Stan Van Gundy took a team to the NBA Finals as a head coach and might’ve won one if Pat Riley hadn’t elevated himself to that role for the Heat in 2005.
Now, Van Gundy’s an analyst for TNT and will work Games 1 and 2 between the Knicks and Pacers. It’s a matchup that rekindles a late 1990s rivalry and carries strategic questions aplenty, which Van Gundy helped answer in an interview with The Post.
Here’s Van Gundy breaking down some of the most pressing:
Jalen Brunson vs. Tyrese Haliburton?
“First of all, you’ve got a matchup of two of the really elite point guards. Different types of players, for sure. But two of the absolute best. … I don’t put a lot into the regular season in terms of, well Indiana 2 out of 3. I don’t think any of that matters. But Jalen had a 40-point game against Indiana. Haliburton had a 23-assist game against New York. I think we’re in for some great guard play.”
Who will guard Haliburton?
“I think [Donte] DiVincenzo. He guarded him during the season. And did a pretty good job. I think you’re going to see pretty much what you saw at the end of the Philly series [against Tyrese Maxey] — DiVincenzo and McBride. I think Anunoby will start on [Pascal] Siakam, and then Hart will guard him, too. I wouldn’t even be surprised at some point of the series — because of the pick-and-pop of [Myles] Turner — if Tom [Thibodeau] put Anunoby on Turner and put their center on Siakam to take away Siakam’s post-up game. And switch the pick-and-roll with Turner, and then as Turner rolls down DiVincenzo, they just run him out of there and then move their center onto him on the roll.”
Who will stop Brunson?
“Obviously Brunson is a major challenge in everything. How do you play his pick-and-rolls? How do you play his isolations? They doubled him a lot. And then, can they keep New York off the glass? And the problem is, if you’re going to double Brunson a lot, you’re in rotation when New York’s shot goes up so it gets even harder to block out and you’re not a good rebounding team anyway. And now there’s not bodies on anybody. I think there’s a lot of really interesting things to watch and a lot of challenges for both coaches.”
What about the pace preferences?
“New York will run more than people give them credit for. But Indiana really wants the pace up. And I think New York will want it a little slower in large part because of depth. I think that’s a big Indiana advantage. Even with [Bennedict] Mathurin out [for the Pacers], I think there’s a real depth advantage for Indiana with [Julius] Randle and [Bojan Bogdanovic] out [for the Knicks]. So I think in general Indiana would like to play faster than New York, anyway. But certainly the depth gives them an added advantage with that. To me, it’s a fine line because New York is good in transition and they want to run. But they’ve got to pick their spots. They want to run on rebounds and certainly on turnovers. But they don’t want to be in an up and down, run-and-shoot type of game with Indiana. So they’ve got to pick their spots.”
More on that Myles Turner conundrum?
“Shooting centers who can stretch the floor give the Knicks a problem in the pick-and-pop game. And I think Haliburton and Turner are a very, very good pick-and-roll combination. Turner hurt New York during the season both on the roll and on the pop. New York generally wants to be in drop coverage. They’ll get up some. But either way, Turner’s ability to pop to the 3-point line becomes a problem. … Tom’s never really wanted to switch his [center] much. He’ll do it when he puts [Precious] Achiuwa there but not so much with [Isaiah] Hartenstein or Mitchell Robinson. So that’s been a tough one for them.”
So where is the Knicks’ advantage?
“New York does it to everybody, but they’ve absolutely worn Indiana out on the glass during the season. And Indiana is not a good defensive rebounding team anyway. And New York is a great offensive rebounding team. I think that’s probably New York’s biggest advantage going into the series.”
New York’s other advantage?
“They’ve got one of those teams that finds a way to win. They won the first two games against the Sixers with Brunson quite honestly playing poorly. And then he becomes the best player in the world to close out the series. Other than maybe their rebounding, they’re just not reliant on any one area of the game to be able to win. They’ll find different ways. They just compete, they’ll never go away. They’ll get down 10 or 12 and you know they’re coming back. They’re comfortable in those kind of games.”
