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Chris Herring, senior editor, ESPN
AT THE BEGINNING OF AUGUSTAfter Jalen Brunson was named the first captain of the New York Knicks in five years, the franchise released a compilation of videos congratulating its star on the field.
The main message in the video, which was filled with proclamations of the week and the offer of the city’s sports captains, was from New York Yankees legend and five-time International Line champion, Derek Jeter.
“Man, I’ve enjoyed watching you develop and improve year after year,” Jeter said in his message. “And I hope that continues as you lead the Knicks back to where they belong.”
Jeter’s words certainly carried weight with Brunson, who had studied the Hall of Fame and a handful of other iconic athletes’ leadership styles with the goal of helping create a consistent winner within Madison Square. Grassland, who will host the Indiana Pacers on Friday night in the Knicks’ home opener (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Brunson, 28, turned heads around the league in July when he signed a team-friendly four-year, $156.5 million extension, when he could have waited until after the summer to book a more lucrative five-year deal. . The pick, which gave the Knicks front office coveted salary cap flexibility under the terrifying second apron, was in line with athletes like Jeter, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes, superstars who took less money to bolster rosters. surround them.
Except for the $40 million annually he will earn during the 2027-28 season, Fresh York has a lot invested in Brunson’s momentum.
In the span of 2 months, the Knicks:
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Traded 5 first-round alternatives for Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges, Brunson’s teammate at Villanova;
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Re-signed defensive stopper OG Anunoby to a five-year, $212 million commitment;
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And he traded former All-NBA forward Julius Randle and roadblock Donte DiVincenzo (also Brunson’s teammate at Villanova) in another blockbuster deal to acquire four-time All-Megastar heavyweight Karl-Anthony Cities.
Now, as the Yankees prepare for their first International Line appearance in 15 years, and after the New York Independence took their first WNBA call-up on Sunday, the Knicks and their captain could be behind the series. And, like Brunson has been all offseason, New York will need its captain to be in the middle of it all if necessary to prove that the Knicks were right to accelerate their buildup around him in the first half.
WHERE YOU LOOKEDIt seemed like Brunson was usually there.
During the playoffs, he appeared on a huge Nike billboard on 34th Street and 7th Street, just a stone’s throw from Madison Square Garden. The two-time NCAA champion starred on a national AT&T network that aired during March Insanity. And Brunson, along with his father, Knicks tutor Rick Brunson, appeared on the sides of dozens of city buses as part of a Brooks Brothers campaign this summer.
“He’s the king of New York,” Josh Hart, who also teamed with Brunson at Villanova, said during training camp. “It’s great to see how far he’s come. But it doesn’t go to his head.”
Perhaps no one has done more to take advantage of Brunson’s rapid stardom than the Knicks themselves.
The reason is that Fresh York, despite everything that is in his cards: in the two seasons since Brunson signed with Fresh York, he has starred in some way that makes the Knicks and their title-hungry fans dream. He is either a total celebrity at this level or is preparing to become one. He finished fifth in MVP voting in 2023-24, and in the playoffs scored at least 40 points in four consecutive games. The best player to do this was Michael Jordan in 1993.
The NBA player Reject possessed the ball longer than Brunson’s season-high 662 minutes. But despite his size at 6-foot-2 and having a perfect jumper, Barricade led the Japanese Conference in power attempts most of the season with just 20 per sport, losing defenders to his variety of fakes. shoulder and Suspicion attacks. Or even with Brunson’s reliance on intricate footwork and foul-drawing tactics, he traveled just four times for most of the season.
All of which allows Brunson to put more emphasis on his high-arcing floater, a weapon that block-hungry bigs often have no chance of crushing. Brunson floated 166 in 2023-24, the most in a season since at least 2013-14, when 2d Spectrum first began tracking players. And Brunson had 86 instances last season in which he was fouled and scored anyway versus just 64 instances in which he was disallowed from shooting, an excellent ratio usually reserved for taller, bigger stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James. .
In the past, the franchise added an All-Megastar heavyweight guy who not only enhances Brunson’s talent, but is also helping to make it better.
ON THE SURFACENew York’s Brunson-led offense had an elite season.
The Knicks were ranked seventh in power and kept their best performances to the max, making the third round in the league in early April. Brunson himself recorded a career-high 28.7 points and 6.7 assists on the season, although he had to work harder than anyone in the NBA to buy time from one game to the next.
Without the injured Randle as a second option, Brunson dribbled the ball more and longer through contact than any player in the league and served as a ball handler during an NBA-most 3,224 ball appearances last season.
Virtually none of those possessions were pick-and-pops, where the play ends with a blocker getting a rebound shot. (When Fresh York did get pick-and-pops, most of the time they didn’t work out well. Brunson and Randle shared 32 such plays, averaging just 0.56 points per property—the NBA’s highest among duos that had at least (30+ such possessions, per 2d Spectrum). In total, the Knicks ranked 29th in points scored via screeners in pick-and-pop scenarios in 2023-24.
That’s where the Cities will have to produce an overall extra for Brunson and the Knicks offense.
Cities ranked second in the league’s final season in pick-and-pop status issues, and the 28-year-old lumberer has made at least 100 three-pointers in a season seven times. In fact, there are already signs that Cities has helped limit Brunson’s opponent’s talent.
Brunson, who made his first six shot attempts during the Knicks’ humiliating opening night loss in Boston, saw an average of just 1.16 defenders in the paint during the preseason, suffering from a 1.43 in-game average. Defenders who noticed the most the season when looking for layups and floaters. The 2d Spectrum news is a welcome sign for Fresh York, as the All-Megastar duo has yet to get a real shot at jelly, with the industry taking place just a few weeks ago.
In fact, it doesn’t mean that the Knicks are world champions. Even with the notable defensive pairing of Anunoby and Bridges, the Celtics’ offense often checked the Cities’ defensive slants on Tuesday. With this they achieved an NBA record with 29 triples.
The presentation highlighted a key question Fresh York must address this season: Can the Knicks have a chance to thrive in that end with the Cities in the middle? Then he slid forward in Minnesota to create length for perennial Defensive Player of the Generation candidate Rudy Gobert?
However, even with that obvious question, it’s pretty easy to see how and why the Knicks front office was looking to match the Cities’ offensive capabilities with Brunson’s.
“It’s a different dynamic, for sure,” Brunson said of the Knicks’ five-out slot. “He gives us another weapon, and the [pick-and-roll] The readings are definitely different.”
“The court will be wide open,” Hart said. “The ring is going to be there.”
And no one is better positioned to benefit from the team’s new offense than Brunson, the captain himself.
Matt Williams of ESPN Analysis contributed to this story.
