Getty Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks reacts against the Houston Rockets.
New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson‘s career season is predicted to end with a spot in one of the All-NBA Teams.
Bleacher Reports’ Dan Favale penciled Brunson to be in the All-NBA Third Team with Golden State‘s Stephen Curry, Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards and Los Angeles Lakers‘ Anthony Davis.
“Brunson is not an A-plus passer or more than a resistant defender. But he is one of the most unique, important and offensive engines in the entire league. And yes, he plays a lot. He’s top-10 in total minutes logged. That availability cannot be discounted.
It’s also not Brunson’s main source of appeal.
Scant few players can put up around 28 points and seven assists per game on above-average true shooting with a ludicrously low turnover rate while working inside such confined offensive parameters,” Favale wrote.
Entering March 8 games, Brunson is averaging 27.2 points on 40.7% 3-point shooting and 6.6 assists, all career-best, while keeping the Knicks in the thick of the fight for a top-four finish in the East.
Jalen Brunson’s Playing Status
Brunson, however, is questionable to play in a crucial home game against the Orlando Magic (37-26) on Friday, March 8, due to a left knee contusion.
He sat out the Knicks’ 116-100 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on March 5, which allowed the surging Magic, winners of their last five games, to overtake the Knicks (36-26) in the standings.
But Brunson mostly participated in the Knicks’ Thursday practice.
“He looked regular, looked good. Practice is a lot of starting and stopping so it’s kind of hard to judge sometimes,” Hart told reporters, per New York Daily News. “But he looked good, looked confident and not like he was limping or dragging his leg or nervous to make movements. So that’s obviously a positive.”
With Brunson questionable to play and their other three starters — Julius Randle, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson — still out, the Magic are 1.5-point favorites to win against the Knicks at BetUS, one of the top offshore gambling sites.
Randle (dislocated shoulder) has progressed to light contact drills while Robinson (ankle surgery) has also advanced to shooting drills. Anunoby (elbow surgery) is on track to return first among the three as he did a full scrimmage on Thursday.
Knicks Can Pair Jalen Brunson with LeBron James
According to ESPN, the Knicks have the flexibility to pair LeBron James with Brunson and re-sign Anunoby this summer.
The Knicks are better equipped than the Warriors, who pursued James at the trade deadline, should the Lakers superstar become available, the ESPN report said.
James could opt-in to his contract and then work out a trade, but Golden State would not be allowed to send out aggregate contracts if James’ $51.4 million salary pushed the Warriors over the second apron.
The Knicks, however, have the financial flexibility below both aprons to trade for James without losing Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby.
New York has five players (Julius Randle, Josh Hart, Mitchell Robinson, Bojan Bogdanovic and Donte DiVincenzo) earning a salary between $11.5 and $30.3 million. They also have up to eight tradable first-rounders to include in a deal.
Speculations about James getting linked to the Knicks started in the days leading up to the February 8 trade deadline with his cryptic X posts to flexing the Knicks towel in a postgame interview after a Lakers win in New York on February 3.
Before that game, James told reporters playing for the Knicks once crossed his mind.
“During my free agency period in 2010, it was one of the teams that I looked at,” James told reporters on February 3. “So I’ve had that thought in my career.”