P&T Player of the Week for Dec. 18-25: Jalen Brunson

Happy holidays, Knicks fans!

The NBA season is a little more than a third of the way done, and your New York Knicks sit at 17-12, good enough for the 6th seed in the East.

New York had a strong 3-1 week. Last Monday, the Knicks dethroned the King on his own court. They played a strong, well-rounded game against the Lakers, resulting in a 114-109 victory in LA. They flew back east on Wednesday, and easily dismantled the Nets at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

The Knicks then had a pair of matinees on the long weekend matched up against familiar foes, the Milwaukee Bucks. After being dismantled by their offense twice during the in-season tournament, fans were hopeful for a strong showing, and perhaps even revenge. On Saturday, Milwaukee shot 53% from the field and 50% from three in a third straight 130-111 drubbing of New York. But revenge finally came on Christmas Day, as Jalen Brunson dazzled with 38 points, leading the Knicks to a 129-122 victory.

It’s no surprise, then, that Jalen Brunson is this week’s Player of the Week.

In the 4 games mentioned above, Jalen Brunson averaged 29.8 points per game on 51/47/86 shooting. He added 4.5 rebounds per game, 6.0 assists per game, and 0.8 steals and 0.5 blocks per game just for good measure.

These numbers are incredible - and it’s not due to the small sample size, either. Brunson has practically extrapolated these numbers over the course of the year. He’s only getting better as time goes on. The numbers keep rising, and the Knicks keep winning. Fans and media have been clamoring for a star point guard in New York for the last 20 years. Well, soak it up, because the time has come.

National media is starting to notice, as well. The Athletic just posted a piece about buzz around Brunson’s All-Star and All-NBA candidacy. ESPN released an article last night about Brunson’s historic play. Yesterday, the ABC telecast spent a good part of the broadcast discussing JB’s rise to fame.

The best part? He’s here to stay, folks. With the Knicks rapidly approaching an easier part of their schedule, juiced with home games against bad teams, the month of January could perhaps catapult the Knicks even higher up the standings.

Before then, we have four challenging games coming up; at OKC tomorrow night, at Orlando Friday night, at Indiana Saturday night, then home vs. Minnesota on Monday afternoon. Let’s see what the Knicks can put together during this stretch.