It was bad enough when the player Jalen Brunson outplayed and defeated in the NBA Finals got the cover of NBA 2K27. It felt even worse when 2026-27 MVP odds had eight players ahead of the New York Knicks superstar.
The latest development, however, is Brunson being ranked as the No. 4 point guard in the NBA, with an Eastern Conference foe he's also outplayed and defeated even edging him out.
Brunson, 29, has spent his entire NBA career being overlooked and downplayed. One simply couldn't help but believe that delivering the Knicks their first championship in 53 years by outplaying Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, and De'Aaron Fox would've changed something.
Unfortunately, when HoopsHype unveiled their top 27 point guards of the 2026-27 season, Brunson was ranked No. 4—behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, and Cade Cunningham.
We have ranked the Top 27 point guards for 2026-27.
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) August 14, 2026
A super tough exercise.
Who's too low? Who's too high?https://t.co/nOPgmHnRZD
It's understandable for the two-time defending MVP to be No. 1, and there may even be a strong case for Doncic. Cunningham simply feels egregious at this stage of their respective careers.
Jalen Brunson ranked as the fourth-best point guard in the NBA
Brunson finished the 2025-26 season with averages of 26.0 points, 6.8 assists, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.6 three-point field goals made per game on .467/.369/.841 shooting. He earned All-NBA Second Team honors for his efforts, adding an NBA Cup and NBA Cup MVP award to his hardware collection.
On that level, all three of Cunningham, Doncic, and Gilgeous-Alexander have clear cases for being above Brunson after having better statistical seasons on teams that won as many or more games than the Knicks.
The entire point of the regular season, however, is to prepare players and teams for the playoffs. During the postseason, Brunson solidified his place as the king of late-game situations, guiding New York to a dominant 16-3 record and a drought-ending title.
Brunson averaged a league-leading 9.9 points per fourth quarter during the playoffs, shooting at a mind-blowing clip of .562/.526/.905.
He then led the Knicks past the 62-20 Spurs in an NBA Finals that most expected New York to lose. Instead of allowing that to happen, Brunson buried big shot after big shot in Wembanyama's face and made San Antonio's elite cast of guards look helpless when they had to defend him.
Throw in the fact that Brunson beat Cunningham and the Pistons in the 2025 NBA Playoffs, and the question beckons: When does the respect he receives start having more to do with what actually happens on the court than what should happen based on size, production, and talent?
Cunningham is a phenomenal player, but Brunson at least deserves to be No. 3.
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