a thousand actually around a thousand
15:10career uh performance listen i do think there's value on him i think he's motivated to come back
15:14to new york but i do think him in the back of five and how he can defend is absolutely
15:18a huge unknown
15:19all right unknown number two surrounds the captain jalen brunson underwent surgery on his wrist when i
15:27spoke with jalen brunson uh in an interview that we had uh last week he told me you know everything
15:32was
15:32going fine with his rehab he did admit to it being frustrating you know not being able to do the
15:37things he generally wants to do um in terms of that which i can totally understand um this is on
15:43the shooting wrist now if there's anybody that i'm not necessarily worried about in terms of coming
15:51back from something like this it's jalen brunson um just his mentality but he's not doing basketball
15:57activities right now he will be able to resume that later in the summer probably into next month
16:01um his expected recovery period was what two months brian that he was expected yeah so he's
16:08he should be ready for the season should be ready for the start of the season yeah and really camp
16:11but
16:13but but there is a difference between being medically cleared and then brunson being brunson
16:21that is the difference and i think we should probably and i know some people lack it out there but
16:27be
16:27patient with that however everybody's gonna i think there's gonna be a lot i won't say everybody
16:33but there's going to be a lot of focus brian on okay is he gonna be ready for opening night
16:37should
16:38be ready for october 20th and he'll be there for ring night batter night the whole thing yeah and
16:43training camp but here's what i'm more interested in
16:49will the wrist he just had surgery on be able to withstand another 82 game season and what knicks
16:56fans also will think likely a very long playoff run and a lot of these a lot of this over
17:04and over
17:04and over draws fouls yep he's somebody he does that that is the unknown to me right a lot look
17:10i forgot
17:11who i was talking to about this recently around something with the injury in sports somebody i talked
17:15to and we were talking about how yeah a lot of times people think like oh yeah you're just gonna
17:18come back sorry it was with my co-host on liberty lately madlin kenny we were talking about coming
17:23back from injuries and people just think okay the liberty knows something about that this right
17:27you're just gonna come back and it's gonna be smooth and it's like no it takes time it takes
17:33confidence especially after a surgery right like let's not overlook that right when you have
17:37surgery you got to get confident stuff i've just got confident back with my walking with my
17:42kill he's just confident when i'm moving and i'm feeling good and i'm not even trying to hoop
17:46anymore we're tired yeah but that's the thing for me right and and i think the knicks generally the
17:52way they've handled things with their medical staff they understand they don't need brunson to be brunson
17:57in october they need brunson to be brunson when it matters when the playoffs come around april may
18:01and june so how how does he go through the season do they monitor with him do they take it
18:07easy with him do
18:08they you know rest him so he doesn't have so much of a load i'm wondering how they handle brunson
18:12and
18:14how ready he will be to hold up how will his shooting wrist hold up which is still amazing
18:19he dropped 45 for the injured wrist um in game five but how would that hold up just as to
18:25his legend
18:26how will that hold up for him as you go through the season that's a big unknown for me how
18:31you feel about
18:31that i i did pull some uh recent wrist injuries i love this i love recent injury comparison yeah um
18:40the not great one was uh jalen williams from last year now that lingered and then he ended up
18:48developing a hamstring issue which really lingered and he kind of had a lost season last year yeah you
18:54could say that i mean and really is is the main reason okc probably didn't get back to the finals
19:01was jalen williams being just so up and down with the injuries and then obviously throwing aj
19:06mitchell on top of that and it was just too hard to overcome san antonio in that seven game series
19:10and they were still a really good team in spite of that which is crazy jalen brown had a wrist
19:15injury
19:15a serious one in 2021 um he ended up coming back from that he also said the wrist surgery was
19:22uh
19:22frustrating which or the or the rehab process rather was frustrating bradley beal had a wrist
19:29injury in 2022 uh that's another one where and this was bradley beal still like at his peak toward
19:36the end of his peak you know before he ends up getting traded to phoenix before he ends up asking
19:40out or what have you he was still a washington at the time so he was still like scoring bradley
19:44beal but
19:44he actually i wouldn't say he was quite the same after that although that could have also been
19:51not that i'm talking about somebody's death but that could also be natural causes because of the
19:55stage of his career that he was entering um which is not irrelevant here given that jalen brunson's
20:00turning 30 yep in less than two weeks from when we're talking about this as a smaller guard who
20:06you know the herky-jerky movements the the torque the amount of pressure he puts on his muscles to
20:13make all of these different moves how creative he is how much he has to do offensively high usage like
20:18you know that's we've talked about that sort of aging and then you add in this wrist surgery on
20:22top of it not to mention all the times we've seen him roll an ankle or sprain an ankle like
20:27during
20:27a game still finish but like how many of these things are you going to continue to fight through
20:32right um so and stephan curry had one i don't remember if it was his hand or his wrist in
20:372019
20:37remember where he barely played that season and this was yeah yeah it was it was the hand he was
20:43like
20:44in and out and then played like five games clay thompson was also injured draymond green didn't give a
20:48the warriors were just tanking at that point and then they ended up getting james weisman so like
20:54there's a wide range of outcomes here we just don't really know um and and with brunson to me it's
21:00not
21:01just the wrist it's everything right i'm watching everything because of everything it takes to be
21:06jalen brunson and it's like to continue to do that has to be exhausting on the body so obviously you
21:12know
21:12he's going to take the rehab seriously you know that he's going to take like everything seriously
21:17and and preparation for you know the season but also to your point how do they sort of get through
21:24like is he going to sit some back-to-backs is he going to have less of a usage is
21:28he going to play
21:29fewer minutes like or are they just going to you know let him be himself and whatever like how they
21:33how they attack this he's going to want to play yes 100 he'll want to play every he'll play 82
21:39if
21:40he can players always want to play and i always hate when there's this negative narratives excuse
21:45me this negative narrative nagging narrative right around players that don't want to play with load
21:49management but again i will go back to the point that the knicks understand that they need him to be
21:55optimal jalen brunson later in the season into the playoffs and they need at the beginning of the
21:59season so i do think there's going to be some give and take there now i don't want to be
22:03all negative
22:04because i do think there's something that could kind of be positive here with the fact he had the
22:10surgery he's supposed to get better assuming there are no setbacks no issues no nothing the knicks could
22:16be getting themselves particularly what i'm talking about later in the season's playoffs a healthier jalen
22:20brunson than they had last year during the championship run so maybe now you have especially if you manage
22:26the load correctly yeah and if you don't play with your food a lot right right that's another
22:33good point giving him other resting games supposed to blow people out you blow them out now i feel like
22:37there will be less of those this year because just the way the east is right right yeah sure but
22:42because
22:43he played through discomfort in the playoffs we just talked about the legendary game five that he
22:47produced with an injured wrist you're like and this supposedly went back to game two of the conference
22:53finals when he so this includes and that includes remember the game four comeback also yes which
22:58he was obviously a big part of so i think optimist if you look into the glass half full you
23:04can say
23:04oh well he did that with an injured wrist what could he do if he's healthy i don't think that's
23:09unfair to think that way if or if some of the load is taken off him this season you're glad
23:13he
23:13you're glad this is happening now right oh you're glad it's off-season surgery as opposed to
23:19you know you remember how dicey it got when he was injured not last season but the year before
23:24had the missed time you know and it was not we were not too far removed from the playoffs at
23:28that point
23:28so like if this happened mid-season or if this perks back up again that's where you'd be worried so
23:32i'm
23:33not worried about it from that standpoint you know i'm not worried either it's it's different than the
23:38drumming unknown though yeah because the drumming unknown you could absolutely go and solve that
23:42externally yeah you absolutely go and solve it externally the brunson factor like if brunson's not right well
23:48then the knicks aren't right right like that that's the thing so in some ways it's more consequential
23:53you could say that but am i worried about it no because he strikes me somebody who's going to take
23:58his rehab seriously yes um i think it's frustrating but it is frustrating when you don't have the motion
24:03you can't do he can't get in the lab and do things he might want to want to have worked
24:06on this
24:07summer because he can't have basketball activities but he's supposed to come back soon i do think though
24:12for him and then we can move on to the third one i do think getting to the mountaintop and
24:17understanding what it takes to get there is a reason he will be okay with okay if i need to
24:21take a game here i need to take a game here he knows what the bigger goal is this team
24:25i think
24:25is going to be hungry to go back to back that's going to get into our next one and i
24:30think he's
24:30going to understand what it means long term the knicks understand that too they're not going anywhere
24:33without brunson they're not going anywhere without the 2026 finals mvp so the unknown is how's it going to
24:40hold up we don't know we'll see how it's all going to hold up but time will tell when you
24:46start playing
24:46the games yeah okay so our last unknown um and and brian i give brian the credit because brian brought
24:53this to my this was the attention i thought it was one for me and it's an obvious one it's
24:58a good one
24:59will the knicks have a championship hangover will they have a championship hangover nobody knows you
25:07don't know how a team is going to respond to winning a championship and let's keep it a buck
25:14a historical championship right brian's been harping on this all offseason long the nba hasn't
25:19had a repeat championship since the warriors did it in 2017 and 2018 yeah right it's hard to do that's
25:25eight straight seasons without somebody defending a title with there's more parity in the league
25:29than ever before but i i do want to say that this knicks championship if we're really talking about
25:37it i don't want to don't want to well let me let's do before i get to this i was
25:40going to say
25:41something else what is a championship hangover what does that look like like what defines a
25:45championship hangover i feel like if you just slow out the gate so we just talked about brunson's wrist
25:50injury and if that really impacts the team to the point where we're at christmas and they're not far
25:57above 500 then we'll be like okay some something's a little bit something's a little bit wonky here
26:03and we actually painted this scenario last year in the event that you know um mike brown would be
26:09under the gun so to speak because a lot of people had it out for him at the very beginning
26:12and we
26:12were like all right let's wait let's give this till christmas at least before we can talk about it and
26:16you know obviously things went how they went and he's a champion now but i think that that's really
26:21what it is it's like you're you're literally just looking at the wins loss column more than anything else
26:26and how they look yeah i mean now i would say none of these teams had like a big hangover
26:34uh other
26:35than maybe the lakers and looking at some of the recent champions because obviously i pulled this
26:40though lakers had injuries and lakers to to and to to be fair we always got to remember this about
26:47the
26:47bubble final four like those teams went two months and in the case of the heat and lakers less than
26:53two
26:53months into the next season like they had no off season basically you're playing all that basketball
26:58every other day basically in the bubble for months straight he and the lakers were fried going into
27:05next year lakers lost in the first round so like in going back to like all the champions from the
27:10raptors raptors the next year after they won the title and granted they didn't have kawai anymore
27:15which is important that's huge yeah uh they lose in round two to the celtics really good series by the
27:22way also like seven seven game series they lost to them in the bubble uh lakers after they lose in
27:28the first round to i think that was phoenix and then phoenix ended up getting clapped in seven
27:42yeah for people who don't think luca can play the playoffs um milwaukee the next year they had
27:47some injury stuff also janice you're not not the best player healthy which goes back to number two
27:53that'll change things and chris middleton also by the way right that that was a big one and they
27:58ended up losing to boston who gets to the finals that year uh after they beat the heat in another
28:03seven game series and then they lose to the warriors warriors won the title the warriors win the title
28:06the next year uh none of us thought that like that was like an elite championship level team we just
28:12thought like that was a a very smart team who had an all-time great who figured it out one
28:16more time
28:17it's like a different type of thing so their next year their next year they were like a six seed
28:21uh
28:22and you know they they did win in the first round yeah mind you but they kings right yeah yeah
28:28that was
28:28that series that seven game series and then they lost to the lakers denver wins the title we remember
28:33what happened there they obviously lose to minnesota and then minnesota loses to dallas
28:38boston wins the title we know what happened after that we were here for that and then okc won a
28:44title
28:44they're the only team actually to get to the conference finals after that's everyone else
28:48lost in the second round earlier or or first round they all made the playoffs but they were all out
28:53by
28:53round two until the thunder last year who really almost got to the finals but they ended up losing
28:58to the spurs and to your point okc probably gets to the finals if they're healthier but that but
29:04and check or check home and this and but this is a big part of it too like i don't
29:07i don't want
29:08nicks fans who watch this to be like oh so all the nicks have to do is be healthy that's
29:12kind of the point
29:13right it's like right to to put because a lot of these teams you're talking about not them just
29:19winning a title remember what it took to get there for a lot of them you know other than the
29:23lakers
29:24really who just added lebron and lebron actually got hurt the year before they were good when he was
29:28there and then they fell off because he finally had like a long-term injury but the bucks had different
29:33runs like they had gotten to the conference finals they had gotten to the semi-finals they finally get
29:37to the finals then they lose in round two like that's part of it you know the raptors had an
29:42entire
29:42journey obviously before kawaii leonard with kyle lowry and demar derozan they kept getting closer
29:46and closer but they couldn't quite get over the hump the warriors they had you know their championship
29:53runs they crashed back down to earth but then they had like another little run and then they
29:57ended up winning the title they regressed after that boston they kept coming up short this was a
30:03theme over and over seven game series with the heat that they lost seven game series with the heat
30:07that they won they got to the finals and lost before that they had multiple runs including one
30:12uh other conference finals years before that where tatum was a rookie yeah against the calves
30:17they lost and then with okc obviously they have that run where they're top of the western conference
30:22but they lose to dallas and then they end up winning the title and then what happened last year was
30:28last
30:28year so these teams are breaking down after these long runs so that's and this could be part of like
30:33the jalen brunson wrist surgery like this is the thing to watch i think that's for that's what so with
30:38hangover it's not just play it's also the injuries that's why i like what you said because i think
30:43sometimes let's say the knicks get off to slow start they get to december and it's they're barely
30:47above 500 yeah because you brought that up some people 15 and 10 some people and i think they're
30:54going to be wrong they're going to look at that and say oh they're complacent and it's like no that's
30:58to me a very lazy thing to do when you get there because as you just noted with all these
31:02different
31:03teams there's so many different things that can go into factors as to why a team may have a
31:09championship hangover right or not it could it could be yo playing a lot of basketball this is
31:15the most basketball a lot of these knicks played the knicks have had deep playoff runs
31:19the last three years they were at least in the conference finals the last two years right and
31:23you're hoping that this team could do it again that does take its toll on on it and then this
31:29is my
31:29other thing this wasn't a normal championship for the knicks it's not normal they ended a 53 year
31:35drought think about everything that's happened just since june since they won the title everything
31:42that's happened since they won the title right the parade was nuts right uh the appearances all the
31:49appearances that have been having the interviews guys have done that are still happening still happening
31:53cat just got married the other day og was doing an appearance right the other day with
31:58essentially yeah essentially um mikhail was at the dominican day parade right yeah josh harr was
32:05just on without general emicelli right brunson sat down with me right you have all these different
32:10things everything that's gone around with them just being around new york the energy that's been around
32:16new york in that wow by the way we have a new slew of contenders and they're working
32:23like they're like yeah they're now they're now you are now the hunted right right you were the
32:29that's the thing it's like you're now the hunter it's it's hard now because you have all these other
32:32teams who are good and you could it's just it's there's a reason nobody is even getting back to the
32:38finals now it's a very difficult thing to do especially in this era and a big part of it are
32:44the injuries
32:44yes i understand you have a t you have a guy on your team never gets hurt to mikhail bridges
32:49but like
32:50aside from him you have guys who have had injuries in the past serious ones you mentioned jalen williams
32:55with the thunder you mentioned all this stuff and all those teams you mentioned there was something
32:58that happened the celtics out the celtics might try to go and lean on tatum but that series was
33:02over before that but before that though drew holiday chris chris al horford like they all aged
33:08very quickly right this is once you got to the playoff this is what happens when you are doing
33:14that i don't think i understand that fans will may want to say there's a standard and they want to
33:20chase last year's standard of winning and sure that is what you should have and you should feel
33:24confident in that but i think how we evaluate what the change of hangover is will be very
33:29interesting like talking about that with nuance and context because again what you just brought
33:34up is very possible you get to christmas and they're a couple games over 500 now would i be
33:37panicking and hit the panic button you know me i don't hit the panic button i don't do that especially
33:41given what you saw in the play no i've seen this so now i would hope that some of the
33:46fans out there
33:47wouldn't hit the panic button or come from mike brown's job and all this other stuff but i know some
33:51of you guys are going to do that no matter what it's not it's not going to change the difference
33:56is i
33:57think what you put so much of what you put here brian it's injuries it's fatigue it's the mental
34:05toll of doing it it's everything that comes around with being new york deep let me tell you something
34:09and stephan bondi said this to me in a video we did a couple weeks ago these guys want to
34:12win they're
34:13going to be hungry to defend the title this is a very competitive bunch in that next locker room and
34:17i would agree with him 100 and they will be focused that doesn't mean that's why i said don't use
34:22the
34:23word complacency that doesn't mean that there cannot be external factors that cause things to
34:28maybe make the season not start as smoothly as fans would want and i will also say this who gives
34:33a
34:33damn if it starts smoothly you just learned last year it's about what happens at the end right it
34:39what happens at the end the knicks which you believe is do they have a winning culture do they have
34:44a
34:44winning identity i would say yes to both of those yes and if they are healthy and ready by the
34:49time it
34:49comes to the playoffs i think they'll be fine so for me whether they get whether they're eight
34:55games or nine ten games about 500 and christmas or they are three am i going to be tripping then
35:01no maybe certain things look bad because all the context matters but i'm not going to be saying oh
35:06man there's a championship hangover because one thing i'm just going to say is i don't think this team
35:11is going to be complacent i don't either yeah i think fatigue could be a factor i think health could
35:17be
35:17a factor yes um yes to both but what this had what these teams have whether it's okc any of
35:24these
35:24teams have gone before that gives them makes them feel like they have a chance as those we're
35:28acknowledging that is a very difficult thing to do is continuity and this team has a lot of
35:32continuity they have a lot of adaptability in their head coach they have a fantastic leader they have all
35:38the tools on paper to defend this title will the basketball god smile upon them with the fatigue and
35:49the injury i don't know that's the big unknown yeah i i to me legitimately i think a successful season
35:56would be getting back to the conference finals given the history of title defenses in this decade
36:01what we've seen like it's it's just incredibly hard to do like i don't i don't think it's disappointing
36:06if they can't win it again um and to be clear i think that there's a chance they could and
36:12they
36:12they enter the season as the favorites in the eastern conference to win the eastern conference
36:17right now but because of what we just went through and because of how hard how challenging it's been for
36:23these other teams and then the external factors and the injuries and the fatigue in this era of
36:27basketball where guys are getting hurt more than they ever have you're traveling a lot you're covering a
36:32lot of ground when you're playing which factors into a lot of these injuries not just the pace but
36:37it's also the ground you're covering and being asked to do so many things like i think getting
36:41beyond the second round like tip your hat because all these other teams basically got to the second
36:47round except for two of them uh from the raptors on and then the thunder are the first one to
36:52get
36:52to the conference finals from that point and then injuries are at least in part why they ended up
36:59losing and not getting to the finals the spurs obviously deserve a ton of credit and all the
37:02teams that beat these guys deserve a ton of credit oh absolutely like minnesota you know miami uh new
37:08york all all the way down not miami uh uh boston all the way down but at the same time
37:15i i do think
37:16like it's it's just it's a lot to do so i can't wait to see how they handle it especially
37:21because
37:21like uniquely the eastern conference is going to be deep it's going to be confusing it's going to have a
37:27lot
37:27of teams who really really believe that they can win at a high level like tyree saliburn coming back
37:32philly doing what they did miami adding yannis detroit you know coming off of one seed season
37:37so on and so forth like there's there's there's going to be good teams in the play in this year
37:41yeah so this is what the knicks are going to be up against the knicks were the knicks were a
37:44team that
37:44was circling other teams on the schedule now teams are circling them on on the schedule i guess the
37:49last thing before we get up out of here of these three unknowns that we had which one of this
37:56these
37:56would scare you the most if we're sitting here and let's say oh definitely january definitely the
38:00last one and it's not and and and you still don't have the answer really going with the last one
38:04definitely the last of the answer in january you would be more scared about that definitely the last
38:08one because there are things that you can't really control in that if drumming isn't good enough you
38:16have you have the facilities to take care of that like you have second round picks you have some
38:21movable deals like if you want to pair kolek you know with something like if you want to pair
38:26kolek with draft picks or whomever else not to single out tyler kolek but you have avenues to address
38:32that like that's the one i'm probably least worried about because i've seen this front office they're
38:36going to exercise exercise every opportunity possible to upgrade their roster and maintain
38:40this championship window as we've seen except going into the second apron but like that's out of the
38:45front office's hands uh jalen brunson i do worry about that's number one for me that's that's a
38:52that's like one a or one a or so for me but it's not it's not it's not specific to
38:57the wrist it's
38:58everything right it's just it's just like he's kind of an un he's becoming an unprecedented player if
39:03he isn't already so it's like how how does this age right but i also don't think that the rug
39:09will get
39:09pulled out this season no i don't see that but i guess what i would say is the reason i'm
39:14actually
39:14gonna put the brunson number one yeah because if he's not right what's your plan b oh well
39:23let's be clear if he's not right then that's it like it's just that's why it's the biggest
39:28concern what i'm saying is if you're sitting in january and you're like i don't have an answer to
39:33how jalen brunson wrist looks but there's nothing you can do right that's but that's why it's the
39:38biggest concern but but to me it's because there's nothing you can do but to me it's the overall title
39:43defense because like there there there are so many other good teams who i have a lot of respect
39:48for where it's like but if you're the injury and then the injury thing like you just don't know
39:54there's more unknown there i guess is my point i guess what i'm saying is if you're sitting in january
39:59and they're a little bit above 500 kind of like you said at christmas you can still say to yourself
40:04oh there's still time to turn this around if brunson's not right in january for some reason yeah the
40:10level of concern is to me higher what's to me the last one is not about it's not specific to
40:16a slow
40:17start it's really are they going to be banged up in april you know what i mean oh so i'm
40:23okay i'm
40:24extending you're saying that even even even just forget the record yeah yeah you won't know the
40:29answer to that till you get there i understand that is true you really won't know the answer it's
40:34going to be difficult to like history tells us it's going to be difficult to be healthy even though we
40:38have a few teams who were two seeds but we saw them kind of if not fully flame out in
40:43the playoffs
40:43have a really difficult time like title defenses are very hard even before this era with the second
40:48apron before this era with this level of pace and space before this era of this level of parity and
40:55depth around the league like it was very difficult to defend titles even back then yeah absolutely
41:00now i'm it's it's it's i'm i was gonna say damn near impossible it's been impossible for for more
41:07than a half decade i guess the other question here is which of these three do you believe that could
41:13prevent the knicks from winning the championship right because like injuries is the obvious thing
41:19right but um you can overcome a championship hangover if brunson's not right you're not yeah it's not
41:24happening i think that's why it's to be so my concern because it's just
41:29yeah nobody can overcome losing their franchise player nobody but also like what can you do
41:34you know what i mean like and and that's the thing it's like i i don't i don't know how
41:39you
41:39like drummond drummond's three i think for both of us because there there are things you can do if
41:44he's not yeah because that's the easiest one it's the unknown that you and if he's good great right
41:48it's the unknown that if there's a problem there are ways to externally fix this the last two though
41:53the other two no and at least in the immediate future there's a world in which brunson's wrist
41:59i'm not saying this he has to take time to get it right you just don't know how people heal
42:03this is
42:04they're known you don't know if he re-injures it it could be you don't know in the case of
42:07like
42:08jalen williams where the hamstring goes now and now it's like a multiple right you sometimes
42:11overcompensate for injuries blah blah blah you can have that but for me it's a situation of
42:19you may not have the answer to both the one the brunson and the championship hangover yeah you
42:25likely will not have the answer to those so much later in the season yeah the championship hangover
42:30and you that's why you have to give it grace you need to see where you're at in february march
42:34april
42:34with those i agree that's why i chose january is the time i said the drumming thing is more urgent
42:39because you'll know you know you'll know early we'll know we'll know we'll be talking about it we
42:46will know all right that those are our three biggest unknowns with the knicks heading into next
42:51season uh it will very interesting there's always unknowns heading into a season we all
42:55want to control everything you can't control everything that's just life that's basketball
42:59the hell goes we'll see let us know what you think is the biggest unknown fans always bring
43:04some interesting uh if you ever know ones that we didn't mention let us know too put those in the
43:07comments let us know we will address that on a future mailbag show which i'm sure we will have
43:11coming up pretty soon that's going to do it for this edition of new york got game that's my man
43:16brian fonseca i'm dexter henry we'll catch you next time on another edition of the new york got game
43:24and thanks for watching new york got game