Jalen Brunson is about to benefit from an NBA rule everybody hates

Left alone, Jalen Brunson is already a lock to make at least All-NBA Third Team. Factor in everybody’s least-favorite 65-game rule, though, and he’s a virtual certainty for his third straight Second Team selection. He might even have an outside shot at ambling onto the First Team.

Brunson doesn’t have to concern himself with meeting the league’s 65-game threshold for maintaining All-NBA eligibility. He will have crossed it the next time he suits up.

Many of his fellow superstars cannot say the same. In fact, an alarming number of big names are already tracking toward ineligibility. And while Brunson doesn’t need a boost from rampant injuries, he’s getting one anyway.

Two more All-NBA shoo-ins are flirting with ineligibility.

Anthony Edwards and Cade Cunningham will earn Second Team-or-better nods at the end of the year…if they qualify…which they may not.

Cunningham has 61 games under his belt, but will miss at least the next eight with a collapsed lung. Edwards is at 58 games played, but will miss at least the next one to two weeks with right knee inflammation. One or both of them could find themselves short of the needed total.

This is in addition to a ton of other confirmed ineligibilities. Players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry, Jalen Williams, Lauri Markkanen, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton, and Joel Embiid are already out of the running. 

Others, meanwhile, are flirting with ineligibility. Tyrese Maxey has 61 games under his belt, but a tendon injury in his right pinkie finger has sidelined him until April, at the very least. Nikola Jokic, Devin Booker, and Deni Avdija can all only miss one more game apiece. Victor Wembanyama, Kawhi Leonard, Evan Mobley, and Pascal Siakam can only miss two. 

Jalen Brunson is climbing up the All-NBA ranks

At bottom, Brunson is tracking toward another Second Team appearance. And while he might have secured one of the top-10 All-NBA spots no matter what, it was far from a guarantee.

Assuming they meet the games-played threshold, Jokic, Wembanyama, Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are all locks to nab First Team honors. The fifth and final spot would probably go to Edwards, Cunningham, or Kawhi, with the remaining two trickling down to the Second Team.

This would leave three of the top-10 spots up for grabs. Once more, with feeling: Brunson has an all-hands-on-deck case. What he does for the Knicks actually still, to some extent, flies under the radar. But a field that includes Maxey, Jaylen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Johnson, Jamal Murray, and Kevin Durant leaves plenty of room for debate.

Not anymore, though. 

Final tallies are far from settled, but enough All-NBA hopefuls figure to miss the games-played benchmark for Brunson to easily snag a top-10 spot. Depending on what happens with some combination of Jokic, Wembanyama, Edwards, Kawhi, and Cunningham, there is a world in which Brunson is jockeying for position with Mitchell and Brown for First Team honors—something no Knick has earned since Patrick Ewing in 1990.

Don’t twist this as an argument in favor of the 65-game rule. Even if you think it makes sense for MVP accolades, the All-NBA sector deserves more flexibility. 

Brunson is returning to the All-League party regardless. The ceiling on where he lands, however, just keeps going up.