Jalen Brunson Looks to Captain Knicks to Glory

It may have taken longer than New Yorkers would have imagined a decade ago, or the decade before that, but the New York Knicks are finally set to enter an NBA season as one of its most anticipated contenders.

Their current chances wouldn't be helpful without Jalen Brunson guiding the way, just like how their window wouldn't have opened at all had the former second round draft pick not developed into one of the league's best scoring point guards upon arriving in New York and taking advantage of their middling situation.

He signed to the Knicks before he'd ever so much as gotten named to an All-Star team, and he's raised his game enough to earn MVP votes in each of his three seasons in New York. He peaked as an award finalist in 2024 with a fifth-place finish, recognition for his career-high 28.7 point per game average, but his status has never been better entering the 2025-26 season.

The Knicks have won at least one playoff series in every campaign on his watch, going all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals and ending a 25-year drought just this past spring. And with the front office completely devoting themselves to finding the necessary depth pieces to improve the team's rotation around Brunson, he's projected to continue pumping out numbers this fall.

New head coach Mike Brown has already stressed how important Brunson will be in guiding his quicker, less plodding scoring attack, but don't expect him to continue playing under the same 35+ minute per game workloads he was managing under Tom Thibodeau, Brown's predecessor. He'll still make regularly long appearances in every close fourth quarter in defending his recent Clutch Player of the Year win, but all of New York's offseason moves point towards their emphasis on easing Brunson's burden.