How Rival Coaches Would Defend Victor Wembanyama and Jalen Brunson in NBA Finals Matchup

Fun fact: On 215 out-of-timeout offensive possessions this season, the Knicks averaged 1.13 points when Jalen Brunson brought the ball over the midcourt line and 0.97 when he didn’t. Throw in eight to 10 possessions that begin after free throws and you have nearly a dozen possessions per game where Knicks opponents can set their defense—and potentially take the ball out of Brunson’s hands.

Too wonky for you? Fine, but these are the kind of details coaches on both sides will be poring over as the NBA Finals kick off Wednesday in San Antonio. How will the Spurs approach defending Brunson, New York’s offensive hub? What will the Knicks do with the inimitable Victor Wembanyama? And what are the wild cards in this series? Sports Illustrated asked three NBA assistant coaches—two from the Western Conference, one from the East—to address some of the key questions in the Finals.

Is there an effective way to defend Victor Wembanyama?

Western Conference Coach 1: You have to play him physical. I thought OKC did a decent job with that in certain games for two reasons. One, just meeting him high on the court and starting the physical early, and if he’s going to get to the rim, he at least has to expend a lot of energy to get there. The most effective guys have been smaller or stronger guys. By smaller, I mean smaller than the center. So, the Knicks would have OG Anunoby and Josh Hart, for example.

I feel like they could try to really work early to get him, at least have to make a huge effort to get down to the rim. That leaves Karl-Anthony Towns and potentially Mitchell Robinson off the ball either to rebound, and those guys are around there to pick him up, and at least try to keep some size on him near the basket.

Western Conference Coach 2: I would put a physical player on him that’s just going to bump him and fight him as much as he can to keep him away from the rim. Keep your big off him to be able to clean up the mess. If he does get down there and meet him, not high, but before the area he can jump to catch the ball in, and then any pick-and-roll where he sits, I would trap.

So when you trap the pick-and-roll, you basically are giving up either the nail area, the pocket area, or pass across the other slot, and with him, you want to take away the nail. So you’re giving up somebody in that slot across the court from pick-and-roll. If that’s Julian Champagnie, then you could be in trouble. If that’s Dylan Harper or Keldon Johnson, I think you’re probably living with it. But you can’t give Wemby the ball at the nail.

Eastern Conference Coach: A physical small forward who’s 6'8" and can get underneath him. An Aaron Gordon type. The Knicks have OG Anunoby. OG is the perfect guy to guard him. He’s strong. All those crossovers he does versus Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren that aren’t wing defenders. But you not only have to be a wing defender, you’re going to be a strong wing defender because he’s good at trying to take the bump and going by. So you have to get underneath them.

An example was when they used to put guards on Dirk Nowitzki. Now Dirk, you know how he used to get under his knees and ball pressure and pressure him up there. Now we know Wemby is more handles and more at the three-point line, but still a guard to get underneath him, OG would be perfect. Josh Hart is second.

Someone like Mikal Bridges who’s a good wing defender, he’s too small, too skinny, not enough power. He’s going to go right through him. So they have two guys that can guard him. And they’ll try Towns, but Towns will be like Hartenstein. They’ll give up some threes. He’s going to give up a dunk here and there. But OG’s going to be the perfect person for him.

Same question: How do you defend Jalen Brunson?

Eastern Conference Coach: I think he’s so good. I’d rather have someone 6'7" than 6'2" on him. I think Stephon Castle’s a good defender, but if you saw in the Minnesota series they kind of switched Castle off of Anthony Edwards and they put Castle on other guys. If you can have an [Amen or Ausar] Thompson type—which they don’t—that’s the kind of guy you want guarding him. Castle’s going to have to guard him. They’re going to put De’Aaron Fox on him a little bit. They don’t really have someone besides the 6'7" wing defender. They have everything else you could ask for.

Carter Bryant should get some chances. He’s going to get his 10 minutes. And when he gets his 10 minutes, hey, you get one or two fouls, we’ll sub you out. Their whole thing is they’re going to ball pressure, funnel everything to Wemby. So it doesn’t matter. I don’t care if it’s Durant, LeBron, hey, make him go to the basket and you got to shoot over this 7'4" monster.

Western Conference Coach 1: Will he handle the Spurs defense better than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander did? Not that Shai was terrible, but he was grinding. They both are kind of the same in the sense that they’re one-on-one guys that don’t even really get to the rim. They’re scoring in that midrange before the help can come, but with San Antonio tending to flood the ball side, there was an extra early helper for Shai, so it was tough on him.

Will Brunson be able to handle that better? He’s shorter, so I would want to bet no, but I think that’s what is going to happen. They’re going to basically treat him the same. They’re going to show him different looks. They showed Shai what looked like a zone early in the series. Then they went to defending him one-on-one with the f---ing dogs that they have.

I’m guessing the Spurs do the same thing to Brunson, which when he’s low on the court or empty corner on the court, like Shai was a lot, they’ll send Wemby over extra early and almost discourage him from that midrange, and then Brunson will have to pass it out. And the thing about passing out of that empty side corner is it’s three passes to the other corner, so you have time to recover.

What’s the big question for you in this series?

Eastern Conference Coach: I just think the physicality that’s allowed by the referees. How much are they going to let them play? Because the times the Knicks did beat them, they were so physical with them. They crashed the offensive rebound, Hart killed them on the glass, Towns, OG and Bridges were getting turnovers and steals.

I don’t know if people want to admit it or not. It is so much more physical in the playoffs than it is in the regular season, the amount of stuff. Now, I know Shai flops, but take out the flops of a superstar, they’re letting everything go. They’re letting you maul. And so when they let OKC do that, especially Hartenstein, he was successful against Wemby. When you don’t let him do that and you call a couple touch fouls, then Wemby becomes almost unstoppable. The Knicks need the refs to be letting things go.

Western Conference Coach 1: I think probably Bridges. Most teams are going to leave Josh Hart open. I bet the Spurs will, too. Some games he is going to hit shots, some games he is not going to hit them. They might take him out, which is what they’ve shown they’re willing to do the last two years.

The Spurs are going to steer their defense towards Brunson. So that leaves Bridges with a big responsibility to initiate the offense, not hold the ball and wait for Brunson to get open necessarily, but just to be another guy that can maybe create something in the half court. You’re going to have to hit some midrange shots, and that’s technically his shot to hit. So can he do it against Castle? And they’re better with Johnson, they’re better defenders. Yeah, this is a big series for Bridges.

Western Conference Coach 2: Fox’s ankle. If he’s not right, this is a seven-game series that can go either way. I’d add Towns to that, too. Towns is really the x-factor. I know he is in every series, but more so in this one because if you’re going to put Victor on Josh Hart, which I think they will do, that means you’re putting Julian Champagnie on Towns. Then Keldon Johnson. That’s where it becomes an interesting chess match. They don’t want to put Wemby on Towns because Towns is a good spacer. If Towns has a smaller guy on him, he has to take advantage.

How do you see the series playing out?

Eastern Conference Coach: I say Spurs in six. You don’t beat OKC and lose. I just think that it’s your time. I think it’s Wemby’s time. I just think that he makes it so difficult. I’m not counting the Knicks out saying it’s a 4–1 or anything like that. I’m going to give them two games. I think the Garden’s going to be insane. I think just the crowd alone gets you one. And then I think that they show out every series in at least one game. They shoot the s--- out the ball and beat you. I’ve seen it every series where, hey, you don’t think it’s a great shooting team and they hit more than a dozen threes. But this is a different defense. This is an elite defense with Victor.

Western Conference Coach 1: Spurs in five. We have been talking all season about how much better the West is than the East. It’s true. It is.

Western Conference Coach 2: Spurs in six. I think the long layoff is going to cost the Knicks in Game 1. Game 2 becomes a must-win. If they get it, this could be a long series. If they go down 0–2, it’s over.

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