Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports. "Just going through that experience," Brunson said of the Clippers series, "was enough." Now? Brunson’s the engine of a Knicks squad that has won more playoff games this season than the franchise has in the past nine seasons combined.
Back then, he was the Mavericks’ weak link. The Knicks giving the ball to Brunson has been their only efficient offense, a far cry from two years ago. "He's had a lot of success going up against size," Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said Tuesday. He attacked the Cavs one-on-one and he carved them up in pick-and-rolls, switching between calling his own number and beating traps by drawing multiple defenders and then hitting teammates beneath the break. In five games against the Cavaliers, Brunson averaged 24 points. Mix all that with his dazzling footwork, head-fakes and shoulder-shakes, and you have a package that has left defenders looking helpless. He’s also become a knockdown 3-point shooter (41.6% overall and 38% off the dribble during the regular season, both career-best marks), which has forced defenders to crowd him and opened all sorts of lanes.
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On Tuesday, he mentioned how learning how to stay "composed" and "poised" has been a key for him. It’s not that he has transformed his game - it’s more that he’s perfected it. He also played a key role in their second-round upset of the Phoenix Suns.
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He torched Mitchell's Utah Jazz in the first round - 27.8 points per game - particularly in the first three games, when Doncic was sidelined with a calf injury, and helped lead the Mavs to a six-game series win. The next postseason, Brunson looked like a different player. In his 114 minutes on the floor, the Mavericks were outscored by 56 points. He hit just 45% of his 2-pointers, and, according to tracking from Synergy Sports, only managed to get off two shots off isolation plays the entire seven-game series. He’d flail up a rushed floater in the paint on one play, force a step-back jumper on the next. Ironically, for Brunson, that meant learning to slow down. "He has this incredible ability to find every nook and pounce as soon as you give it to him, even when going up against longer defenders." "That’s one of the things he’s gotten so much better at," a former Mavericks assistant coach said. Brunson worked on his game, as usual, but placed an emphasis on figuring out how to take advantage of specific angles, like the ones that present themselves when opponents switch defensive assignments on ball screens.
That work started in the months after the Clippers series. Brunson realized that if he wanted to become the player he believed he could be, he’d have to figure out ways to navigate those minefields. The playoffs would always be loaded with big, long, fast defenders. More important, though, is how the loss to the Clippers gave Brunson a taste of tactics he’d be facing for the rest of his career and, in doing so, laid bare where he most needed to improve.
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His struggles spooked the Mavericks, who declined to offer him an extension that summer, paving the way for him to sign as a free agent with the Knicks last offseason.
And it still is."įor one, Brunson might not be in New York if not for that poor performance. "Knowing how I played that series and knowing what I could have done, what could have been better, that kind of was always on my mind. "I wouldn't really trade any experience for anything," he said Tuesday. Two years later, Brunson's 2021 playoff performance stands as an inflection point, one that set the table for the position in which he and his current team, the New York Knicks, find themselves: on to the second round after earning their first playoff series victory since 2013, with Brunson leading the way and outdueling Donovan Mitchell, the star guard the Knicks passed on trading for in the summer.
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