ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill Previews Thunder vs Spurs in NBA’s West Finals

The Western Conference Finals open Monday night, and the storyline writes itself: the best player on the planet right now in Victor Wembanyama against the player who just won MVP in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

ESPN's Vincent Goodwill joined Tom Pelissero on the show to break the series down, and the conversation kept circling back to one question. Who guards SGA?

Goodwill set the table first. He pointed to MVP votes that were cast five or six weeks ago, before SGA reminded everyone how long these playoffs actually are.

"You think about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, you think about his consistency, the 30-point streak, the 20-point streak, shooting over 50 percent from the field and 40 from three," Goodwill said. "And then you look at the other side of Victor Wembanyama, and he's just this irresistible force."

Goodwill nodded to the NBA's historical tax on teams making the jump from out of the playoffs to the title. He said you cannot avoid the scar tissue. But his real interest is the matchup chess.

"I think it's going to come down to who guards Shai Gilgeous-Alexander," Goodwill said. "Stefon Castle, who a lot of people know from UConn and playing under Dan Hurley, he's going to draw the assignment."

Pelissero pushed back on that. Castle has emerged as one of San Antonio's better offensive weapons, and Pelissero pointed out that SGA is the master of drawing fouls. Castle fouled out of the first two games against Minnesota.

"How much can we put him on him knowing that this might put him in perpetual trouble?" Pelissero asked.

Goodwill credited the observation and laid out the deeper rotation San Antonio has to work with. De'Aaron Fox can occupy minutes. Dylan Harper, the second pick in the draft, is athletic and big. Devin Vassell is in the mix.

"If you use this as defending by committee, and maybe just maybe if your guy only has four fouls at the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter and it's a close game, then maybe you can start to slide Stefon Castle back onto him," Goodwill said. "Have him play, I'll use an analogy for the NFL, have him play shutdown corner for the last six minutes of the game."

The bigger conversation, the one that hung over the segment, was flopping. SGA, Wemby and James Harden are all still alive. Pelissero said the optics are not great, and floated that the answer is simple. Stop rewarding it.

Goodwill embraced the showcase. He wants flopping in primetime because that, he argued, is the only way the league does anything about it.

"The league does not address a problem if it's subtle," Goodwill said. "The league only addresses the problem when it's ugly and it's blatant."

He admitted he does not want to watch the acting jobs either. He did not want to watch guys knocking their necks back like they just got hit with a Thomas Hearns jab. But Goodwill said the conversation finally happening in public is the point.

Pelissero connected it to baseball's Moneyball era, when walks became the commodity and the product suffered until MLB started outlawing shifts and changing rules.

"It's not great basketball to watch," Goodwill said. "If it's going to be on the grand stage, that means the league is going to have to address this over the summer."

He pointed to Tom Brady as the football precedent. The roughing-the-passer calls that came after a glare at the official. The league addressed it. The game got better.

"That's where the NBA is starting to trend to," Goodwill said. "It's going to make for a better game."

He left one carveout for the Spurs star.

"But Victor Wembanyama, that man, 150 pounds," Goodwill said. "You touch him, he gonna be flying."