Adrian Griffin saw this coming. The Milwaukee Bucks head coach received free previews for years.
The signs that a boy would one day split his team emerged more than a decade ago, when Griffin worked alongside Rick Brunson as an assistant with the Chicago Bulls under head coach Tom Thibodeau. That's when Griffin noticed what Brunson's son Jalen had to offer.
“(Rick) and Jalen would be in there, and he trained Jalen hard, man,” Griffin said. “I watched him with Jalen the whole time, and Jalen was getting better and better. And I looked at my kids and said, “Man, we gotta get to work, man.” I said, “We gotta go to the gym.”
Griffin knows a thing or two about turning DNA into basketball talent. He was in the NBA for nine years. Three of his children played Division I basketball. And yet, few people are capable of doing to a team what Brunson did to Griffin's Bucks this season.
The All-Star hopeful scored 38 points in the New York Knicks' 129-122 win on Christmas Day. It was the first time in four attempts this season that Brunson's team beat the Bucks. And yet the first three defeats were hardly due to Brunson, who scored 45 points the first time the two teams met, 24 the next time, 36 on Saturday and 38 again on Monday.
The Bucks thrive in drop coverage and keep their center, Brook Lopez, close to the basket, leaving the midcourt area vulnerable. Brunson feasts from there, throwing up floaters and spinning like a CD until he creates a friendly angle from 12 or 15 feet.
He destroys Milwaukee's weaker fullbacks. Malik Beasley often starts with him, but the Bucks will try any of their guys at the lively point guard in hopes that one annoys him just enough. Heck, Milwaukee put veteran winger Khris Middleton on Brunson for part of Monday's game. But in the fourth quarter, Brunson navigates screens to force weaker defenders like Damian Lillard onto him and then attacks.
In the Knicks and Bucks' first three games this season, Milwaukee conceded so many threes that New York couldn't keep up. But on Monday, Brunson's 38 was enough for a win.
It's a matchup to keep an eye on if the Bucks and Knicks meet in the playoffs. How does a team that doesn't have a long physical presence on the sidelines, the team that usually gives Brunson the most trouble, manage to suppress a relentless scorer?
Still, Brunson's bravery has become greater than four bomb hits against the Bucks, even if the victory came in a nationally televised matchup. Another breakout above 30 points is more his norm than his exception. The Knicks (17-12) have 29 games under their belt this season and are in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, thanks largely to Brunson, who is having a career season for the sixth time in his six-year NBA career.
Enough time has passed in 2023-24 — not just against the Bucks, but against anyone — to discuss awards. One season after famously missing out on an All-Star title, could Brunson finally get there in 2024?
He averages 26.1 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists. The efficiency numbers make math geeks swoon: 49 percent on 2-point shots and 46 percent on 3-point shots… and that with 6.4 long-distance attempts per game.
As solid as the numbers were at the end of All-Star voting last season, they're even better now.
“Sometimes we don’t get to see the best players in this league because they don’t have the same opportunities,” Lillard said. “That's not always the case, but with him I think you can see that. They play through him. They give him every opportunity and he takes full advantage of it.”
Lillard, a seven-time All-Star, knows what that's supposed to look like.
That goes for Griffin, a longtime Brunson player, coach and observer. And he's not the only one who claims he witnessed inevitable greatness from a former second-round pick.
“When you spend every day with him, you just start to understand his mindset,” Knicks teammate Donte DiVincenzo said.
Brunson and DiVincenzo were college teammates at Villanova and are now back together in New York.
“He’s one of the mentally strongest players I know, but also one of the smartest players I know,” DiVincenzo continued. “He knows he’s not the most athletic. He knows he's not the tallest. But what he knows is how to run the game, how to get his buckets, how to get other people involved and just how to control everything.”
And yet a statement from one of Brunson's most loyal supporters might undercut him.
For years, conversations about the supposed 6-foot-3 point guard as a game manager have described him as if he were the NBA's version of Chad Pennington under center. But Brunson, while still retaining all of those intoxicating qualities, is now on a different level, which should be enough to get him promoted to Indianapolis, even if the competition is stiff.
Twelve players make up each All-Star team, which consists of four to six guards and six to eight front court players. What hurts Brunson is the fact that he is only considered as a guard, whereas wingers like Jimmy Butler are usually considered at both positions. If a voter were to place someone like Butler or Jaylen Brown at guard, that would mean one less spot for Brunson.
But a versatile player shouldn't leave him off the list, even if today's NBA is full of stat packers.
The two Tyreses, Maxey and Haliburton, are favorites to make the All-Stars as long as they stay healthy and maintain this level of play. Donovan Mitchell carries the injured Cleveland Cavaliers, who remain competitive even with a healthy half-roster. Lillard has found dominant numbers with his new team after a slow start. The Boston Celtics, who have the best record in the conference, could end up with more than one All-Star because that's how it often works. Jayson Tatum is a guaranteed forward, but what if the coaches voting on the reserves want to bring in a second or third Celtics player? Could Brown make it as a guard, or could Derrick White, who gets a lot of buzz for his defense, connectivity and efficiency, get there?
In times of inflated statistics, more and more candidates are emerging.
Trae Young leads all East guards in scoring, although his Atlanta Hawks are currently outside the play-in tournament picture. Coaches tend to favor players from winning teams. Butler could qualify as a guard despite already missing seven games.
Even over the next month, someone could take fire and intervene in the debate. Maybe it's Mikal Bridges or Dejounte Murray or Coby White who has quietly throttled the Chicago Bulls up the standings since Zach LaVine's injury.
Still, it's difficult to brainstorm Eastern Conference All-Stars today without including Brunson.
Of the 10 candidates featured in this story, Brunson ranks fourth in the rankings. He ranks third and fourth in the top two efficiency metrics, effective field goal percentage and true shooting percentage. He is fifth in assists, second in turnover rate and first in 3-point percentage. He never missed a game – and that was on a winning team.
He benefits from an effect that also helped Lillard years ago.
In 2017, Lillard somehow missed out on making the All-Star team despite already being a household name and putting in exemplary performances on a respectable roster. His snub was followed by a wave of support. The next season, Lillard wasn't just an All-Star; He was the guy who got robbed. No Lillard conversation began without an apoplectic statement.
How the hell did this guy not make the All-Star team?
Other than 2022 when he was injured, Lillard hasn't missed a single one since then. There are makeup calls — and Brunson, the absolute snub of 2023, could prove that again. Surely coaches won't forget to omit a player whose reputation has only improved over the past year as his fans asked the same question they once did about Lillard:
How the hell did this guy not make the All-Star team?
At this rate, Brunson isn't just an All-Star candidate. He's also on the edge of the All-NBA conversation — although not everyone so close to Brunson expected this level of dominance.
“I always knew he put in the work to be successful,” said Josh Hart, another of Brunson’s teammates at Villanova who has returned to the Knicks. “But even I didn’t know how that would translate to the NBA style.”
It turns out that these slick, signature maneuvers work against top-tier competition, particularly Milwaukee's defense.
“When did I know Brunson was this good?” Hart said. “Probably like three years ago when he started. But I wasn't surprised. I think a lot of people were surprised. I wasn't surprised. I knew he put in the work.”
(Photo by Jalen Brunson: Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)