Jalen Brunson gets All-NBA second team nod after breakout season

Jalen Brunson has paired his first All-Star season with an All-NBA second-team nod.

He received 37 first-team votes and 61 second-team votes among the 99 voters, and had the most total points of anyone on the second team.

The Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic were unanimous first-team selections, with Dallas’ Luka Doncic getting 98 first-team votes and a single second-team vote.

The Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum rounded out the first team announced Wednesday.

The Lakers’ Anthony Davis, the Suns’ Kevin Durant, the Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards and the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard joined Brunson on the second team.

It’s the latest accolade for Brunson, who finished fifth in the MVP vote this month after averaging a career-best 28.7 points per game to go with 6.7 assists — also a career high — shooting 47.9 percent from the field and 40.1 percent from beyond the arc.

In the playoffs, he took his game to another level, posting 32.4 points per game on 44 percent shooting from the field, guiding the injury-riddled Knicks, the No. 2 seed in the East, all the way to Game 7 in the conference semifinals.

During the postseason run, Brunson had five 40-plus point games, becoming the first player to accomplish the feat since LeBron James in 2018 and marked the second-most 40-plus point games in a single postseason in Knicks playoff history.

This week, the 27-year-old underwent surgery on his fractured left hand suffered in the season-ending loss to the Pacers.

Alongside his former Villanova teammates Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo, Brunson became the face of the Knicks, thanks in part to their on- and off-court chemistry.

He’ll be a key part of the Knicks’ offseason planning — with one season left on his current deal, the team can offer him a contract of up to four years for roughly $156.5 million, or he can wait a year for free agency and command up to $258 million over five years.

The Knicks also could offer him more guaranteed money over a shorter deal, allowing him to hit free agency earlier.

The Knicks will also continue to look for another star to pair with him, though options may be limited.