Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Knicks' Jalen Brunson: An Unlikely Yet Undeniable MVP Case
Let's get one thing out of the way: New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson isn't winning the next NBA MVP Award.
Leave it to the new-century Knicks to fail when they succeed: a fifth-place destiny in the top-heavy Eastern Conference is hardly anything to scoff at, but the MVP title is often reserved for the Association's penthouse-dwellers. To that point, the teams of presumed front-runners like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokić, and Jayson Tatum reside in cities placed no worse than the third seed on their respective playoff brackets.
Brunson is far from the only modern NBA star to lose possible MVP votes due to relative mediocrity. Future playoff opponent Donovan Mitchell has a 71-point game under his belt and immediately catapulted the Cleveland Cavaliers from the Play-Tournament to the proper playoffs but has received little support for MVP consideration. Out west, Anthony Davis kept the Los Angeles Lakers' late playoff push afloat while LeBron James healed but all the purple-and-gold prestige in the world couldn't convince voters to bestow MVP to combatant destined for the Play-In.
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At the end of the day, however, few, if any, NBA representatives have defined the award's middle initial better than Brunson, who has made an impact both in New York and beyond.
On the floor, Brunson's impact speaks for itself: he has lived up to the expectations a four-year, $104 million contract from the summer placed upon him and then some to the tune of 24 points and 6.2 assists per game, both career highs.
Brunson should have no problem gathering votes for Most Improved Player and some might venture to say he's the frontrunner for the title (which would return to New York after Julius Randle's win in 2021). But his value goes beyond merely the box scores, standings, and film rooms.
The impact of Brunson, ironically enough, came through metropolitan dormancy. Recent New York history would've placed the Knicks in the thick of the waiver wire discussion in the trade deadline's aftermath. This time last year, the solution at the one, redemption for the failed Kemba Walker homecoming, would've connected the Knicks to names like Patrick Beverley and Russell Westbrook.
Thanks to Brunson, however, the Knicks were nowhere near such improvements from yesteryear, instead able to focus on more immediate, fruitful affairs accompanied by the potential of longevity ... such as the trade for Brunson's old college teammate Josh Hart. New York is 17-7 since that February deal with Portland produced a Villanova reunion.
It'd be foolish and unfair not to mention Immanuel Quickley's role in changing the Knicks' backcourt narrative. But Brunson's work in major minutes has put the Knicks on an intriguing path forward and has masked shortcomings like RJ Barrett's noticeable regression before a nine-digit extension kicks in.
Speaking of the future, Brunson has additionally justified the Knicks treating last summer's draft as a budget-builder rather than a roster renovator.
Brunson perhaps has a little more work to do to convince the basketball world he's a true franchise face and an undeniable superstar ... his All-Star exclusion is still a lingering sore point in this otherwise thrilling season. But the leaps and bounds he has made could convince bona fide talents seeking new homes that what the Knicks have is both promising and sustainable.
Sure, that's a bit beyond the parameters of a yearly MVP award, especially when the foretold results and benefits haven't arrived yet. The legitimate hope and hype around the star-crossed Knicks still can't be denied.
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Could a certain Slovenian superstar ... one who misses Brunson "a lot" ... be among those interested? Rumors like that will only continue to fester considering what's transpired in his original place of NBA employment since his departure.
Whereas Brunson is enjoying the final stages of the NBA regular season in loungewear for precautionary purposes, the Western Conference finalists he left behind, including the aforementioned Luka Dončić, are engaged in a more cynical practice. Granted an opportunity to play for the Play-In or picks, the Dallas Mavericks opted for the latter, sitting several stars in their penultimate game against Chicago on Friday. The gambit is said to have attracted the attention of an NBA investigation, the Association no doubt displeased over the Mavericks thumbing their noses at the anti-tanking initiative known as the Play-In Tournament.
Among the benched were Dončić (who was granted a few minutes if only to salvage the Mavericks' Slovenian heritage night festivities) and Kyrie Irving, who perhaps defined post-Brunson madness better than anyone. When it was clear that Brunson's absence was affecting the Mavericks more than anticipated, Dallas opted to bring in the polarizing point guard fresh off a Brooklyn tenure that featured more controversy than playoff success.
Of course, having been granted a horrifying Brunson-less sample size, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has publicly stated his intentions of keeping Irving around. Commonly pinned as the architect behind the Mavericks' de facto day off, Cuban could hardly contain his relative glee at his team's futile attempts to tie a three-point game in the final seconds.
Viewed as a giant in both the basketball and business realms, it was Brunson ... whose continued Dallas prescience lingered at the top of the off-season to-do list ... that forced Cuban into relative fits of desperation to the point where he'd be willing to see his own team falter. Some even felt that the Knicks, owners of Dallas' 2023 first-round choice should it have fallen outside the first 10 (the final leg of the Kristaps Porzingis trade), were firmly planted in Cuban's head upon enacting the surrender mandates.
Cuban did nothing to dispel such notions, Friday's elimination being the culmination of a bizarre week of Dallas basketball that saw him blame the Knicks and the Brunson family tree (reopening a matter the NBA has considered long closed) for failing to fulfill his prime offseason goal, one that forced him to relatively rely on the shaky, unpredictable services and antics of Irving to stage another playoff push.
If that's not valuable, at the very least in terms of entertainment value, who knows what is? Had the Knicks done anything as comedically inept as ostensibly pass on a postseason position for spite, it'd follow them until Rapture. Cuban's championship ring likely cools the public heat around him, but the fact that they descended into the anarchy of tanking after a mere single season without Brunson on the roster speaks volumes.
One, perhaps in desperation, could even argue Brunson helped shape other parts of the current playoff bracket with his formal introduction to mainstream, elite professional basketball last season: helping dismantle the Utah Jazz without an injured Dončić most of the way more or less convinced Danny Ainge and Co. to blow up the lasting Quin Snyder-led group, changing the landscapes in both Salt Lake City and Cleveland.
Again, that's hardly part of MVP criteria ... maybe Brunson would be a shoo-in for the hypothetical title of most impactful player ... but certainly an intriguing nugget with the Knicks set to face Mitchell's Cavaliers shortly.
There were so many different ways that the Brunson gambit could've gone wrong in New York. The most pessimistic Knicks fans could've conjured visions of the infamous Jerome James deal that rewarded a postseason overachiever. Instead, clarity has been brought to the team's past, present, and future.
The Knicks made it clear, perhaps only screamed with the Brunson signing, that they're not worried about the court (pun intended) of public opinion. If Brunson's value is solely appreciated in New York, a long-suffering franchise will be perfectly fine with their homemade awards.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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