The New York Knicks have spent the better part of the past 50 years struggling to replace Walt Frazier. It's an admittedly tall task to fill the shoes of an all-time great, but New York has consistently failed to field high-level starters at the point guard position.
Thankfully, as teams around the NBA struggle to resolve their own point guard woes, the Knicks have absolute stability with superstar Jalen Brunson.
It's a welcome change of pace after the Knicks actively worked against their own self interest for so many years. They made polarizing decisions such as trading Mark Jackson in 1992 and Raymond Felton in 2011, and rarely invested in the position as a key area of focus before finally landing Brunson.
With a history of relying on aging veterans to play short-term roles in the rotation, New York inevitably became the punchline in regard to producing and even defending at the point guard position.
Fast forward to the present, however, and the Knicks have no questions whatsoever about who their point guard should be. Brunson is an All-World talent who's less than a year removed from helping New York make its first Conference Finals appearance since 2000.
It's not only a thrilling change of pace, but a refreshing truth considering teams such as the Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies have been scrambling to trade players who were once ranked ahead of Brunson.
Jalen Brunson provides Knicks with stability at PG while others scramble
The Hawks recently traded four-time All-Star Trae Young for cap relief. It's a shocking turn of events considering Young was once heralded as the Knicks' kryptonite after winning a single postseason series against the orange and blue.
That series, of course, was played before Brunson joined the Knicks—the ultimate turning point in franchise history.
The Memphis Grizzlies, meanwhile, are fielding trade offers for Ja Morant for the first time. Morant is one of the most electrifying talents in basketball when healthy and content, and even earned an All-Star nod in 2022-23 when Brunson was snubbed—in different conferences, of course, but a fact nonetheless.
It's unclear if the Grizzlies will be able to get more for Morant than the Hawks received for Young, but the fact remains that another franchise is staring down positional instability.
New York, meanwhile, is 25-14 and Brunson is well on his way to a third straight All-NBA nod. He's averaging 28.9 points and 6.3 assists per game, is universally praised as a leader and tone-setter in the locker room, and has proven to be ready for the moment in the playoffs.
After years of failing to field an adequate level of talent at point guard, the Knicks have a franchise player at the position. They're finally no longer the butt of the joke.