When Jalen Brunson signed with the Knicks, it impacted two franchises — his new team and his old one.
His decision to play for coach Tom Thibodeau gave the Knicks the in-his-prime point guard they have been after for decades. But his decision to leave the Mavericks is still felt in Dallas, where Luka Doncic and company are just 10-11 and have been unable to replace Brunson’s production.
“Obviously, what he brought to us was amazing and helped us, and you would like to have that production back,” Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison said on radio station KTCK-The Ticket in Dallas.
“I just think that they’re trying to get a rhythm, kind of just like us,” said Brunson, whose Knicks (10-12) will host the Mavericks on Saturday afternoon.
After the Knicks’ hard-fought, six-point loss Wednesday to the Bucks, Brunson was asked about facing his former team and offered a three-word response: “Our next game.”
He didn’t change his tune on Friday, saying he’s not feeling any emotions about the game.
“Not a single one, nah,” he said.
Of course, he has deep connections to the Mavericks. He remains close with several players there. The franchise drafted him in the second round in 2018 out of Villanova and he developed in Dallas into a strong NBA player. But once the ball is tipped Saturday, his only focus will be on snapping the Knicks’ three-game losing streak at the Garden.
“They know me, I know them,” the 26-year-old floor general said of the Mavericks. “It’s going to be a battle of just who wants it more.”
Brunson did admit one thing: He thinks about how the last year of his life could’ve been different had the Mavericks offered him a contract extension prior to last season, or even early in the year. But they didn’t extend an offer until after the trade deadline, and by then, Brunson was entrenched in the starting lineup and putting up career-best numbers. He ended up joining the Knicks on a four-year, $104 million deal.
When asked if the Mavericks made a strong enough push to retain Brunson, Harrison said in The Dallas Morning News that “us not re-signing [Jalen] wasn’t our choice.”
That would seem to suggest that when Brunson hit the open market, he was dead-set on joining the Knicks and playing for a pair of longtime family friends: Thibodeau and team president Leon Rose, who hired his father, Rick, to join Thibodeau’s staff shortly before Brunson was set to become a free agent. There is a tampering investigation ongoing.
Brunson declined to say if Dallas did everything possible to retain him. Regarding Harrison’s comments, Brunson said: “Everything happens for a reason, and that’s that,” after raving about the strong relationship the two still have.
“I mean, I think no matter what I did, I was going to be satisfied with whatever [choice I made],” Brunson said. “I made a decision. I made my bed; I got to lay in it.”
So far, the Knicks are thrilled with the player, and person, they acquired. He’s the team leader in scoring at 21.3 points per game and in assists with 6.5 per game, as well as in player efficiency rating at 21.75. His 4.0 assist-to-turnover ratio is tied for the eighth-best mark in the league.
He also has been a true leader, almost always taking the blame after defeats, even when the result has nothing to do with his own performance.
Brunson has played hurt and hasn’t let the pressure of playing for the Knicks impact him at all. If anything, Brunson has thrived under the microscope turned on a star player coming to New York on a big contract.
“For one, I don’t really consider that pressure. For me, it’s what I love to do,” he said. “I love to play basketball. I love to work on my game. I’m a perfectionist. I love to be as perfect as I can. I’m never really satisfied with anything.
“I’m always working. The pressure, it’s not really a thing for me. … I try and surround myself and keep the environment around me very positive. And so that’s just how I approach the situation like that.”