Putting Jalen Brunson's absurd rise into proper context and then trolling the Dallas Mavericks about it will get old at some point. Now is not that point.
Sam Quinn of CBS Sports recently cobbled together his list of the best value picks from every NBA draft since 2000. As he takes great pains to explain, the exercise isn’t about spotlighting the biggest names, or who turned out to be the best player. It’s about identifying “who got the most bang for their buck with [their] draft slot.”
New York Knicks fans will notice a familiar name earning the biggest-steal honor when they get to 2018. It’s their Captain, who was selected 33rd overall by those pesky self-saboteurs known as the Mavs.
Jalen Brunson beat out some BIG names
JB overcomes a couple of marquee contenders to land this unofficial award. Not only was his former teammate Luka Doncic taken at No. 3 in 2018, but more notably relative to the “biggest steal” concept, he edges out Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at No. 11.
Rolling with Brunson after SGA just picked up a title and an MVP will catch some off-guard. You’re not supposed to get the best player on a championship team, let alone a potential dynasty, with the No. 11 pick. (Yes, we know SGA was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Clippers.)
Yet, you’re even less likely to get someone like Brunson in his draft slot. “Jalen Brunson has grown into a consistent All-NBA pick from the No. 33 slot,” Quinn notes. “As impressive as Gilgeous-Alexander winning MVP from No. 11 is, that 20-pick gap is just too great to ignore.”
This is spot-on. Only two active second-round picks have multiple All-NBA First or Second Team finishes on their resume. It’s Brunson…and Nikola Jokic.
Your friendly reminder the Knicks poached Brunson from the Mavs for (almost) nothing
More than three years later, it remains brain-bending that the Mavs fumbled the Brunson situation so hard. Even if he didn’t give them a chance to match the four-year, $104 million contract that almost immediately transformed into the NBA’s best deal, they had plenty of opportunities to retain him—and for much less.
Maybe Brunson never morphs into a top-10 player with Dallas. Then again, can we say that with absolute certainty? He had big moments prior to leaving, including during the postseason. It’s also not like you can’t have two high-level creators thrive alongside one another. Case in point: The Luka-Kyrie Irving partnership was just fine until Dallas pivoted out of it.
Brunson’s Knicks tenure has no doubt strengthened his steal-of-the-draft case, likely in ways that wouldn’t have been fully available to him on the Mavs. But losing him for nothing more than the chance to cost New York a second-round pick for tampering and eventually impede its head-coaching search is among the worst trade-offs of all time.
Kudos to the Knicks for recognizing both what Brunson was, and what he could be. That decision continues to define and sustain their window now—and will be something they can hold over Dallas’ head until the end of time.