MIAMI — One year ago, Jalen Brunson put forth an unexpected breakout performance in the playoffs for the Mavericks, earning himself a whopping nine-figure deal in free agency last July from the Knicks.
It’s not often in sports that you can say a player totally outkicked such a contract in the first year, but if we learned nothing else from the Knicks’ first-round playoff victory over the Cavaliers and their subsequent six-game loss to the Heat, it’s that Brunson legitimately has emerged as “one of the best players in the NBA,” as coach Tom Thibodeau put it Friday night.
And Brunson has emerged as the kind of leader at the point guard position that the Knicks have craved for decades and can build around in the coming years.
“I think Jalen’s young, and he’s going to continue to get better and better,” Thibodeau said after his team’s season-ending defeat Friday night. “He was terrific last season in the playoffs, he was terrific this season. He’s always had that ability and he’s never satisfied and that’s what I respect about him.
“Great person, great worker, great leader and very determined. So the numbers speak for themselves when you look at what he did. He did it very efficiently. So we’re looking forward to the summer, the offseason, and improving over the course of the offseason.”
The 26-year-old Brunson had played 40 minutes or more in only four games over his first four NBA seasons in Dallas.
That included two in the first round of the 2022 playoffs against the Jazz, when All-Star backcourt mate Luka Doncic was sidelined with an injury.
This season, Brunson averaged 40.3 minutes over 11 playoff games, including 48 and 45 in the final two games of the series against the Heat.
Brunson also became the first Knicks player since Patrick Ewing to score at least 30 points in three consecutive postseason games, ending with his 41 points in Game 6.
“How is that dude not an All-Star or All-NBA? … He should be on one of those teams,” Erik Spoelstra, the Heat’s two-time NBA championship-winning head coach, said of Brunson after Game 6. “I wish he was still out West. But man, you gotta respect him as a competitor. He’s like a lot of our guys in the locker room. He’s got an iron will.
“There’s something about these Villanova guys, they’re tough as they come as competitors.”
Spoelstra said he had spoken with veteran Heat guard Kyle Lowry, who predated Brunson and Knicks teammate Josh Hart at Villanova, about that topic earlier in the series.
“I said, ‘Don’t ever forget that you were the first one, OK?’ But Jalen’s taken that baton, for sure,” Spoelstra said. “He’s just an incredible competitor. We came in with some different ideas, trying to get the ball out of his hands. And then he went to a different thing, five out of 10 from 3. But that’s what great players do. You figure different things out.”
“I have a lot of respect for Jalen,” Heat center Bam Adebayo added. “Not even because of this series, but I’ve known Jalen for a couple years now, and I feel like he’s always just needed an opportunity. He’s got his opportunity in New York.
“For us, the biggest thing was trying to make him take and make tough shots, and he did, all series. You can’t deny that. So kudos to him, I thought he had a great series.”
The Heat forced Brunson into a key turnover late in Game 6 on Friday, but he otherwise was brilliant, knocking down 14 of 22 shots, including five 3-pointers.
He registered only two assists in the game, but the other Knicks starters shot a combined 5-for-32 from the field, including 3-for-14 by All-NBA third-teamer Julius Randle and 1-for-10 by RJ Barrett.
His 14 field goals also were one more than the rest of the team combined.
With their point guard firmly in place, team president Leon Rose and the Knicks’ front office now must decide which players to keep or pursue during what figures to be another pivotal offseason following the franchise’s first trip to the second round since 2013.
“I kind of said it throughout this series, even when things aren’t looking great, always got to keep your confidence,” Brunson said. “As we move forward, obviously we didn’t end the season the way we wanted to.
“Keep working on your game, keep getting confidence as a player and as teammates. As we move forward, we’ve got to keep sticking together like we did this year.”
