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Landing a point guard was a major priority this offseason for the New York Knicks, and they did just that by snagging Jalen Brunson from the Dallas Mavericks.
Brunson had a strong playoffs performance for the Mavs last season, so seeing him go was a tough pill to swallow for the organization, and it’s no secret they were unhappy with how some things went down.
Both Luka Doncic and Brunson came into the league and developed together, but it became clear that if Brunson ever wanted to break free and be “the guy,” he’d have to leave Doncic and go somewhere else.
That ended up being the New York Knicks, and the talented guard will now be running the show there. For what it’s worth, his former head coach Jason Kidd couldn’t be happier for him.
Kidd Praises Brunson
It’s no question the Mavericks will have a big vacancy left by Brunson, and acquiring Christian Wood will help soften the blow, but he’s a big man instead of a playmaking guard.
Kidd isn’t sweating, though, and he’s just excited that Brunson was able to go somewhere he’s both getting paid and getting more playing time. Speaking on the “All the Smoke” podcast, Kidd went into more detail about the signing.
“The biggest thing is I’m happy he got paid,” said Kidd. “He helped us. I know Cuban doesn’t like this, but I love when I can get a player get paid.”
The Mavericks coach believes that every player wants to get paid, which could be him thinking back on his own playing days, and he’s happy to get that done for players.
“I tell a player on the first day of camp, ‘Tell me what you want,'” he continued. “Everyone wants shots. Everyone wants minutes. But that’s not the truth. They want to get paid and want to play. Cool. I can help you do that. The other part of that is I’m going to ask for a couple of things. Trust, communicate and play hard. If you ask Brunson, he will tell you he listened and good things happened. I just want to put people in position to be successful.”
Tampering Investigation Ongoing
In order to acquire Brunson, the team needed to clear their books by trading away veterans Kemba Walker, Alec Burks and Nerlens Noel. All three of them ended up going to the Detroit Pistons in the days leading up to free agency, and that helped lead to the NBA opening up a tampering investigation on the team.
“The league will look into the Rick Brunson connection,” The Athletic’s Fred Katz reported in August. “It will try to decipher how much, if any, contact occurred before the Knicks could legally speak to Jalen Brunson or his representatives about a contract, and it will look into who made that contact. News about the Knicks and Brunson coming to an agreement became public before teams were officially allowed to speak to free agents.”
If found guilty, the Knicks will be in danger of losing a draft pick like we saw happen with the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls in the most recent NBA draft.
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