@LockCity_USA this would be a good point if you got a bunch of challenges each game instead of only 2
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Normal man
1.4K posts
What you even supposed to say to this as a SGA hater lol
Clemente Almanza@CAlmanza1007
Sam Presti on the SGA narrative: “He drew 415 fouls this year. 11 were challenged.”
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@RBlue91223 @DraftDeeper that’s the best I’ve seen anyone put it
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@DraftDeeper It’s like if you gave Orlando Shaq two Penny Hardaways lol
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I’ve watched basketball for 20+ years. I can’t remember a younger, more physical backcourt than Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle. I mean these guys HUNT for contact against anyone. Is there another backcourt as young as these guys that I’m forgetting?
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@bigmacadamia55 @H0vback Wade is who I see but he already shoots better. The ceiling is best guard in the league. I don’t think that’s unrealistic given how much better he looks defensively than the other contenders for it.
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@H0vback The Brogdon/McCollum low-end comps he got out of college don’t reflect all his athleticism; you could say Wade and I wouldn’t call you crazy
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There’s not a trajectory for his career you could plot out that I’d call irrational — Steve Francis x Jalen Brunson; Baron Davis 4K Remaster; James Harden — but I think these takes that the Spurs should just smash the Harper button more to solve their problems are crazy.
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@bigmacadamia55 Should have got him more P&R reps during the regular season.
I think they could stand to run more actions to get him attacking off the catch but yeah “give him the ball and get out of the way” isn’t it. They should look for him on hit aheads off misses more too.
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He has a legitimate genius-level grasp of finisher subtleties, can dunk on anyone and carries himself with a rare mix of relaxed + “you’ll be dead when I leave this room,” but I think you’d have to say too he is only asked to do a very specific set of things right now.
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@AssassinateHate @FilterVaccine yep and also he plays with elite downhill guards, particularly Harper who’s so good around the rim and only getting better. already makes their looks easier with his gravity, imagine said gravity if he’s a lethal shooter from the elbows. pick your poison!
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@FilterVaccine He basically just needs to add that skillset to his existing bag and the floor would open up for him. Right now they are focused on walling off the paint. Midrange game would render that strategy ineffective. Stay up in drop he kills you in the midrange. Come out, easy drive
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I want him to go the dirk route. Work the mid and high post, face ups, turn fades. Become elite in the midrange work. That’s his path to success. He develops that along with the inside jump hook he’s working on he’s good. No one getting to his shot.
Nate Jones@JonesOnTheNBA
The shot Wemby missed to end Game 2 is the shot I think he needs to become elite at. He’s never going to be a low post guy and doesn’t need to be. He’s an excellent FT shooting big and could own mid-range/high-post shots that don’t require getting physical.
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@JonesOnTheNBA that’s absolutely right. Also there’s no way Dirk would have been able to play as long as he did without adopting that play style
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Wemby needs to have the most efficient bread and butter game offensively because of what he’s asked to do defensively. There’s only so much energy over the course of a game. Gassing out is inevitable if he doesn’t make his offense simple.
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The shot Wemby missed to end Game 2 is the shot I think he needs to become elite at. He’s never going to be a low post guy and doesn’t need to be. He’s an excellent FT shooting big and could own mid-range/high-post shots that don’t require getting physical.
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@PranavSriraman Too much of Castle’s offence is just trying to bully ball his way to the rim, that’s not gonna work on the Knicks wings. Fox’s speed has bothered them but he’s not fit and he’s missing a lot. Dylan brings a scarier mixture of physicality, craft & burst
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I think Mitch Johnson should hit the red button tomorrow and start Dylan Harper whatever way you make the lineup works. If anyone’s gonna be the Khris Middleton character it’s him he’s unfazed by NYK ball pressure.
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I very clearly remember not being that moved by the Suns being up 2-0 over the Bucks in 2021. Forgot the exact score of those games but Giannis was shredding that defense to where I was confident they were still in it.
I think the Spurs are currently alive anyone saying otherwise is insane but like way less confident. Wemby’s offensive volatility coupled with this Knicks team just being much better than those Suns makes the comps not hold up.
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@savewildcats212 @goldenspirit155 I feel like he, Dylan and Devin can all switch 1-3, with Castle being a good defender on all but the really really burly 4’s
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@goldenspirit155 Seems like a 3 to me too but his defense on point guards!
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The Spurs being down 0-2 & people are wanting Castle traded or coming off the bench. This series doesn’t erase the success they’ve had all season with him starting 🙄 the biggest issue is the lack of PF depth & it’s been the issue all season. I do think Steph is more of a 3 tho.
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@JohnchoVilla What are we going to do with castle's defense tho? He's undeniably our best perimeter defender
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Harper should be starting over the guard you’re not talking about.
I’ll leave it at that.
Evan Sidery@esidery
The Spurs are outscoring the Knicks by 15.3 points per 100 possessions when Dylan Harper shares the court with Victor Wembanyama. Needing to win three of the next four to force a Game 7 in the NBA Finals, it’s time to bench De’Aaron Fox in favor of Wembanyama’s long-term option.
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@VanLathan hasn’t refined and streamlined his game because in the regular season he doesn’t need to, too much stuff that he tries works
he would surely know now he needs to drill down on a shorter list of go-to options. can’t work on that stuff till the offseason though
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Okay so what should Wemby be doing? People say he’s special BECAUSE he does all the things you mentioned. Is it possible he’s too much of everything and not enough of anything, at least right now (he’s 22)?
Sparky Says@BigHappyBettor
@VanLathan I’d say choke job, but really it’s coaching malpractice by Mitch Johnson. Wemby should never be handling to ball, he’s below average at it. Wemby should never be taking jump shots with the game on the line. He’s below avg at it. Wemby skill is his agility, that’s it.
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@VanLathan Just overhyped. There’s multiple guards at the Wings that clear her already
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No agendas. No jokes. Seriously asking. What’s wrong with her.
I talk hoops 🏀@trendyhoopstars
Caitlin Clark’s last four games: 16 PTS | 3-12 FG (25.0%) 6 PTS | 1-7 FG (14.3%) 17 PTS | 6-17 FG (35.3%) 10 PTS | 4-14 FG (28.6%) 🪄
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@TheWojBombers @BiasedHouston Also don’t think the FO is dumb enough to even consider trading Harper.
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@BiasedHouston OKC probably would’ve gotten back the next szn if they didn’t trade Harden, that’s not gonna be a real problem for SA in the short term…Castle got 2 more years on his rookie contract, Harper & Bryant locked up for the next 3 szns, Fox under contract, Vassell under contract
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If I was a betting man, I’d say this isn’t Wemby’s last time in The Finals.
But long gone are the days where that is a forgone conclusion.
Sam Block@theblockspot
AI never got back. CP3 never got back. Reggie never got back. Harden never got back. Westbrook never got back. Wemby might never get back.
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@bernandez93 @realtalkejlt Yep. Also a lot of what Castle wants to do on offence is bully ball and draw contact, we should be matching his minutes with the Knicks bench lineups where they are playing two smaller guys
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@realtalkejlt Fox
Harper
Vassell
Champ
Wemby
Castle can come off the bench and play that aggressive defense in burst cause he gets in foul trouble anyways
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YALL KEEP TRYING TO BENCH THE WRONG STARTING GUARD 🤦🏾♂️
Evan Sidery@esidery
The Spurs are outscoring the Knicks by 15.3 points per 100 possessions when Dylan Harper shares the court with Victor Wembanyama. Needing to win three of the next four to force a Game 7 in the NBA Finals, it’s time to bench De’Aaron Fox in favor of Wembanyama’s long-term option.
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@SamQuinnCBS Is it maybe possible then that playing Harper on a very short leash for 22 minutes all season was a massive, potentially very costly mistake?
He was considered an elite P&R ball handler prospect in the draft. Why didn’t he get the reps?
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There are schematic things the Knicks do to protect Brunson, but there's a simpler answer: the Spurs can't.
Switch-hunting is a two-way street. You need the target and the hunter. The Spurs don't have the hunter. Fox is too hurt. Harper is too young. That's not Castle's style.
Now, Harper will one day be this player, but I suspect this is the reason the Spurs haven't moved him into the starting lineup yet. They just don't trust him to run the amount of pick-and-roll it takes to remove Fox, who's their only seasoned ball-handler. And Fox just doesn't have it right now. At least not to do it the way Brunson did to Harden, which was every damn possession.
Mismatch hunting frankly isn't the most efficient form of offense, at least on balance. You want to run your stuff, for the ball to find energy, to keep everyone engaged. That's what the Knicks mostly get to do. Mismatch hunting is so much more prominent in the playoffs because a) scouting is so much deeper and they coaches take so much of your best stuff away, b) all the best hunters tend to be playing late in the playoffs. The Knicks have one and the Spurs don't.
Jay Croucher@croucherJD
Will never understand why the Spurs wouldn’t just involve Brunson in a defensive action on every possession, like the Knicks hunted Harden. He’s the only point of failure on the Knicks D. Spurs have consistently gone at him for one stretch all series and it produced a 14-0 run.
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@hedging_henry offense was so stagnant and the scoring he did was a lot of bailing the team out creating something out of very little
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@hedging_henry 1. That is what we call "small sample size bias". Over the course of the season the team's ORTG has been better with Harper on the floor than Castle OR Fox, period.
2. Can't really blame him for this when Mitch has him standing in the corner on those possessions...
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To put some numbers to this, the Spurs half court offense scored 0.63 PPP with Harper on the court last night.
His individual scoring is great, but he’s not a magic elixir for the Spurs offense actually creating efficient shots for everyone
Henry Ettinger@hedging_henry
I keep seeing that the Spurs need to bench Fox for Harper. I thought we learned this last series? The offense is way too sloppy without Fox. The solution is Fox needs to play better. If you want the Spurs to play Harper in crunch time, he should play over Champagnie/Vassell
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How the Knicks celebrated vs.
how the Spurs celebrated
One team is crying like LeBron in 2016.
The other knows the job ain’t finished.
Bleacher Report@BleacherReport
LOOK WHAT IT MEANS TO WEMBY 🥹
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@yeahfineman Harper's not as good at keeping his handle as Fox but he's absolutely, unequivocally, unusually good at it for a rookie. he will become one of the best guys at handling full court pressure in the league
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i'm super high on Harper but still curious how he improves the tightness on his handle against intense full court pressure.
i see Castle getting better but still not good enough to handle main PG duties against elite fullcourt ball pressure in the offs. (will be fine in reg szn)
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On Castle w/o Fox:
Castle's handle = his biggest weakness, even more than shooting. He struggles against intense fullcourt ball pressure. he KNOWS this b/c he even worked on it this past offszn (needs to work on it more OBV).
he gets stressed n sped up, then finds himself ..
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@Dreskiii_ @MrBuckBuckNBA if he got hacked like this? probably nothing. moron.
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@MrBuckBuckNBA If these were sga fouls I honestly wonder what people would say 😭
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All the 7 fouls that were drawn by Victor Wembanyama last night in Game 5 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder - Western Conference Finals - 2026 NBA Playoffs. With replays, when they were available.
Including all the free throws, although it wasn't due to a foul on Wembanyama, but a take foul by SGA against Castle, and the Spurs chose Wemby to shoot.
Wembanyama went 12/12 (100%) from the line.
The fouls also appear on the full Wembanyama highlights I posted last night, here:
x.com/i/status/20594…
Also on YouTube (fouls clip of Wemby):
youtu.be/IhAZoiTcM9o
YouTube
MrBuckBuck@MrBuckBuckNBA
Victor Wembanyama full highlights vs. Oklahoma City Thunder tonight (114-127 L) - Game 5 - Western Conference Finals - 2026 NBA Playoffs: 20 Points on 4/15 FG (26.7%), 0/5 from 3, 12/12 FT, 6 Rebounds (1 Off. Reb), 1 Assist (2 TOV), 2 Steals, 3 Blocks, 2 PF, and a +/- of -8 in 37:38 minutes played. A poor performance by Wemby, by his standards, as he seemed tired. The Spurs will need more out of him if they want to force Game 7. A rare negative plus/minus by Wemby, in what turned out to be A VERY physical game at both ends. Also on YouTube: youtu.be/Bkq2bPllAG4
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