The New York Knicks always seemed destined to land Jalen Brunson during his free agency in 2022. Of course, very few could have predicted that he would rise to stardom as quickly as he did, and had he not signed with the Knicks, it is hard to guarantee this same rise would have occurred.
ESPN analyst believes Brunson would have eventually wound up with the Brooklyn Nets
ESPN analyst Tim McMahon theorized that had Brunson stayed with his former team, the Dallas Mavericks, that offseason, he wouldn’t have lasted very long in the Lone Star state and instead would have eventually found his way onto the Knicks’ geographical rival, the Brooklyn Nets.
“I am convinced that if Jalen Brunson’s would’ve re-signed in Dallas, whether it was on the extension that the Mavericks were way too late in offering or if they decided ‘ok, we just can’t let him go to New York … I think he would’ve ended up in New York anyway,” MacMahon said on “The Putback” podcast. “I just think it would’ve been on the other side of the bridge.”
In four seasons with the Mavericks, Brunson averaged 11.9 points and 3.7 assists per game and shot 49.4% from the field and 37.3% from three. His first true breakout came in the 2022 playoffs, where he averaged 21.6 points per game and helped Dallas reach the Western Conference Finals.
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Brunson quickly grew into a star with the Knicks
McMahon believes that the Mavericks would have still made the trade for Kyrie Irving as they did two seasons ago, though it would have involved sending Brunson the other way. Brunson also had to be the second option alongside Luka Doncic, and he was never going to be able to grow as rapidly as he did in New York had he stayed in Dallas that summer.
Ultimately, Brunson signed a four-year, $104 million deal with the Knicks in the 2022 offseason. What followed was a rise to becoming a superstar, as he was an All-Star and a member of Second Team All-NBA in the 2023-24 season. He then signed a historically team-friendly contract this past offseason in which he left $113 million on the table by signing an extension a year early.
The Mavericks ended up working out nicely in making the trade for Irving, as they reached the NBA Finals last season but lost to the Boston Celtics in five games. The Knicks, meanwhile, are trending in the direction of getting to the same stage behind Brunson’s leadership.
