In a moment that encapsulated how far Jalen Brunson’s development has taken him since joining the Knicks four summers ago, he was named NBA Cup MVP on Tuesday night following the team’s thrilling 124-113 title win over the Spurs in Las Vegas.
Brunson scored 25 points and dished eight assists — an uncharacteristically pedestrian night in what’s been a career year for the star point guard.
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Under new head coach Mike Brown, Brunson is having not only the best scoring year of his life, but maybe in the league. He’s averaging a career-high 28.8 points on 54.6 percent shooting from two and 37.6 percent from three — notching career-best marks in efficiency despite the most volume he’s seen since the injury-riddled 2023-24 season.
This is due in part to Brunson’s growth, but also a diversification in his attack, courtesy of Brown’s offense. His emphasis on motion and pace principles has helped evolve Brunson’s scoring to a new level, and there are signs it’s only getting started.
One thing Brown identified early is that Brunson is one of the NBA’s best shooters — arguably the best on the roster — yet wasn’t treated as such. Despite consistently converting in the high 30s and low 40s from deep, he hasn’t taken many as a Knick for various reasons over the years, but primarily due to having so much ball-handling responsibility and favor for the mid-range.
In fact, this is the first year Brunson’s led the Knicks in three-point attempts per game, and the first he’s cracked seven attempts per night in his career, a number Jaylen Brown eclipsed in 2021. The solution: getting Brunson off the ball and firing more.
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Brunson’s taking 10.3 threes per 100 possessions this year, 1.7 more than last season with plenty of room to match the real high-volume guards. He’s generally had a greener light on stepbacks and triple-threat pull-ups, but is thriving off more catch-and-shoot looks in transition and the halfcourt.
Due to his embrace of Brown’s new schemes, Brunson is getting rid of the ball earlier and more often, opening him up as a scoring and screening threat, a la what he did in the back half of 2023-24.
As a result, 40 percent of his three-point tries have come on catch-and-shoots, compared to one-third last season, and he’s knocking down an 46.4 percent of them.
His pull-up shooting started off slow but has picked up in recent games, so expect his numbers to look even better in due time. If he doubles down on shooting more threes, watch out.
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Maximizing Brunson as an off-ball threat has been one way of diversifying his looks beyond traditional isolations, pick-and-rolls, and set plays. Brown’s motion schemes have Brunson attacking in the random flow of the offense, whether via high dribble hand-offs, backdoor cuts, or as an off-ball spacer.
As gifted an isolation scorer as Brunson is, endlessly pounding the rock has diminishing returns, individually and to team success. This year, 13.8 percent of his plays are ending in isolations, according got NBA.com play type data, down from 17.3 percent last season, and the lowest portion of his offense since his first campaign as a Knick.
This dynamic approach has lifted his efficiency despite some of the highest volume in his career. This is also due to Brunson getting to his spots and shooting quicker and easier than ever before.
The new offense has the Knicks looking for semi-transition and early shot clock opportunities after every defensive possession, and they’re getting into their halfcourt actions much quicker as well. This has led to more opportunities where the defense isn’t set or gets tripped up in an action, leading to an easy score.
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Even when Brunson is breaking down a defender, like he’s done a thousand times before, New York’s new spacing and cutting give him more room to attack than he’s ever had. He’s otherwise working far less to get his offense as a result of these changes, with his average seconds and dribbles per touch and shot materially down year over year.
This has led to one of Brunson’s highest usage rates, yet a career-low in turnover rate and a true-shooting clip that would be a new high if he took some more free throws. In some ways, Brown evalted Brunson from James Harden to Stephen Curry, and it has paid early dividends.
As Brunson’s shooting numbers rise, the Knicks will get some healthy pieces back and continue to build on their new system.
There’s no ceiling on the damage he can inflict on the league with his scoring — we’ve seen it in the playoffs, and now the NBA Cup. If Brunson keeps this up, we’ll see it in the NBA Finals soon enough.
