Adrian Griffin saw this coming. The head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks received years of free previews.
The signs of a kid who would one day slice up his team showed more than a decade ago when Griffin worked alongside Rick Brunson as a Chicago Bulls assistant under head coach Tom Thibodeau. That’s when Griffin noticed the makings of Brunson’s son, Jalen.
“(Rick) and Jalen would be in there, and he coached Jalen hard, man,” Griffin said. “I used to watch him all the time with Jalen, and Jalen was getting better. And I looked at my kids, I said, ‘Man, we gotta get to work, man.’ I said, ‘We gotta get in the gym.’ ”
Griffin knows something about spinning DNA into basketball talent. He was in the NBA for nine years. Three of his children have played Division I hoops. And yet, few people in existence are capable of doing to a team what Brunson has done to Griffin’s Bucks this season.
The All-Star hopeful went for 38 points during the New York Knicks’ Christmas Day 129-122 victory. It was the first time Brunson’s squad beat the Bucks in four tries this season. And yet, the first three defeats were hardly because of Brunson, who went for 45 points the first time the two teams met, 24 the next, 36 on Saturday and then another 38 on Monday.
The Bucks thrive in drop coverage, keeping their center, Brook Lopez, close to the hoop, which leaves the midrange vulnerable. Brunson is feasting from there, lofting in floaters and revolving like a CD until he creates a friendly angle from 12 or 15 feet.
He’s wrecking Milwaukee’s weaker perimeter defenders. Malik Beasley often starts on him, but the Bucks will try any of their guys on the feisty point guard, hoping one will annoy him just enough. Heck, Milwaukee placed veteran wing Khris Middleton on Brunson for part of Monday’s game. Yet, by the fourth quarter, Brunson navigates screens to force lesser defenders, such as Damian Lillard, onto him and then attacks.
The first three times the Knicks and Bucks played this season, Milwaukee drained so many 3s that New York couldn’t keep up. But on Monday, Brunson’s 38 was enough for a win.
It is a matchup to watch in case the Bucks and Knicks meet in the playoffs. How does a team without a long, physical presence on the perimeter, the type that normally gives Brunson the most trouble, stifle a relentless scorer?
Yet, Brunson’s bravado has become bigger than four bombshells against the Bucks, even if the victory came in a nationally televised matchup. Another 30-something-point breakout is closer to his norm than his exception. The Knicks (17-12) are 29 games into the season and sit in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, thanks a bunch to Brunson, who for the sixth time in his six-year NBA vocation is churning out a career season.
Enough time has passed in 2023-24 — not just against the Bucks but against anyone — to discuss accolades. A season after famously missing out on All-Star honors, could Brunson finally get there in 2024?
He’s averaging 26.1 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists. The efficiency numbers make math geeks swoon: 49 percent on 2-pointers and 46 percent on 3-pointers … and that’s on 6.4 long-range attempts a game.
As solid as the numbers were by the time All-Star voting concluded last season, they’re even better now.
“Sometimes we don’t get to see the best of players in this league because they don’t have the same opportunity,” Lillard said. “That’s not always the case, but with him, I think you’re seeing that. They’re playing through him. They’re giving him every opportunity, and he’s taking full advantage of it.”
Lillard, a seven-time All-Star, knows what this is supposed to look like.
So does Griffin, a longtime player, coach and observer of Brunson. And he’s not the only person who claims he witnessed inevitable greatness in a former second-round pick.
“Spending every day with him, you just start to understand what his mindset is,” Knicks teammate Donte DiVincenzo said.
Brunson and DiVincenzo were college teammates at Villanova and are now back together in New York.
“He’s one of the most mentally tough players I know, but also one of the smartest players I know,” DiVincenzo continued. “He knows he’s not the most athletic. He knows he’s not the longest. But what he does know is how to run the game, how to get his buckets, how to get other people involved and just how to control everything.”
And yet, a statement from one of Brunson’s staunchest supporters may undersell him.
For years, conversation about the supposedly 6-foot-2 point guard has pinned him as a game manager, like he’s the NBA’s version of Chad Pennington under center. But Brunson, while still retaining all those heady attributes, is now at another level, which should be enough to carry him to Indianapolis, even if the competition is stiff.
Twelve players make each All-Star team, which is comprised of four to six guards and six to eight front-court players. What hurts Brunson is that he will be eligible only at guard whereas wings, such as Jimmy Butler, are typically eligible at both positions. If a voter were to slide someone like Butler or Jaylen Brown over to guard, it would mean one less spot for Brunson.
But one versatile player shouldn’t knock him off the list, even if today’s NBA is loaded with stat packers.
The two Tyreses, Maxey and Haliburton, are shoo-ins for All-Stars, as long as they stay healthy and maintain this level of play. Donovan Mitchell is carrying the injured Cleveland Cavaliers, who remain competitive even with half a roster healthy. Lillard has revved to dominant numbers after a slow start with his new team. The Boston Celtics, who own the best record in the conference, could end up with more than one All-Star because that’s often how this works. Jayson Tatum is a guarantee at forward, but what if the coaches, who vote on the reserves, want to include a second or third Celtics player? Could Brown make it as a guard or could Derrick White, who is receiving buzz for his defense, connectivity and efficiency, get there?
In the day of inflated statistics, more candidates emerge.
Trae Young leads all East guards in scoring, though his Atlanta Hawks are currently outside the Play-In Tournament picture. The coaches tend to favor players on winning squads. Butler could qualify as a guard, though he’s missed seven games already.
Someone could catch fire over the next month, too, inserting himself into the debate. Maybe it’s Mikal Bridges or Dejounte Murray or Coby White, who has sneakily throttled the Chicago Bulls up the standings since Zach LaVine got hurt.
Yet, as of today, it’s difficult to brainstorm the Eastern Conference All-Stars without including Brunson.
Of the 10 candidates mentioned in this story, Brunson ranks fourth in scoring. He’s third and fourth in the two best efficiency metrics, effective field-goal percentage and true shooting, respectively. He’s fifth in assists, second in turnover rate and first in 3-point percentage. He hasn’t missed a game — and doing it on a winning team.
He benefits from an effect that aided Lillard years ago, too.
In 2017, Lillard somehow missed out on the All-Star team, even though he was already a household name putting up his exemplary numbers on a respectable squad. A groundswell of support followed his snubbing. For the next season, Lillard wasn’t just an All-Star; he was the guy who got robbed. No Lillard conversation began without an apoplectic disclaimer.
How the heck did this dude not make the All-Star team?
Other than in 2022, when he was injured, Lillard hasn’t missed one since. Makeup calls exist — and Brunson, the go-to snub of 2023, could show that again. Certainly, the coaches will not forget to leave off a player whose reputation over the past year has only enhanced with his supporters asking the same question they once did about Lillard:
How the heck did this guy not make the All-Star team?
At this rate, Brunson isn’t just an All-Star contender. He’s also on the fringe of the All-NBA conversation — though not everyone so close to Brunson anticipated this level of dominance.
“I always knew he put the work in to be successful,” said Josh Hart, another teammate of Brunson’s at Villanova who has rejoined him with the Knicks. “But, even me, I didn’t know how it would translate to the NBA style.”
It turns out, those slithery, trademark moves work against top-notch competition, especially against Milwaukee’s defense.
“When did I know (Brunson was this good)?” Hart said. “Probably like three years ago when he started doing it. But I wasn’t surprised. I think many people were surprised. I wasn’t surprised. I knew he put the work in.”
(Photo of Jalen Brunson: Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE via Getty Images)
