Max Kellerman Deems Jalen Brunson better than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: “SGA and Jalen Brunson play the same position, modern NBA, pick and roll, foul baiting point guards. They both have the same team. San Antonio deployed, the same defensive scheme to stop that guy it worked on SGA. SGA is... a great player of course. But they did it to Brunson and it worked the first two games. But because Brunson is better than SGA, meaning he’s more valuable than SGA. He was able to make adjustments. It’s because Jalen Brunson’s basketball brain was working overtime.” Rich Paul chimes in: “The only thing I’ll say to that is I think SGA saw a different San Antonio spurs. That spurs team the Knicks saw had just exuded a lot of their energy. And the fact that they got over the hump to beat OKC. And i think that was their championship. They forget they needed to win 4 more.” - Max Kellerman Rich Paulshow more

Mind you Shai had his second and third best offensive players injured. His offensive support was fucking McCain and chet lmao

you niggas are delusional. SGA's 2nd + 3rd best offensive players and secondary ballhandlers were hurt. His 2nd option was a Chet who can't create his own shot. JB had a healthy OG, KAT, Bridges so the Spurs couldn't throw the house at him like they did SGA. Get fucking real

Takes like this is what got him kicked off First Take smh

Max couldn’t have been watching … they was triple teaming SGA , they was letting Brunson 1 on 1 against not even the best defender

"They both have the same team." Take away NY's 2nd and 3rd best offensive players and see how that series goes. Dumb take

Put Jb on okc 3 chips already

I'm with you brodie

Knicks have not beatin OKC since 2022

SGA was missing JDUB a guy that average 21 points per game and made 2nd team or defense as if that wasn't enough he was also missing AJ Mitchell who was initially struggling but started finding his way that's like losing kat and OG or Harper and Castle trust me it's not the same.

Yea I’m sure Brunson didn’t suck for 5/6 games and Shai wasn’t missing his 2nd and 3rd best offensive option

I don’t like sga but here we go with the Alzheimer takes , j dub was injured he had no help out there except Caruso going crazy.

This guy Rich is talking crazy, smh. Brother is clearly still in shock that the Knicks are the better team, making excuses for a team that tanked their way to the Finals

lol did Shai not just beat the same team that belted Brunson in back to back playoffs

This is the correct take. SGA ain’t Brunson at money time and actually has been a playoff faller—I’d give him a pass on this year because of the injuries but it showed last year too. Last two regular seasons he’s shot .519 and .553 from two and .375 and .386 from three. The last two post seasons .462 and .463 from two and .283 and .305 from three What did Jalen Brunson do when all his Knick teammates got hurt a few year ago? He was frequently scoring 40 a night, despite whole teams gearing up to stop him.

Max missed his window for making dumb rage baiting comments lol if he was like this on espn he would’ve never gotten fired He made the show boring with his logic and let Stephen A. smith make the outlandish statements

I love JB and SGA so I ain’t even gonna say nothing 😭

Same reason why most Knicks fans preferred to get the Spurs match up? Same Knicks team that hasn’t beat us in years? We’re the same team they were? Without our second and tertiary scorer? Max is bugging on this one. Did we not beat who eliminated the Knicks in ‘25 in the finals?

This logic contradicts itself considering Sga beat the pacers the team that dismantled the Knicks 2 years in a row. Max is just a dumbass

Max has not had 1 good take since he started this show with Rich Paul and there were folks out there clamoring to have him back on air after he got canned by First Take. How I miss that silence

Kellerman needs to stick to boxing. “No major injuries in the Western Conference Finals.” Really? I’m not making excuses man but the Spurs AND Knicks had 2nd 3rd and 4th options healthy and balling out and it still took a healthy Spurs on OKC’s tail all year to beat em in 7.

Lol the Brunson delusion continues

OKC was missing its second (hamstring) 3rd (PTSD) and 4th (Achilles) best players in the Spurs series btw

The spurs are young. I don’t want to hear that “exuded a lot of energy” shit

I’m a knick fan and this is a weak take. Okc didn’t have their second best player and Chet/dort totally disappeared…and they still went 7 games. Imagine if Knicks were without Kat and hart/mikal disappeared.

OKc was Missing All-Star JDUB.. Ajay Mitchel gone rest of series, OKC was hamstrung and was just Shai AND still toke em 7games with game 7 being decided last Qrt.. Knicks were fully healthy!!! Congrats on chip but let’s be real

He should not be allowed to talk hoops ever again

they talking like jdub, ajay mitchell, and igart actually played 😆

Daily retarded Max Kellerman take

Here goes Rich Paul with his sorry ass excuses

Orrr Spurs weren’t as good as they thought to begin with. Going to Game 7 with OKC being without JDub and Mitchell arguably 2nd and 4th best players. That’s like taking Castle and Fox or Harper off the Spurs

“The same defensive scheme” alright man just hand in your badge on the way out

What about Brunson losing to the pacers & Shai beating the pacers. That don’t count the same ?

Brunson not even the best PG in his conference, ain’t no way in hell he better than Shai 😂😂😂

Brunson had his his healthy team though of course the defensive scheme worked better on Shai and he still took them to 7 without his best players beside him

Shai is better wtf is this, bro had no help he was missing the other two best guards on his team he's definitely better than brunson

The coverages JB and SGA saw were not even remotely similar. what both the Lakers and Spurd did on defense were somenof the most insane coverages ive ever seen