Jalen Brunson isn’t going to be named this season’s Most Valuable Player, but the Knicks point guard deserves real consideration for the award, or at least a spot on voters’ five-man ballots, writes Steve Popper of Newsday (subscription required).
Brunson eclipsed the 40-point mark for a second consecutive game on Tuesday in Chicago, racking up 45 points and eight assists in a victory that gave the Knicks sole control of the No. 3 seed in the East with three games left to play. Asked about the star guard placing sixth in ESPN’s final MVP straw poll, head coach Tom Thibodeau joked that he wanted a recount.
“He’s earned that. It’s not like some hype,” Thibodeau said, per Popper. “If you look across the board, I think it’s a byproduct of the winning and what he’s done. More importantly they’re not empty stats. It’s impacting winning in a great way. And so to be a leading scorer in the league, to do it with the amount of pressure that he’s had on him in terms of double teaming. We’ve had a lot of guys out, got a number of guys with minute restrictions and everything else and this guy has delivered night after night.”
Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- Nets forward Mikal Bridges admits that it’s “not fun at all” to be missing the postseason for the first time since 2020, but he’s still looking forward to a future in Brooklyn, as Peter Botte of The New York Post relays. “Yeah, 100 percent. I don’t think I look at anywhere else,” Bridges said. “I don’t think about my contract at all. Just try and come back, and my biggest thing this summer is to be better than I was this year. Take a lot from what I learned. Obviously it was not what I wanted and what we wanted as a team, but you can’t really sulk about it.”
- Kelly Oubre has significantly outplayed the one-year, minimum-salary deal he signed with the Sixers last summer and put himself in line for a raise in free agency, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (subscription required). After averaging over 20 points per game in Charlotte last season, Oubre has been more of a two-way force this season, Pompey writes, making more of an impact defensively while still being a threat on offense. “Kelly has been phenomenal the last two months since I’ve been here,” teammate Kyle Lowry said. “He’s been phenomenal shooting the ball, driving the ball, making aggressive takes to the rim. He’s just been phenomenal.”
- Jay King of The Athletic takes an interesting look at how big man Kristaps Porzingis has transformed himself into a far more efficient post-up player than he was during his days in Dallas and how Porzingis’ post-up ability could be a difference-maker for the Celtics‘ offense this postseason.
Certainly the Knicks MVP. That’s all I care about …….
Maybe now you understand why Quickley was traded. Then again the geniuses here will never get it !!!!!
We got three gams left. And are currently 1 gm up as 3rd seed. That in itself is remarkable. Knicks are 1gm behind Bucks for 2nd seed. O …… O …… OMG ….. OMG
Just an interesting fact for real fans.
These are stats as Knick starters ——-
Quickley — 22.6 pts, 5.1 ast, 5.4 reb,
in 21 gms. (In 2022-23 season)
McBride — 18 pts, 4.1 ast,3.2 reb,
in 14 gms.
Quickley was a 1st rd pick #25
McBride was 2nd rd pick #36
Thank you Knick scouts…. thank you coach Thibs.
In Thibs we Trust …….
Percentages? Minutes? Can’t tell half the story…
The story has been told. Catch up lol.
This is for the nay sayers, the haters, the uninformed. Who obviously never understand all the facts.
Stop drinking the home made Kool aid. Quickley is far and away the better PG and his ceiling is 3X higher than McBride’s.
McBride’s 4.1 apg is very misleading. In his 14 starts McBride had 3 games with 7 or more assists. In the other 63 games he played this season, starter or reserve, he had 5 assists in a game 3 times.
Thibs has Jason Hart running the Knicks offense when Brunson sits, not McBride. Post AS game Hartenstein has more apg (3.3) than McBride (2.7) with McBride playing 8mpg more than Hartenstein.
Post AS game Josh Hart has 6.1 apg in 40mpg.
Quickley is an NBA starting caliber PG who can run an offense. McBride profiles as a 3 and D guard – off the bench.
Knicks may add a vet playmaker in the offseason.
Quickley is my favorite player and he is better than Deuce. But it was good team building to move him rather than give him a big contract and extend Deuce for peanuts.
You don’t pay for a backup PG. Especially when he’s backing up an all NBA PG. Quickley was a goner the day we signed Brunson. Fact we got OG and a backup to Randle. Only shows the vision of this FO. Fact we developed a PG to backup Brunson. Only made the trade easier. This has been a rebuild. Since the day we signed Thibs. And Knicks are not done trading yet.
Listen “late to the game”. You’ve got to be a clueless clown. I’ve been talking about McBride since the draft. And All we need him to be is a solid backup. Which he is more than capable. And considering he is just getting mins this yr clown. It means he’s still got more to give. Something you got no clue about. Just like Hart running the team. Hart NEVER runs the team.
Do you really want to finish as the second seed? The reward for that is philly or miami. Mind you Boston’s reward for getting the 1 seed is philly or miami. Philly for Boston, no problem. Miami is a different story. Both the 7 and 8 are more than capable of beating NY. Extreme danger and be very interesting. Brunson and Thibs not happy with lack of foul calls, wait until you play Embiid without Randle. Danger danger, if that’s how it plays out.
First off what I want. All you have to do is ask ……
You always want as high as seed as you can. Cause it means you get home court. Only team I can say can beat us. Are the Celtics. So why wouldn’t I want the 2nd seed. I’ve been saying since Randle went down. Is I’m happy with 4th seed. Opportunity knocks ….. you open the door. Don’t care about Embiid. Do you even watch Knicks. Mitch, Hartenstein, Sims can deal with Embiid. Knicks are a top defensive team. As team Embiid will not beat us. Sixers as a team can. But Knicks can handle Sixers. It will be tough. But home court helps us. For me it’s one series at a time. So only thing I CARE about. Is our opponent in 1st rd. Then we can go from there. Bring it
The only ranking of Brunson that I care about is how he’s viewed by the league, for officiating purposes, not for purposes of post-season awards or media accolades. There is a reason that the NBA is the only professional sports league obsessed with question of whether this player or that player should be considered a star (true star, superstar, etc.) or not. The reason is it matters on the court, in how the game is officiated. The real question being whether the guy is important enough to the league that he’s entitled to star treatment from the officials. Stars get foul calls when it matters most, late in games, and in particular in the playoffs.
Unfortunately, the second half of this season shows that Brunson hasn’t made the league’s cut on this. Like every player who handles the ball and goes the basket a lot, he gets a lot of foul calls. But late in games he, at best, gets every other call. That might be “fair” treatment (per the actual rules), but it’s not NBA star treatment; and fair or not, its going to make it difficult to win a close playoff series if the other team has a made man or two. Fortunately, most of those guys are in the West.