All-Star Knicks guard Jalen Brunson has been named the NBA’s 2024/25 Clutch Player of the Year, the league has announced (Twitter link).
According to the NBA (via Twitter), the 6’1″ Villanova alum averaged 5.6 points — the most in the league in clutch situations — on 51.5% shooting across 28 clutch games for New York this season. The Knicks went 17-11 in those contests.
As Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets, Brunson’s 52 made clutch field goals led the NBA, his 156 total clutch points ranked second, and his 28 total clutch assists were third league-wide.
Clutch games are defined as contests in which the score is within five points during either the fourth quarter’s last five minutes or an overtime period.
The honor was voted upon by a global panel of 100 journalists and media experts, the NBA adds (Twitter link). After Brunson, the top five vote-getters were, in order, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, Hawks guard Trae Young, and Warriors guard Stephen Curry.
Brunson enjoyed a stellar year overall, beyond just the ends of games. In 65 healthy regular season outings, the 28-year-old logged averages of 26.0 points, 7.3 assists, and 2.9 rebounds per night, with a shooting line of .488/.383/821. Along with center Karl-Anthony Towns, Brunson served as the offensive fulcrum of a 51-31 Knicks squad that finished the year as the Eastern Conference’s No. 3 seed.
Prior to winning the 2024/25 award, Brunson had finished among the top five in voting for Clutch Player of the Year honors in each of the prior two seasons, as well.
In total, 12 players received at least one vote for Clutch Player of the Year, with five players earning a first-place vote. The full results can be viewed here.
HAHAHAHAHA
more like flopper of the year
or whiner of the year
or cry baby of the year
1st rd exit of the year
Definitely a finalist Shae, Bron. Both outstanding foul baiters. It’s the closest race out of all the awards.
I love JB however missing the 3pt shot at the end of game 2 hurt his value. Let’s go Knicks Game 3. I’m beginning to second guess the KAT and Bridges trades especially if it was possible to get Doncic or Booker for that amount of picks. Any other Knicks fans?? Help me get off the edge of the cliff
Knicks were never getting Luka. Nico did that trade specifically to get Anthony Davis. If it were about picks he could have just told teams they were looking to trade Luka and had teams lining up with crazy offers. Nico wanted his defense stopper at the rim. Towns a had very good first year in NY though.
Agreed @TuneSquad if Luka was actually on the trade market, he could have bought back like any one of like 95% of all superstars. It was to put Luka in LA next to Lebron for one last hurrah, and get AD to Dallas to put next to Kyrie, no other option. That is the only deal he wanted to make. Weirdest and dumbest and lowest percentage move imaginable. New ownerships ruin the team’s on-court results every time.
The Knicks didn’t go all-in for one year of championship or bust with a roster having so many new pieces. I don’t understand why so many fans have this “sky is falling” reaction because the team isn’t ready to contend for it all yet. Or because they have to battle and could possibly lose vs a very tough Pistons team. The hope is that the core meshes better with more time and having an actual off-season together, learns from what didn’t/doesn’t work this season, and then you build around it accordingly. To tweak the roster during the next couple of seasons of this window of being a good/great team, the Knicks have some young players developing (i.e. Kolek, Hukporti, Dadiet) and can still make trades. KAT hasn’t lost any trade value, as one example. In any case, I can easily imagine them wanting to run it back with a mostly same roster. Mitch is important and the small sample size of KAT+Mitch playing together has looked good. Every Knicks fan sees the bench play and usage has to improve going forward.
In those two hypothetical scenarios… Doncic wasn’t available to the Knicks. The best version of Bridges fits what the Knicks wanted and needed more than Booker. Not saying Bridges is better than Booker, but the Knicks made the moves they made to push forward with this core now. Sure, the Mikal trade looks a bit like an overpay if you analyze it right now. Oh well, so what? You can’t plan and save/stash picks forever for what someday “might be possible”
This is a weird award. Jokic should be the real winner though, he literally does everything for that team and always makes the big plays down the stretch.
@ Davey, absolutely nothing to do with the warriors.
But no defense at all just a push in the back
First screwjob of Jokers awards season. MVP going to Shai really going to prove the goalposts change for OKC from where they are for GSW.
He deserves it. I never understood the Brunson hate
Jealousy
Hearing fhe Knicks say they don’t need KD is the very proof of why they do need him. It’s like Knick fans won’t admit the elephant in their living room.
Contending teams know how to win. The Knicks — from the front office, the coach, and the players — have never come close to winning.
The coach, oldest in the NBA at 67, has never sniffed an NBA Championship. The front office bet on Karl
Anthony-Towns, one of the losingest and softest players in the league, to take them to the top. Outside of Brunson, these players have played most of their careers on losing NBA teams.
There isn’t a single voice in the Knicks organization that sounds credible when they talking about winning. And after not seeing winning in 51 years, Knicks fans have also forgotten what winning looks like. Staying with the same non-winners another year isn’t going to help
KD is a winner. He’d instantly make the Knicks a contender. Just one Championship can change everything for this franchise.
No doubt about kd is a winner,great player. But he is injury prone now.that why suns didnt make a playoff. Imagine if kd plays for knick and thib plays him for 40+ mnts. Love kd, but put him and thib together isnt good option.