Mar 21, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson (11) controls the ball under pressure from Denver Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon (50) as center Nikola Jokic (15) defends in the third quarter at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

Knicks Star Named MVP Sleeper

Originally posted on New York Knicks on SI
By Henry Brown | Last updated Aug 30, 2025 7:00 AM ET

Everything's lined up for Jalen Brunson to make his next push into the inner-most circle of the NBA's award ballots.

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has three of the last five MVPs that the league's handed out, and while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Oklahoma City Thunder built off of their own MVP-winning star in taking home the 2024-25 championship, both of the two clear favorites will need to top the already-high bars they've set for themselves in the eyes of award-voters.

The door's wide open for Brunson to step right back into the MVP conversation, having placed fifth two years ago before accruing considerably weakened buzz on last season's ballot. Bleacher Report knows it, with Dan Favale listing Brunson as his favorite sleeper for the NBA's top individual end-of-season honor.

Brunson slipped from fifth in MVP voting for 2023-24 to 10th in 2024-25. That's the perils of playing alongside another All-NBA talent (Karl-Anthony Towns) and on a maddeningly frustrating team," Favale wrote.

"The Knicks should be good enough to keep Brunson within MVP striking distance. His stock will go through the roof if he remains among the 10 to 15 best players while headlining what should be a more egalitarian/variable offense under head coach Mike Brown."

Brunson's already considered to be within that top-10 conversation, having capped off several years of consistently-impressive counting numbers while leading his once-irrelevant franchise right back into the thick of the playoff year after year. After back-to-back losses in the second round in the first two years in New York, Brunson got his side all the way within a round of the NBA Finals with a 29.4 point per game scoring average that was regularly felt during regulation and in the clutch.

New York Knicks Guard Jalen Brunson Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

His now-expected excellence couples well with a Knicks team that's fully expected to seize the day in an otherwise-lackluster Eastern Conference, with only the Cleveland Cavaliers remaining as the lone team with any deep postseason expectations. The usually-stable operations in Boston and Indiana will be without their best players entering 2025-26, with the rebuilders now outnumbering the contenders out east.

That combination of top 10 player leading one of the league's premier squads has been known to capture the heart of the NBA. Brunson isn't recognized as anything resembling the best player in the game, a distinction still reserved for developing rivals in Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander, but the hypothetical towards the point guard making the race interesting is a believable one.

This article first appeared on New York Knicks on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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