Jalen Brunson recently had the honor of being named the Clutch Player Of The Year. His late-game prowess helped catapult the Knicks to the third seed in the Eastern Conference. With his ability to be relied on as a clutch scorer, the Knicks have someone they can turn to whenever they need a big bucket.
With Brunson as the Knicks’ go-to guy, they now have a 2-1 series lead over the Detroit Pistons and a chance to take a massive 3-1 lead back to New York. Despite the Knicks’ success, there are some concerns and criticisms of Brunson’s style of play.
Some feel like Brunson caps how far the Knicks can truly go with his style of play. In some ways, this is a double-edged sword, as his clutch scoring and ability to draw content work in their favor, but some of the things that he does on the court could impact his team’s ability to get out to bigger leads.
NBA Scout Criticizes Jalen Brunson’s Play Style
While Brunson has been under fire for some of his play, he falls in the same category as other elite players such as Nikola Jokic, Luka Dončić, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who are all criticized for foul-baiting and hunting for contact. Brunson’s case is a little interesting, as he’s averaging 11.4 free throw attempts in the three games against the Pistons.
In comparison, the next closest free-throw shooter on the team is forward OG Anunoby, who averages 4.0 free-throw attempts per game. This shows the massive difference between Brunson and the rest of the team. Brunson drew 23 fouls in the first two games of the series, 11 of those coming from Ausar Thompson, who fouled out in Game 2.
Some other criticism leveled at Brunson stems from the idea that he has the ball in his hands way too much. In the regular season, Brunson’s usage rate was 29.5%. In the playoffs, his usage rate has risen to 36.3%, a sign of potentially some merit to this claim.
One NBA scout had this to say about Brunson and his style of play, citing both his foul baiting and holding the ball for far too long:
An anonymous Western Conference scout called out Jalen Brunson for foul hunting and holding the ball too long
"Jalen foul hunting and holding the ball has really caught up with them. There's only so much you can do. That's a recipe to win a lot of regular-season games, but it's… pic.twitter.com/KlVpO6HzQC
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral)
“Jalen’s foul hunting and holding the ball has really caught up with them. There’s only so much you can do. That’s a recipe to win a lot of regular-season games, but it’s a huge load to carry on a nightly basis for playoff-heavy minutes when defenses have adjusted and loaded up. KAT and OG Anunoby have to play a role, and it’s hard when Brunson has the ball in his hands so much of the time.”
While there is some merit to the criticism against Brunson, especially so far in the playoffs, the Knicks are still in a prime position to defeat the Pistons in this series, as they command the 2-1 series lead.
Can The Pistons Tie The Series?
The Pistons will get a chance to even the series up Sunday, as they host the Knicks in a major Game 4. Cade Cunningham, Malik Beasley, and Tobias Harris will be huge keys to victory, as will Ausar Thompson if he can manage to stay out of foul trouble.
The Knicks have the advantage, but the Pistons aren’t going down without a fight clearly. Who will win this Game 4 battle between these two teams? Can Brunson lead the way? Or will Cunningham and the Pistons send the series back to New York tied? We’ll find out Sunday.
