Jalen Brunson has a Victor Wembanyama-proof skill the Knicks need him to unleash

Victor Wembanyama has seized the mantle as the NBA’s most unsolvable force. The New York Knicks’ likely defeat of the San Antonio Spurs in the Finals won’t change that. But it should shine a spotlight on Jalen Brunson, and the skill that is as close to a potential Wemby foil as a small guard can get: the deep pull-up three-pointer.

This isn’t a theory. We have proof of concept. 

With just under 2:30 remaining in the fourth quarter of New York’s improbable, impossible Game 4 comeback, Brunson was checked by Wemby on the right wing. He first pitched the ball to Jose Alvarado in the near-side corner. Alvarado immediately threw it back to Brunson, and lifted out from the corner to above the break. Brunson took one dribble, then fired up a 27-footer over the outstretched arms of a 7’4” Defensive Player of the Year with an eight-foot wingspan and maybe, just maybe, interstellar origins.

Bottoms. 

This moment is tattooed to memory for its significance. Bigger plays followed, but this shot from Brunson brought the Knicks within one after they trailed by as many as a k̶a̶j̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶ 29.

It was also an illustration of what Brunson should do more often—in part because he can, but mostly because it’s among the few plausible answers for the league’s foremost unanswerable forces.

Hunting pull-up threes can bend the Spurs’ defense

Anything the Knicks can do to potentially yank Wemby further away from the basket opens up the rest of the offense. And with him no longer being tethered to Karl-Anthony Towns, this is something New York definitely needs. 

Calling for Wemby’s man to set the screen so you can force a switch onto Brunson would be counterintuitive under normal circumstances. Brunson, however, is anything but normal.

Listed at only 6’2”, he is well-versed in getting shots off over the trees. Though his highlight reel is inundated with it happening from the in-between, following a breadth of fancy-schmancy footwork, the skill translates from beyond the arc.

Turning to more of these pull-up threes nudges Wemby and the Spurs toward impossible logistics of their own. They can try pre-switching and peel switching if the Knicks start “hunting” him. But that leaves them vulnerable to less favorable matchups, or allows New York a pocket of time in which to capitalize on a scrambling defense.

San Antonio could concede the switch, have Wemby back off Brunson, and let him settle for deep pull-ups. But the captain isn’t Josh Hart. He may ride that extra space right into the championship parade.

Then, of course, Wemby could play Brunson straight up, using his own judgement on how much pressure to provide. That might be the most rational approach, but it ignores the fact Brunson can hit contested looks or scoot the ball toward the wings, where someone could now have a comfier, Wemby-free path to the basket.

Jalen Brunson is doing a lot, but has room for more of this

It feels insane to task Brunson with such a heavy lift when he’s already doing so much. Yet, this is more about redistributing his workload  rather than increasing it. 

Despite his knack for downing these shots, he doesn’t take a ton of them. Throughout the playoffs and regular season, his volume has remained consistently around four per game, as you can see below:

• Regular season: 4.1 pull-up threes per game
• First three rounds: 4.1 pull-up threes per game
• Finals (four games): 4.1 pull-up threes per game

Juicing the volume does risk impacting the efficiency. While Brunson was 2-of-4 on pull-up threes in Game 4, he is under 30 percent for the series. But he hovered above 34 percent during the regular season, and knocked down 37.1 percent of these shots on identical volume last year. That is good enough efficiency to explore an uptick.

Using off-the-dribble threes as a crutch is admittedly all sorts of dangerous. But exceptional times call for exceptional measures. Even with the Spurs trailing 3-1, they have led for the vast majority of this series. Ergo, these are exceptional times. 

Just as he’s been on so many occasions before, Brunson once again is the exceptional measure these Knicks need to solve what’s supposed to be unsolvable—and finish a job left undone since 1973.

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