Jason Timpf opened Hoops Tonight on Saturday night with a setup that doubled as an obituary. The Knicks had just dropped the Cavs 121-108 in Cleveland to go up 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, and Timpf wanted to talk about why New York and Oklahoma City — the West's 2-1 leader against San Antonio — looked like the same team wearing different jerseys.
"There's a similarity between the Knicks and the Thunder," Timpf said. "It really comes down to a simple idea. Having a guard that nobody can guard. Having an on-ball player that very simply, if you allow him to work against a drop coverage, he'll beat you in the drop coverage. If you play in a switching look and you allow him to pick on specific defenders, he can score at will one-on-one against those defenders. And that creates this dynamic where the defense is effectively screwed."
The second pillar, in Timpf's framing, is what the rest of the roster does once those guards force the help to commit. Both New York and OKC have spent years building five-out groups that can convert the kick-out and the cut. "They just have a lot of experience playing off of the attention that Jalen Brunson draws," Timpf said of the Knicks. "Similarly for the OKC Thunder — there are a lot of guys in that group that have just been playing together for a long time, and so they've been dealing with the coverages that Shai gets for years now. There's a continuity piece to it. There's a play-finishing talent piece to it."
The Knicks' execution against Cleveland's late runs was the proof point. Timpf walked through a third-quarter sequence where Max Strus had clawed Cleveland back into the game on the offensive glass and James Harden had started getting downhill. Brunson answered with a step-back over Dennis Schroeder, then took the next inbound the length of the floor and hit Mitchell Robinson on a lob with seconds left on the clock.
"Bang, bang, bang. Four of those points you almost made up are now completely gone," Timpf said. "Every single time the Cavs made some sort of run, Brunson has just been so good at grabbing the game by the throat and just making the necessary handful of plays to maintain that separation."
Landry Shamet, again, was the swing piece. "Landry Shamet has just consistently done a very good job on Donovan Mitchell in individual defense," Timpf said. "He has this combination of enough size that Donovan can't really blow through his chest or win a power game with him, but he's also quick enough with this kind of physically hampered version of Donovan to consistently beat him to spots."
Which brought Timpf to the part of the show Cleveland fans will not want to hear. With Mitchell visibly limping in spots, Evan Mobley still developing, and a second-apron roster that limits the team's flexibility, Timpf said the Cavs' front office now faces a decision he recognised from his time covering the Lakers.
"I have a feeling they're going to pull what the Lakers did in 2023," Timpf said. "I have a feeling they're going to look at the situation and they're going to go, 'Well, James and Donovan didn't get to play very much together, and Donovan was clearly hurt, and we made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. Should have won Game 1. Evan Mobley is going to continue to get better. Continuity is our friend. We're somewhat limited in our flexibility anyway because of the second-apron situation. So why don't we just bring everybody back?'"
Timpf admitted there's a real case for that. "You can definitely reach a higher ceiling through continuity than you would think relative to what your on-paper talent looks like," he said, pointing to last year's Pacers run and this year's Thunder and Knicks. He also noted the brutal market math behind any alternative: "Desmond Bane went for four first-round picks. How many good players are you really in the market for with the assets that you have available to you?"
The verdict, even on Mitchell himself, was careful. "Should you take calls on Donovan Mitchell? Sure," Timpf said. "Should you essentially canvas his value? But chances are, because of where he's at, facing down a new deal and coming off of basically his worst playoff run of his career in terms of his consistent explosion as he was dealing with an injury — he's probably not the most valuable player going into this summer."
For the Knicks, the only worry Timpf flagged was further down the bracket. "I'm worried about a Thunder matchup potentially for the Knicks," he said. "Even as good as they are at all the similar things that the Thunder are good at — well, Brunson's going up against Shai, right? And the rim protection, it's just different with Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein." That, however, is a problem for another night. First, the Knicks need Game 4.
