You’re not hearing as many criticisms or backhanded compliments anymore about Jalen Brunson or the Knicks, with pundits, former and current NBA stars and basketball luminaries fully buying into what they are accomplishing as the playoffs approach.
TNT studio analyst Kenny Smith even has changed his tune from earlier in the season, when he stated the Knicks never have “the best player on the floor” in games against other top opponents.
“The New York Knicks are the most surprising team to me in basketball right now,” Smith said during Thursday’s post-game show after the Knicks crushed the league-leading Celtics in Boston.
“They should be a No. 6 seed without Julius Randle. [Mitchell] Robinson missed games, OG [Anunoby] missed games. Brunson has been the best basketball player in the Eastern Conference by far.”
Brunson scored 39 points without playing in the fourth quarter in the victory, and he had averaged a league-best 39.4 over his past five games entering Friday’s home matchup against the out-of-it Nets at the Garden.
Anunoby said afterward that Brunson “should win MVP” in the league, and one basketball Hall of Famer and former Knicks coach, Rick Pitino, apparently agreed.
“I’m blown away with what the [Knicks] are accomplishing,” the current St. John’s coach posted Friday on X. “Teamwork, discipline, coaching, and an insatiable desire to win.
“Also doesn’t hurt having this year’s MVP! Go Knicks!”
ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins, who was ahead of the curve in tossing bouquets at the Knicks since before the All-Star break, reasserted previous statements that he believes Brunson is “the best point guard in the league.”
“All I keep hearing, whether it’s on this network or another network, is that with Jalen Brunson, the Knicks never have the first- or second-best player on the floor. And every time he goes against another person’s favorite player, he comes out victorious in great fashion,” Perkins said Friday on First Take.
“When I’m looking at this Knicks team, what do they have? They have culture, and they have an identity on both ends of the floor. And when it comes to being a game-changer and a game-manager, Jalen Brunson is both of those, whatever you want, and he’s a closer.”
In a later appearance on the network, Perkins also called Brunson a “top-3” MVP candidate and “capable of being the best player in any series outside of [Denver center Nikola] Jokic.”
Perkins didn’t reserve his kudos to Brunson, also singling out Anunoby, who recently returned to the lineup after missing 27 of 30 games following elbow surgery.
Beginning play Friday, the Knicks were 18-3 in the 21 games in which the two-way wing has appeared for them following a late-December trade that sent former first-round picks RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to the Raptors.
“I can’t sing enough praises about OG Anunoby,” Perkins said. “He’s probably the most disrespected player in the game. Matter of fact, he’s the best role player in the league, and the best 3-and-D guy.
“What he brings to the table, you cannot replace. There’s a reason that Toronto set the bar so high as far as what they wanted for OG. And we’re seeing it right now as far as the effect he’s had on the Knicks uniform.”
The Knicks had a chance Friday to clinch at least the No. 3 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference, with a win and a loss by the Cavaliers.
They needed to win each of their final two games with the Bucks losing their final two — including Friday night at Oklahoma City — to steal the No. 2 spot.
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