Five-time NBA All-Star point guard and current Amazon Prime Video NBA analyst John Wall takes a shot at some playoffs Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: What is the key for the Knicks to reach the NBA Finals?
A: To me the key has always been all year: Can Mikal Bridges and [OG] Anunoby play well at the same time? … Outside of what you know you’ll get from [Jalen] Brunson and KAT [Karl-Anthony Towns], I think that takes their team to another level. I kind of go back to the game when they beat the Spurs pretty badly, everybody was clicking. I know you can’t get that every night, but I feel like those two guys are the key to their team going far.
Q: Team owner James Dolan said this is NBA Finals-or-bust. What kind of pressure does that put on the Knicks?
A: I don’t think it’s no pressure, because last year they feel like they should have went to the Finals, if they don’t give that Game 1 away or Game 2 away against the Pacers, and then you come back this year when everybody thought it was a down year in the East with the Celtics dealing with injuries, the Pacers not having [Tyrese] Haliburton, and everybody, including James Dolan, thought the Knicks would be the No. 1 seed in the East. And you have Boston is still ahead of them, they just got Jayson Tatum back, which is scary for the league, but nobody expected the Celtics to be where they are.
Q: So you don’t think there’s pressure on the Knicks?
A: Yeah, they have pressure, but it shouldn’t really be no pressure. … They show us a run here, then they go on a losing streak. And then it’s like they kind of had a favorable schedule probably after that bad month of February that got them back on track because they were almost close to not being a top-three team in the East, and that woulda put a lot of pressure on them.
Q: If the Knicks meet the Celtics in the second round, how do you see that series?
A: I’m taking the Celtics on that one. … I feel like the Celtics are a more complete team. Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown, one of them is gonna be on the floor at all times, and they also have Derrick White, [Payton] Pritchard’s playing great off the bench, you got [Baylor] Scheierman, that’s another guy that knocks down shots. … I just feel like they’re a more complete team than what the Knicks are.
Q: You see Tatum knocking the rust off?
A: He’s been knocking off the rust the last couple of weeks.
Q: So who do you see in the Eastern Conference finals?
A: Right now I have the Celtics and it’s up in the air. I feel like if the Knicks don’t have to see the Celtics, I would take them there. I like Detroit a lot, I just don’t know if Detroit has another guy that can create off the dribble outside of Cade Cunningham in the playoffs, ’cause the coverages that they’re gonna do with him, he hasn’t seen in the regular season. I’m not giving him my best coverages now when I know I might have to see him in the playoffs.
Q: So you would like the Knicks over the Pistons if they met?
A: Yes.
Q: Your thoughts on Mike Brown?
A: I like Mike Brown. We all talked about Jalen Brunson, we know how dominant he is, how much he scores the ball, but he’s ball dominant, and I think a lot of times all those other guys don’t get implemented into the offense and they kind of get lost. I feel like we were gonna get more ball movement, and we don’t get too many of those, it’s kind of like the same offense we had before. Only difference is he goes deeper into his bench than what Thibs [Tom Thibodeau] used to.
Q: Were you surprised when Thibs was fired?
A: Yeah, for a guy to get to the Eastern Conference finals, you don’t do that. I get you probably wanting to play more guys off the bench, but this has been Thibs’ motto his whole career, play probably seven guys at best, sometimes eight, but I play my main guys a lot of minutes. It’s kind of like you look at Cleveland’s situation, when LeBron [James] and them went to the Finals, the next year David Blatt’s fired. He got to the Finals, didn’t have Kevin Love and lost Kyrie Irving Game 1, he still was able to make it a competitive series as best he could.
Q: Correct me if I’m wrong, you don’t sound sold on Mike Brown.
A: Mike Brown’s not the problem. I feel like it’s the players in figuring out how to play well with each other at a high level. It’s about how can you get Jalen Brunson to still be efficient and be the way he is ’cause he’s so gifted, but he’s at his best when the ball is in his hands. I feel like anybody that coaches him is how can you get him to still be that killer guy he’s been for them and the clutch guy he has been for the Knicks and this city, and the fans love him, to get everybody else to also get going also? I’m not blaming Mike Brown for anything.
Q: What do the Knicks need from KAT in these playoffs?
A: KAT has to be KAT. KAT has to be dominant. KAT has to be a guy that can stay on the floor and block shots, defend for them at a high level. He has to be a guy that can knock down a 3 like he’s been doing, but also KAT has to take advantage of when teams put smaller guys on him. Let’s say if they meet Boston in the playoffs, Boston is gonna put Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown on him. And that’s a matchup he has to dominate in the post. If he’s dominating there, now you have to double-team and you have other guys have to do that. … I was talking to one of my Knicks friends that’s a fan, and he’s, “Oh yeah, we’re going to the Finals,” and I’m like, “Bro, you have to understand, you all had no Jaylen Brown yesterday, and you went to the wire with the Celtics.” And Josh Hart had to score 26 points. They shoulda won that game by 15 points, at best.
Q: What is the difference between the Brunson we see now and the Brunson who was in Dallas?
A: He wasn’t a franchise guy, he was trying to figure out his way. The series when Luka [Doncic] was hurt, and what he did against the Utah Jazz gave him an unbelievable confidence to understand, “Well, I might can be a No. 1 option in this league.” What he brings to the table is impeccable to do at his size and be efficient and be as clutch as he is. I just think he has to find a way to get other guys going and not just make him have to make jump shots all night for seven games. To me he’s not a true point guard, he’s more of a combo-type of guard. He’s gonna get the ball whenever he wants, he has the creativity to do whatever he wants when he feels, I feel like early on you have to get guys shots. First minute, minute-30 of the [Celtics] game, Mikal Bridges had seven points. He got it going. He goes missing for the rest of the game.
Q: How big of an impact does Mitchell Robinson have to be?
A: He’s a big key to them because what he brings off the bench, outside of free-throw shooting. A guy that can block shots, a guy that can switch out and really guard other people. And his offensive rebounding ability is very key for them. They really want to play him down the stretch, he just don’t shoot well from the free-throw line.
Q: What do you think of a possible Knicks-Hawks first-round matchup?
A: I think it goes six [games]. They have two guys that can guard, you have Nickeil Alexander-Walker who’s to me Most Improved Player this year, and then you got Jalen Johnson, that’s a guy that’s an All-Star, should be on the All-NBA team. So they can make it interesting because Onyeka Okongwu can guard KAT, he can space the floor and knock down 3s also.
Q: What other teams could be a threat to the Celtics?
A: If we get the James Harden and Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley that we expect to get, that’s another team that could be a threat. For me, I feel like it’s three teams that can give the Celtics a threat: the Knicks, the Cavs and the Pistons. But I just feel like the Celtics have been there before. And you know they got revenge on last year, they felt like they gave that series away to the Knicks, being up almost 20 every game, living by the 3, dying by the 3, not making ’em. So that was a saucy taste in their mouth. The Pistons also got a saucy taste, they feel like they coulda beat the Knicks.
Q: The Cavs?
A: Can James Harden knock off the curse of everybody saying he keeps missing in the playoffs? That’s the key for him. I think he unlocked Spida [Mitchell] to another level where Spida don’t have to worry about creating as much, just let him be a bona fide scorer. But I think Evan Mobley has to be the Evan Mobley that we saw last year making All-NBA and being a Defensive Player of the Year. It helps their team go over the hump.
Q: The Raptors?
A: Nah, they’re just not there. I think they have their closer when they went and got Brandon Ingram. We also gotta see how [Immanuel] Quickley can get back in there. I just don’t think they have enough to put any threat to the top teams.
Q: Joel Embiid, who just had appendicitis surgery, and the 76ers?
A: With Embiid, it’s a team that you probably don’t want to see if they’re all healthy, him, Paul George and [Tyrese] Maxey. But I think also it changes their dynamic of what they do offensively, they try to feed the ball to Embiid more, it takes away from Maxey being the guy he was early on in being aggressive and being able to attack. … He helps them offensively, it’s just Embiid can’t move defensively and that kind of might hurt him against certain matchups.
Q: Is there a sleeper team that can make some noise?
A: A sleeper team I want to talk about is the Magic. But I don’t think they ever gonna get it right. They got all the pieces, I just don’t know if Franz [Wagner] can get into a rhythm and help them out before the playoffs start. I want Paolo [Banchero] to be a guy that just gets downhill, you’re a guy that has the physical tools and ability, athleticism to get by anybody and the strength to dominate anybody in the paint.
Q: Who wins the Western Conference?
A: There’s three teams, nobody else in my opinion. [Oklahoma City], Spurs and Denver.
Q: Describe defending NBA champion OKC.
A: They have the same team as last year. They had to go through a lot of adversity this year with guys being out, and I love the guy Ajay Mitchell, he gives them another boost off the bench. You got the MVP from last year, SGA [Shai Gilgeous-Alexander] when games are close. They know who their go-to guy is and everybody just knows their role. Everybody just plays defense at a high level, they’d be ready to make open shots when they have to, and you have a guy like SGA that’s shooting almost 60 percent from the field, makes clutch shots and he’s a go-to guy.
Q: Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs.
A: I love them a lot just because they play so enthusiastic, everybody can defend for them, they all can create shots off the dribble. Only thing that scares me is, who’s gonna be their closer? We have never seen a player like Wemby. The closest thing you’ve seen was Kevin Durant, but then you have what Wemby does on the defensive end, it cancels all that out.
Q: Thoughts on Stephon Castle?
A: I love him. Dawg. Would love to have him on my team. Being with Dan Hurley at UConn they kind of taught him coming in. He’s not trying to go out there and get 30 every night, he has certain nights when he does that. But I think him being a true point guard for them has allowed De’Aaron Fox to get back to the scoring ability that we have seen before the All-Star break.
Q: OKC versus San Antonio in the conference finals?
A: I can’t forget Denver. [Nikola] Jokic is another guy that can get to whatever he wants. And you got guys like Cam Johnson that’s finally figured out how to make shots and understands that he’s wide open.
Q: Is Jokic’s wrist a problem?
A: Health and some luck is all key to it.
Q: The Warriors with Steph Curry back?
A: That team you don’t want to see in the Play-In. If they get OKC first round, they don’t really go too far. You don’t know how long Steph can stay healthy with the injury he’s dealing with.
Q: The Lakers?
A: If Austin Reaves and Luka don’t come back in the first round, that can be bad for them, because if I’m the Rockets, I want to match up with them without Luka and Austin Reaves. Luka and Austin Reaves and Bron being the third option changes their team to a different dynamic.
Q: The Rockets?
A: I feel like if they get the Lakers they can get by there, but I don’t think they go far. We’re still dealing with the problem of them having a true point guard and trying to figure out what they can do. With the Lakers, when they play K.D. they double-team him and they force somebody else to beat ’em, and other guys gotta be able to shoot the ball at a high clip. I would live with that in a playoff series.
Q: K.D.?
A: I think teams are gonna frustrate him because they’re gonna double-team him or sit in those gaps and force somebody else to beat them for a whole series, and they just don’t have enough knockdown shooters to help ’cause their knockdown shooters don’t play defense at a high level, so it hurts ’em. So they got a good thing on one end and a bad thing on the other end.
Q: The T’wolves with Anthony Edwards?
A: Ant gotta get healthy. … Ant’s a bona fide killer, he has the old-school mentality. They’re trying to force Ant to be a point guard. … If he comes out and shoots 12, 14 shots in the first quarter, other teams are happy because nobody else has touched the ball and found a rhythm. But if he comes out and pass and get other guys shots and get them a little rhythm, he’s gonna be able to get 25 shots whenever he wants to. … We also forget, no credit away from them, but the last two years they got kind of lucky. Last year Steph Curry got hurt, I don’t think they beat the Warriors in that series if he doesn’t get hurt to get to the Western Conference finals.
Q: The Suns?
A: They’re playing at a good level but not there yet.
Q: Who were your favorite point guards growing up?
A: Jason Kidd, Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis, Baron Davis. When I got closer to the league, it was too many. It was a point guard era where you had tough matchups maybe seven nights in a row. Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, [Rajon] Rondo, Russ [Westbrook], D. [Derrick] Rose. It was never a night off.
Q: Who are point guards you like now?
A: They’re more combo guards now. … If you go point guard, it’d be like Luka for sure, James Harden, SGA, you have Kyrie Irving when he’s healthy. … Jamal Murray’s a guy I like. Jalen Brunson’s a guy that’s very crafty that I like. Cade Cunningham’s for sure on that list.
Q: Your former Kentucky coach John Calipari?
A: The GOAT.
Q: What would be your message to Knicks fans about the upcoming playoffs?
A: Y’all better make it to the [NBA] Finals or y’all might have a new team next year.
