National NBA Media Keeps Piling On Mavs For Jalen Brunson Joining Knicks
Throughout the Dallas Mavericks' run to last year's Western Conference Finals, Jalen Brunson routinely delivered in big moments alongside Luka Doncic. While they ultimately came up short against the Golden State Warriors, an elite backcourt was broken up almost just as it was realizing its potential.
Brunson's decision to depart from the Mavs to sign a four-year, $104 million contract with the Knicks has paid off for him in a major way. He nearly earned an All-Star nod with averages of 24.0 points and 6.2 assists on the season. Now, he's helping to lead the Knicks in the playoffs while the Mavs failed to qualify for the play-in tournament.
The Knicks earned the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and earned a first-round matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. On Saturday, Brunson overcame early foul trouble with a strong second half performance to lead New York to a 101-97 road win, scoring 21 of his 27 points after halftime.
The Mavs' fumbling of the Brunson situation continues to become even more of a punchline the more he succeeds and they get further removed from their failure of a 2022-23 season. Even on NBA halftime shows discussing the Knicks, the Mavs are brought up.
"Jalen Brunson, still, after this whole season — underrated. If you are the Dallas Mavericks front office and you're watching any of this, you have to just feel stupid," ESPN's Michael Wilbon said during Saturday's broadcast. "I mean, to let that kid go, just entering the prime of his career."
The Mavs' inability to retain Brunson's services as he's entering his prime is only going to become more of a focus. Any failure to retain Kyrie Irving during the upcoming summer will exacerbate not only the team's poor outlook to build a sufficient team around Doncic, but will make losing Brunson all the more of a focus.
Had the Mavs simply been able to keep Brunson, they wouldn't have had to part with Dorian Finney-Smith, Spencer Dinwiddie, a 2029 first-round pick, and multiple second rounders to find a talented backcourt partner to pair with Doncic. Instead, they would have been able to focus their trade assets on building around a star backcourt as opposed to attempting to rebuild a one that was broken up.
For the Mavs’ sake, they need to hope they can retain the services of Kyrie Irving in free agency in order to have something positive come from this big mess.
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