Jalen Brunson is the best Knick since Patrick Ewing

[Hello Brooklyn]

I'm not a big Melo fan.

But Carmelo was way better than Brunson ever was. He was an MVP top 5 level player while on the Knicks.

No they didn't have much playoff success. But this Knicks team will also inevitably be a 2nd round exit.

[KyRo23]

Jalen Brunson is a top5 player in the world right now!

So he's better than Giannis, Jokic, Doncic, Gilgeous Alexander, Tatum or Edwards now?

I take him over gilgeous Tatum and edwards…

I don't know if SGA is debatable this year. Especially when you account for both sides of the ball. The other 2, I'm sure you can debate it though

[boogiezen]

Brunson finally has the freedom to play heliocentric basketball and took 40 shots to get 61 points. The same criticism on Luka. But social media reminded me that only Luka is a ballhog and not a winner.

[hippesthippo]

This is basically saying he is better than Carmelo. I suppose it's debatable but Carmelo did average 28.7ppg on a Knicks team that won 54 games.

Brunson has overachieved and become more likable than Carmelo, but I'm not sure he has cleared that bar yet. He very well could though.

Brunson is a better leader and playmaker than Carmelo. Besides, he at least tries at the defense end.

Perhaps time will prove this to be true, but I do think Carmelo is getting short-changed here since we have the benefit of knowing he never won anything with the Knicks. He has done everything with the Knicks that Brunson has done, so far.

I was thinking the same thing... Brunson has had better teams as well. Although, part of that may be that Brunson's play style is more conducive towards elevating the guys around him.

No mentions for Amare Stoudemire?! He had a great... 60 game stretch.

[Roger Murdock]

What has Brunson accomplished beyond Randolph?

I’m talking career wise- not just when Randolph was on the knicks?

Randolph was one of the best power forwards in the nba for at least 5 seasons

Randolph was HORRIBLE on the Knicks. This board used to do a ‘least valuable NBA player’ poll and Randolph won in a landslide when he was with the Knicks. His value as a Knick was closer to Scoot Henderson than Jalen Brunson

fair point- I probably shouldn't have included as him. I wonder why he was so bad on the Knicks? He was good everywhere else.

Perhaps it was that he was surrounded by poor defenders and that was a relative weak spot in his own game as he had very limited athleticism.

Knicks enabled all his worst qualities and none of his good

[LegenW84ITBOBBY]

Just another Mike James in the Raptors era. Move along...


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[Roy T]

Man you need to put some respec on a few people names.

Brunson has not done **** in New York so far, he might as well be an empty stats guy at this point.

to be fair who has done **** in New York?

Some players that are crapped on in this thread at least went to the finals.

[cgf]

Man you need to put some respec on a few people names.

Brunson has not done **** in New York so far, he might as well be an empty stats guy at this point.

to be fair who has done **** in New York?

Some players that are crapped on in this thread at least went to the finals.

Give Jalen time...and a healthy supporting cast *fingerscrossed*

[cgf]

Brunson is putting up great numbers but what sticks out to me is that he only has two turnovers in his last five games.

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IIRC that lines up with when McBride...who's shooting insane %s from 3 & has had some huge games in that stretch...got moved into the starting lineup for Achiuwa. Precious has been great, but DDV was the only non-Brunson shooter in our starting lineup* before Thibs went small.

With Deuce & Divo out there to drain open 3s, Hart a threat to slash to the hoop if given an alley, and Hartenstein scoring more aggressively during this run, it's been a lot more painful to hard-trap & excessively double Brunson.


*at least with OG & Julius hurt, Randle may not shoot a great percentage but teams guard him out there because he can get hot enough to win games with his 3 and you don't want to give him too much room to scan the court.

Indeed.
Excellent coaching and the team looks focused.

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Yeah, people have their conceptions about Thibs as a coach, but the most important thing for him is always whether something works or not. Thibs won't stick with an experiment that gets bad results, but he'll try whatever if it works.

[DimesandKnicks]

This really isn't the hill you want to die on... Historically both franchises have not been great. It's actually comical how much they mirror each other to be honest.

Over the last 20 years the Knicks have had the 4th worst win % in the NBA, the Nets have had the 7th worst... I'm not going to gloat about that, because 7th is still BAD, but trust me you don't want this smoke because it's going to SHATTER your perception of what a "storied" (:lol:) and "successful" (:lol:) 'Chise the Knicks are...

I know Manhattan still goes hard for the Knicks, but facts don't care about feelings.

One team has two championships. NJ didn’t even want the other and NY will never love her either

Come on bruh, you're not going to kill Karate with a casual take like that. You've gotta come correct.

The Knicks have two pre-ABA merger championships, won in 1970 and 1973, the Nets during that same time period won ABA championships in 1974 and 1976.

The top of the ABA was just as good, if not better, than the NBA in those years, especially when comparing the top talent / teams in the league.

We beat Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Jerry West. The Nets beat David Thompson and Bobby Jones….really?

Point still stands. And you shouldn’t refer to yourself in third person. It’s not good for the soul

[sisibilio]

Watch on YouTube

[OfficialRef]

I have Melo's 2013 season a bit better. Brunson has a chance to surpass him if the Knicks make it past the second round. Melo's playoff run was pretty underwhelming.

[cgf]

I have Melo's 2013 season a bit better. Brunson has a chance to surpass him if the Knicks make it past the second round. Melo's playoff run was pretty underwhelming.

I'm no Melo stan, but he did have a tear in his shoulder during that run...and he did have some huge games in that loss to the Pacers despite his injury.

[Governor Dudley]

Brunson could lead the Knicks to a 50 win season and the playoffs, and be a top 5 scorer, all while a bunch of his best teammates were out with injuries for big chunks of the season.

Who was the 2nd best knick while Randle, Robinson, and OG were injured?

What kind of piffery are some of you smoking.

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[benhillboy]

Carmelo was always rubbish as his metrics suggest, of course Brunson is that dude.
Knicks 16-3 with OG in the lineup with his obscene +23 on court per 100 tho. Them dudes are really rallying around Jalen as they should.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

He is.

[cgf]

Carmelo was always rubbish as his metrics suggest, of course Brunson is that dude.
Knicks 16-3 with OG in the lineup with his obscene +23 on court per 100 tho. Them dudes are really rallying around Jalen as they should.

No need to sell Melo short to hype Brunson. Melo was a fantastic player, but Jalen's surpassing him...and since we didn't have to trade every young asset we had for Jalen, the FO has been able to build the kind of squad around Brunson that Melo didn't ever really get as a knick...even if a lot of that squad has missed significant PT this season.


Where the debate could get interesting would be if a healthy Randle was able to produce in the playoffs like he has been in the regular season, now that he has Brunson at the point. Melo's a higher level scorer than Julius but significantly less of a playmaker & rebounder, and Randle has shown a level defensively when he's locked in & making the right help decisions, that we never got from Melo.

But until a healthy Julius can put up ~25, ~10, ~5 on acceptable efficiency in the playoffs, that conversation has to be on hold...despite Melo's career 51% playoff TS not exactly being a super impressive #.

[Woodsanity]

Brunson finally has the freedom to play heliocentric basketball and took 40 shots to get 61 points. The same criticism on Luka. But social media reminded me that only Luka is a ballhog and not a winner.

You really comparing Luka to a guy missing three starters?

Also Luka has Kyrie....

Please think before posting thanks.

We blew out the Sixers with Embiid and Nuggets with Jokic by almost 40 when we were ALMOST fully healthy.

[NY2k1]

I'm not a big Melo fan.

But Carmelo was way better than Brunson ever was. He was an MVP top 5 level player while on the Knicks.

No they didn't have much playoff success. But this Knicks team will also inevitably be a 2nd round exit.

A fully healthy Knicks team makes the ECF at a minimum. That still may end up being the case. Granted, the teams are different, but Brunson has already performed better in the playoffs than Melo ever did.

[Woodsanity]

Last playoffs Brunson already surpassed anything Melo did.

Melo has never been efficient in the playoffs as a Knick.