Throughout his four years with the New York Knicks, Jalen Brunson has built a reputation as a foul-baiter. From keyboard warriors to actual players, many have accused The Captain of "selling fouls" for his own gain.
While there are cases to be made for and against such claims, the fact of the matter is that this kind of rhetoric seems to take away from the on-court brilliance Brunson puts forth on a nightly basis, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.
Here, amid an epic postseason run, recent findings only further prove just how little he needs a favorable whistle to drop buckets.
As things currently stand, Brunson is posting the third-highest points-per-game averages in the 2026 NBA Playoffs with 27.6 per night while ranking down at 17 overall in free throws per night with 6.1.
Though this is unbelievably impressive on its own, when excluding free throws from the equation, the Knicks star actually takes over the top spot in the points department, passing last year's scoring champion and the most notorious "free throw merchant" out there, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, with 22.4 per game.
Knicks star continues to shed free throw merchant label in playoffs
The truth is, this kind of calculation is nothing new for the Knicks star. Instead, it's merely just a continuation of what he proved as fact throughout the regular season here under the bright lights of the playoffs.
During the 2025-26 campaign, Brunson ranked 14 in the association in points-per-game with an average of 26.0 while attempting a mere 5.7 free throws per game, which ranked 31.
To put into perspective just how wild these two metrics being grouped together is, it was revealed back in mid-March that among players who were dropping 25 or more points a night, Brunson ranks in with the third-fewest attempts from the charity stripe, trailing only Golden State's Stephen Curry and Denver's Jamal Murray.
At this point, the evidence suggests that Brunson is one of the game's best scoring weapons with or without receiving "help" from the officiating team.
As he most recently proved in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, particularly when New York needed him most in the fourth period, no matter what a team throws his way, the point guard is more than capable of buying a basket.
It's no wonder he's literally been the top scorer in postseaon action throughout his entire tenure in the Big Apple.
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