{"id":204967,"date":"2026-07-12T22:22:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T02:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=204967"},"modified":"2026-07-12T22:22:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T02:22:31","slug":"spurs-hopeful-knicks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/07\/12\/spurs-hopeful-knicks\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurs Rising Talent is Already a Problem for Jalen Brunson and the Knicks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Knicks and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brunsja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Brunson<\/a> should still be basking in the golden glow of their NBA title win, because it&#8217;s the kind of accomplishment that ages well. Sure, it was exciting to win in the moment and see the confetti fall to the floor at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. That&#8217;s the kind of moment Knicks fans have been dreaming of for decades. But it&#8217;s in the later moments, when you realize the Knicks actually won a championship, that those feelings get deeper.<\/p>\n<p>So, the Knicks should continue to celebrate. But they also need to look ahead to next season. Because the only thing better than one NBA title is two, back-to-back. How sweet would that be?<\/p>\n<p>One of the teams expected to be strong next season is no surprise: the Spurs. Did you think this team would go away quietly? They&#8217;re not. The Spurs mean business, to the point that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/wembavi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Wembanyama<\/a> took a pay cut to ensure the team would have the means to build around him.<\/p>\n<p>So, the Spurs are already expected to give the Knicks a run for their Big Apple money next season. They&#8217;re among the teams most <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/06\/29\/thunder-spurs-knicks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">favored to go all the way<\/a> again. Their case just got stronger, too.<\/p>\n<h2>Spurs Rising Talent is Already a Problem for Jalen Brunson and the Knicks<\/h2>\n<h3>Carter Bryant of the Spurs shines in NBA Summer League<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bryanca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carter Bryant<\/a> is a problem. He&#8217;s a problem for the Knicks and Brunson. He&#8217;s going to be a problem for every team he comes up against next season.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s the vibe after watching his time with the Spurs in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/07\/08\/knicks-summer-league\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">NBA Summer League<\/a>. Here&#8217;s a player who was drafted at No. 14 in the 2025 draft by the Spurs and is already playing like a seasoned pro.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s Bryant who helped the Spurs outplay the Knicks in their Summer League matchup. Okay, it&#8217;s only July basketball. But it still means something, especially when looking at who&#8217;s going to make up the bench.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CARTER BRYANT COOKED IN SPURS SUMMER LEAGUE WIN VS. KNICKS\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PuxDceuuRww?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bryant scored a game-high 19 points in the showdown to help the Spurs knock out the Knicks, 70-49, Saturday, July 11. Bryant shot 7-for-10 from the field. He was also 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. It doesn&#8217;t get better than that.<\/p>\n<p>Bryant is one of those players who&#8217;s been in the NBA for a minute and now wants the chance for more. More time. More minutes. More buckets. The Summer League is where these players make their case, and he made it.<\/p>\n<p>If the Spurs utilize Bryant in the 2026 season, and they will, that could be a problem for the Knicks and Brunson, because he provides a presentation on the court that&#8217;s obviously working.<\/p>\n<h3>Why Carter Bryant Could Ruffle Jalen Brunson on the Court<\/h3>\n<p>So, why would he get in the way of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/07\/07\/jalen-brunson-akins\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Brunson&#8217;s game<\/a>? For one, he won&#8217;t be a starter, so the Spurs will put him in when their starters need a refresher. That means he&#8217;ll hop onto the court totally rested and energetic, and after seeing him in the Summer League, that kind of Bryant is a threat.<\/p>\n<p>Bryant has some answers for Brunson&#8217;s best moves. His youthful, hard-edged playing style could trip up a veteran like Brunson. Also, with Bryant&#8217;s nearly 7-foot wingspan, he has the physical build to be intimidating on the court, even for players who have been doing this for years. He&#8217;s also fast and should be able to answer to Brunson&#8217;s angles quickly when playing defense.<\/p>\n<p>So, the Knicks need to keep an eye on Bryant. And they will. There&#8217;s no need to worry, but Bryant is blossoming into the kind of player that any franchise wishes for when they make their precious draft picks.<\/p>\n<p><span>Photo Credit: Wendell Cruz, Imagn Images via Reuters Connect<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Knicks and Jalen Brunson should still be basking in the golden glow of their NBA title win, because it&#8217;s the kind of accomplishment that ages well. Sure, it was exciting to win in the moment and see the confetti fall to the floor at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. That&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5880,"featured_media":204981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,12,3],"tags":[50119,1417,4669],"class_list":["post-204967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-knicks","category-news","tag-carter-bryant","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5880"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204967"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204985,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204967\/revisions\/204985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}