New York City is a different animal when the Knicks are good but during a franchise-altering 15-3 stretch, it has also been struck with crystal clarity.
Following a 40-point performance in which he helped will his Knicks back from a 15-point second-quarter deficit and a stretch in which they trailed for 42 straight minutes to defeat the Indiana Pacers 109-105, an emotional Jalen Brunson — on the heels of being selected to his first All-Star Game — was met with “MVP” chants from the Madison Square Garden faithful.
“I feel fantastic, I’m not going to lie to you,” Brunson said, shaking off a poked eye down the stretch of the gutsy win. “It was really cool. The whole experience, the whole night, how we won, what happened before the game. You work for certain moments but you don’t know how you’re going to react once it happens. It was special.”
Overreactions and hot takes are commonplace in sports in this day and age, but Knicks fans hit the nail squarely on the head Thursday night. Brunson needs to be in the NBA’s MVP conversation.
The 27-year-old point guard, now in his second season with the Knicks, has clawed his way up the ranks toward superstar status while hoisting an oft-dormant franchise — one that more often than not was the butt of NBA jokes during this millennium — with him.
The Knicks have been in dire need of a legitimate floor general for ages, something that was often seen as the most glaring of missing pieces that would ultimately provide stability for a franchise that had made the postseason just twice in the last 10 years and hadn’t been past the second round of the playoffs in 24.
But upon his acquisition via free agency after four seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, Brunson wasn’t initially viewed by many as that piece. After all, he averaged just 11.9 points and 3.7 assists during his time in Dallas but still got a four-year, $104 million deal from the Knicks that made him the first player in NBA history to sign a $100 million-plus deal without ever being voted to an All-Star Game.
Not even two seasons into that deal and Brunson is now criminally underpaid.
“It wasn’t given to him,” Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He’s earned it.”
He posted 24 points per game in his debut campaign with New York last year with 6.2 helpers and a three-point percentage that was more than 4% better than his career average. He then averaged 27.1 points per game in the playoffs, helping the Knicks win their first postseason series in a decade with a five-game triumph over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
His game is only getting better in Year 2.
Brunson is averaging 27.3 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 41.3% from three, but has raised his game to an entirely new level during this torrid Knicks stretch that has seen them win 15 of their last 18, including a 14-2 January that featured the most wins in a month for the franchise in 30 years and a nine-game win streak that was snapped on Saturday night at MSG against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Over his last 15 games, he’s averaging 30.9 points and 7.0 assists per night. Over his last five games, which featured the injury losses of New York’s two other star men, Julius Randle and OG Anunoby, he’s posted 32 points twice, and 29 before Thursday night’s 40-point outburst against the Pacers. He added 36 in the loss on Saturday.
“The thing that I love about what he does is he keeps competing,” Thibodeau said. “You just love his competitiveness and he never goes away. The mental part is so good… We’re thrilled about him becoming an All-Star and it’s a testament to his commitment and his work.”
He’s been the most valuable player on what has been the NBA’s best team for the last month, further padding a resume that already should have garnered some MVP consideration — at least in the top 10.
Now, he’s well past that.
Per BetMGM as of Friday morning, his +4000 odds to win the MVP are sixth-best in the entire NBA.
Maybe they should be higher. Maybe they’re right, as is. But at this pace, Brunson is only cementing his place further as one of the game’s elite.
