Discrediting and mislabeling of Jalen Brunson inexplicably continues

Consider this: 27.9 PPG (fourth in the league), and 6.5 APG (13th in the league), while being 13th in the league in player efficiency rating as the clear leader of a 44-30 team that has managed to stay a top-four team in the east despite missing three starters for a large chunk of the season. These stats and rankings should unequivocally be met with praise and result in MVP discussions unless your name is Jalen Brunson. And it makes absolutely no sense.

For some reason, despite putting up incredibly impressive numbers this season, Brunson has been receiving unfair treatment and the coverage around him continued to be skewed, if not outright wrong. It started early on in the season when Becky Hammon said Brunson was, “too small” to be a 1A, something he’s proven wrong time and time again.

Then, just weeks later, Candace Parker went on TNT and blatantly lied about Brunson playing worse in the second round than he did in the first round. This was a pretty absurd statement to make because anyone watching those games could see that he was very clearly the best player in the series against the Miami Heat and was objectively and statistically better in that series than he was in the previous round.

And just earlier this morning, Brian Windhorst called Brunson a, “master of the dark arts”, referring to his foul drawing. Now Brunson does exaggerate some contact and does try to sell calls at times, but to compare him to the likes of James Harden, and Trae Young, who, as seen below, get to the line at a significantly higher rate, is disingenuous and takes a lot of credit away from Brunson once again, because there’s a clear difference between those two things. There are numerous instances where Harden, Young, or a guy like DeMar DeRozan is clearly more intent on drawing a whistle than actually making, or sometimes even attempting, a shot. With Brunson, even when he is trying to draw a whistle, he is still trying to play through the contact and make the shot. And for some reason, you never, or at least rarely, see Zion Williamson, Damian Lillard, Paolo Banchero, Jayson Tatum, Anthony Edwards, or Jaren Jackson Jr., all of whom average more free throw attempts and fewer points per game, being called free throw merchants or floppers. But for some reason, Brunson, who is only 14th in the league in free throw attempts despite being second in field goal attempts per game, gets unfairly labeled as one.

This claim about him flopping also doesn’t make much sense if you had watched either of the Knicks’ last two games. Just a few days ago, Brunson scored 61 points on just six free throw attempts while Victor Wembanyama took 12 free throws. And then just last night, in the closing seconds of the Knicks’ gut-wrenching loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Brunson was clearly hit on a layup attempt but did not get a call. And look, I understand that referees miss calls all the time and that there are plenty of other plays where plenty of other stars don’t get whistles, especially at the end of games. But to make these statements after the last two games just does not make sense.

It doesn’t end there either. The narrative surrounding Brunson and the season he is having has also somehow spilled over into the MVP discussions. While there are some analysts and media members who have vouched for Brunson’s inclusion in these discussions, we recently saw NBA.com exclude Brunson from their top 10 MVP candidates, which is laughable when considering they had two candidates from one team (both of whom are on a team that has a worse record than the Knicks mind you). Now, I’m not going to sit here and act like he should win it or should be a top-three candidate. Guys like Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Luka Doncic, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are having incredible seasons and are all probably more worthy of it at this moment. But to not have him in the top 10 at all is inexcusable.

I want to reiterate that not everyone has been against Brunson and that there has been some support for him and his play this season. Multiple people on multiple platforms have been incredibly vocal in giving the Knicks’ point guard the recognition he deserves. But it’s just been so odd to see a star player, who plays for a big market, get mislabeled and discredited so often.