In this episode of the Draymond Green Show, Draymond Green and host Colin Cowherd break down the New York Knicks’ playoff run, focusing on Jalen Brunson’s recent performances, the team’s strengths and weaknesses, and their upcoming second‑round series against the Indiana Pacers. Green critiques Brunson’s ball‑dominant style, praising his ability to bounce back after two sub‑par games, and stresses the importance of resilience in the playoffs. He also discusses the Knicks’ physicality, transition defense, half‑court defense, and the need for multiple players to pressure opponents like Tyrese Haliburton. The conversation shifts to the Philadelphia 76ers, examining their cap situation, roster flexibility, and the potential impact of players such as Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid, Tobias Harris, and Buddy Hield. Green predicts the Knicks will win the Pacers series in five or six games, highlighting X‑factors such as Obi Toppin, Miles Turner, and Pascal Siakam. Throughout, Green addresses fan dynamics, denying any hatred toward the Knicks while emphasizing honest analysis.
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Welcome to the brand new Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our content. To the part we all been waiting for, the New York Knicks. Jalen Brunson led New York Knicks. Number one, congratulations to the Knicks. Job well done. Tibbs, Coach Darren Erman, Ern. Ah man, good win by those Uncle Wes. Good win by the Knicks. I got a lot of friends that are Knicks fans. They're all going crazy. Shout out to J-Cal. J-Cal been talking about the Knicks getting to the second round since I met him about 12 years ago. So shout out to J-Cal. His Knicks are on their way to the second round led by Jalen Brunson. Oh, but let me tell you, it was not as ball dominant as it has been. Dante DiVincenzo, who I told you all needed to play well, needed to get touches in order to get off to help the team win, finished with 23 points, 5 for 9 from the 3. I'm just saying, it wasn't your typical ball-dominant Jalen that he had been in the 3 games before that. Guess what though? He still ended up with 40, 41 points or something like that. He still ended up with the numbers.
Yeah.
It just, it just 41 points and 12 assists still ended up with the numbers. 13 for 27 from the field. He can take 32 shots, 36 shots, 13, a very efficient 13, 27 from the field, a very efficient 3 for 8 from 3. So I'm just saying the ball dominant, I need to get to it, or I don't like it. I don't think it's great. Jalen Brunson, when he's sharing and getting off the ball, getting to his spots, he see the trap coming, get off it, catch it, go. Not messing around. Oh, I'm gone. Like, get downhill. The Josh Hart, that Josh Hart 3 dagger, that's Jalen Brunson. Oh, I'm going. I see the trap coming. Let me go. Let me beat the hip. Now go. Not just waiting, waiting and trying to figure it out. That's the Jaylen Brunson I like to see. And by the way, a lot of Knicks fans are trying to make it out to be like, Draymond don't like us, Draymond hate the Knicks. I'm sorry, I know y'all probably need something to rally around. Like everybody need a rally cry and I get it. I'm not really that because I quite frankly don't hate the Knicks. I'm not in the Eastern Conference. I've never, I don't really hate teams. Unless they're losers, which the Knicks aren't, they're very well coached, they play hard every single night. I don't hate teams kind of that I haven't really played in the playoff series because that's kind of where hate is built. Like regular season, eh, you get into something maybe, but eh, like hate is usually built during the playoffs. And quite frankly, I've never played against the Knicks in the playoff series for reasons that we know, like reasons that we can easily pinpoint of why I haven't played the Knicks. In a series. Now, how many NBA Finals have I played in? 2? I mean 6? Let me see, I won 4. What is it, 6 NBA Finals? All right, so 6 NBA Finals in 12 years, I've never played the Knicks. So it's good reason why I never played the Knicks. However, I'm not a Knicks hater. I'm just honest. I think a lot of the Knicks fans are delusional. And a lot of the Knicks fans are like, Knicks fans are nuts. We know Knicks fans are nuts. Like, I don't need to go into that. I don't hate them. I know they need something to rally around and that's cool. Like rally around the Draymond Green Show. By the way, all you Knicks fans, make sure you subscribe. Um, but yeah, I don't hate the Knicks. However, I am honest and I'm not delusional and a ball dominant Jalen Brunson ain't gonna get you to the promised land, I said. I didn't say you weren't gonna win first round series. I didn't even say you weren't gonna win the second round series, because if I'm honest, I think you guys should easily win the second round series. So I didn't say that. I said you can't get to the promised land. And quite frankly, if I'm honest, I still don't think you can. However, Draymond Green, as I told you, already had respect from me. He's earning more and more, earning more and more respect. Guy's getting done every single night. Had a couple bad games, bounced back. That's what I wanna see. When you are an up-and-coming guy and you're taking that next step in your career and you get into these playoffs, I wanna see how you bounce back from a bad game. You know why? Because a lot of young up-and-coming guys have a bad game in the playoffs, and guess what the next game look like? Worse. And guess what the next game look like? Worse. And then they go into the tank, and then y'all go into the summer talking about the regular season that they had when they fucking sucked during the playoffs. And I go in the summer like, he just stunk it up during the playoffs. Like, I don't want to hear this guy's this, this guy's that because he had a good regular season. I just watched him when it mattered the most, stink it up. Stunk it up. And Jalen Brunson had two very forgettable games. Somehow they won both. And that's where Philly lost the series. When Jalen Brunson had those two forgettable games, they did not capitalize. Had one of 'em won, actually blew it. That's where the, the series was lost. But anyway, the way Jalen Brunson bounced back from those two games, says a lot to me. Like those are the things that when I'm looking, when I'm evaluating these guys, when y'all talking about who's next this, who's the next that, those are the things that I wanna see. Like how you bouncing back in the playoffs from these bad games. Like we saw Julius Randle a couple years ago have a bad game and keep having bad games. How you bounce back when you have a bad game in these playoffs matters. And Jalen Brunson did that at a level that— Yeah. Not many people has done before. He came out of those bad games with 40, 40, 40, 12 assists, 11 assists, 12 assists. And although a bit ball dominant, he bounced back. You gotta give it to him. He's stepping up to the challenge each and every night. So definitely got some respect from me, earned more respect from me. Love watching it. Quite frankly, I think—
Draymond Green.
You know, when, when, when, well, before we go into what I think about the next series, let's just close this series out. Be that, we just saw this year kind of the growth of a new duo. Tyrese Maxey taking that next step. Joel Embiid. And quite frankly, I think it's gonna get interesting for the Philadelphia 76ers. I think they've done a good job with their cap situation of staying under the cap. So they're not really hampered by that, but you've kind of been going at this now for like 5 or 6 years thinking that you got a chance to get over the hump and quite frankly haven't made it anywhere. So what is next? You know, Maxie's in line for a well-deserved max contract. Well-deserved. You look at the guys that got max contracts, Maxie don't, He can't not deserve one. You got Joel who's making a boatload of money. What do you do? Tobias Harris, a free agent. Buddy Hill, a free agent. So they got flexibility to go get better. They haven't quite frankly nailed that though. 'Cause they've had that same flexibility for the most part. And they haven't quite nailed the getting better over the last 4 or 5 years. It's kind of been the same. How long do you stay right here? You come in talking about contending every year, but you stay right here. I think it's gonna get very interesting for what happens in Philly. You kind of gotta look at everything because you just staying right here. Unless the goal is to be right there, which if Philly was here, there's no way Knicks fans take over. Yeah. Wells Fargo. You know why? Because Philly fans are crazy too. I don't know if y'all ever had like dealings with Philly fans. They are nuts. So there's— that don't happen. This ain't— this wasn't like Brooklyn. You know what I'm saying? New York Knicks could go to Brooklyn. Of course you're gonna take— they don't got a fan base. Philly got a fan base, a crazy fan base. So for them to take over their arena like that, Clearly those fans don't believe you got a team that can compete. So it's gonna get interesting for Philly. See where they go from here. I got some ideas, but I don't really care to see them get better 'cause I'm trying to win a championship next year. So they better figure it out. But moving on, we got the Knicks and Pacers in round 2. Me personally, I got the New York Knicks winning that series. They're way more physical. They can keep up.
Uh-huh.
The Knicks can definitely play that pace, get up and down, but they're gonna defend more. Transition defense will be something Thibs nail over the next few days to make sure those guys getting back in transition as that is the most important number one key versus the Indiana Pacers. It's getting back in transition, getting your half court defense set, making those guys set, making those guys score against a half court defense. On the flip side, your offense will be very important because you don't want shot turnovers. You don't wanna turn the ball over. And the New York Knicks has a very good half-court defense. And if they can get Indiana in the half-court, now they can be physical. Knicks is a very physical team, Indiana not so much. So now they can be physical, you know? So I personally think the New York Knicks have a slight advantage in this series. I think they got the young guards that can keep up with Halle pushing the ball. I think they got guards that different guys that they can throw at him. You can throw Sighs with OG Anunoby at Halle. You can throw Dante DiVincenzo a pest at Halle. You can throw Myles McBride a pest and you can kind of wear him down. And when you get into these playoff series, for me personally, I think that that is one of— A key. One of the biggest things when you're talking about winning a series and winning a championship is having multiple guys you can throw at a team's best player because you just wanna wear 'em down. We already know Holly's been struggling with the hamstring stuff and all the different things. So you just wanna wear 'em down. And the Knicks, they gonna grind you out. Like that series, man, that series was exciting as hell to watch. They just gonna grind you out. They gonna keep going and keep going and keep going.
And so—
With them having multiple guys they can throw at Halle, I think, I think that bodes well for the New York Knicks. Not quite sure who Indiana throws at Jalen though. Maybe Ni Smith, probably Aaron Ni Smith, although he's not big enough. Like I don't think he has enough size. For Jalen. Jalen want to get in the mid-range. He want to use shoulders. He want to use floaters. I think you need length. So I don't think Aaron Neesmith have enough length. I don't think, um, Nimhard is big enough. You're not speeding Jalen Brunson up. He just going to get you on his hip. And so I don't think Nimhard is big enough, which kind of leaves you with Pascal. Pascal can take the bump. Pascal can move his feet. Does he want to take on that challenge all series? I think at some point Pascal Siakam will have to take on the challenge of guarding Jalen Brunson if they want to have a chance of winning this series. He has the length to affect his shots even if he get behind on the screen. If he's in front of him, he can take the bump. He's a 4. He can take the bump, still get good contest and not have to jump not have to give. Also, he's a 4. He know how to not give guys angles in the post. Jalen is looking to step, step, got crazy footwork. So I think that's going to be something that they have to look into, uh, which brings me to my next point, which is the X-factor for the series. I think the X-factor for the series, I think Indiana has two possible X-factors, one being Obi Toppin. Yeah. Playing against his old team, playing against New York Knicks from New York City. What you gonna do, Obi? He was a couple of these games against the Bucks. Obi Toppin was what helped push them over the top. Had 20-some last night. So, Obi Toppin is one. I also think Miles Turner has to dominate his matchup. Miles Turner. Yeah. Has to be the same dominant Miles Turner that we just saw in this last series. He gotta dominate Hardenstein, he gotta dominate Mitchell Robinson. He's athletically can compete with both, he's physical enough to compete with both, although Hardenstein is a little more physical. But I personally think that Miles Turner and— Miles Turner's the X factor. Obi Toppin's an X factor. Pascal can be an X factor. If Pascal don't play well, it's simple, they don't win. Both sides of the court, they gonna need Pascal in this series. And if he don't play well, they have no chance at winning. I mean, absolutely no chance. So those are my X factors. That's kind of how I see this series. Oh, by the way, I got the Knicks winning this series in 5. 6-Max. That's my take on that series. That's how I see it going down.
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