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Eyes on Jalen Brunson: Observing the New York Knicks’ star in Miami for a night

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Eyes on Jalen Brunson: Observing the New York Knicks’ star in Miami for a night

MIAMI — Jalen Brunson has a minute to spare as he walks out of the visitor’s tunnel inside Kaseya Center in downtown Miami Wednesday night. The New York Knicks’ star guard is scheduled to begin his pregame workout at 6 p.m., but being on time is being late.

As Brunson always does, he walks straight for the scorer’s table, scoops a glob of hand cream with his finger and massages it into his hands. At the same time, Brunson’s father, Rick, an assistant coach for the Knicks, gets out of his seat to greet his son on the court. No words are exchanged. The two get down to business, which includes a shooting routine that lasts 15 minutes. The Brunsons, in the midst of stardom, expectations and nine-figure contracts, get to take it back to the essence before every game. Rick is always the one who puts Jalen through his pregame work. Just a father, his son, a basketball and a basket. Just like it was 20-plus years ago.

The routine has no wasted motions. Jalen shoots around the midrange area, does off-the-dribble 3s, 3s off screens and much more. They’ve got it down to a T, where every workout flows seamlessly into the next. The Brunsons barely talk to one another, other than a quick something that was said to make both chuckle. If it weren’t for that and their physical similarities, you’d think the two couldn’t stand one another.

Jalen Brunson is the ultimate preparer and, from all accounts, has a work ethic that matches very few. His pregame routine is done at game speed. His sweat breaks a sweat. This is what it takes to become the player he has become.

The face of the Knicks franchise is 90 minutes from taking on the Miami Heat when he walks out for his pregame workout. New York is coming off a game in which the Cleveland Cavaliers, a likely roadblock for the Knicks who look to end a championship drought longer than Broadway, handed them their second loss in three games. Brunson, the team’s captain, took responsibility for the defeat, saying he needed to do a better job of getting co-star Karl-Anthony Towns more involved in the offense.

This is Brunson and the Knicks’ first chance to rectify their mistakes from the loss Monday night, and it seems like an ideal night to key-in on and observe Brunson, and only Brunson, for an entire game.

First quarter 

11:33: Defensively, the Knicks are hiding Brunson on Heat forward Nikola Jović. Miami is unable to jump right into good offense, yet Jović ends up with the ball on the run as the shot clock winds down, getting past Brunson and straight to the bucket. Luckily for Brunson, Jović misses the layup, and the former grabs the rebounds and pushes the pace, only to get off the ball shortly upon breaking past half court. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Brunson in a lot of off-ball actions as the game goes on.

9: 37: Brunson gets a hockey assist as he curls around a Towns screen, takes a dribble and then tosses the ball back out to the big man. Towns could shoot the ball, but elects to pass it to the corner instead to an even-more-open Mikal Bridges, who drains the 3. New York came into the contest averaging the lowest number of 3s attempted per game in the NBA. It’s clear early on that this is an emphasis, and using Brunson as an off-ball weapon helped trigger it. New York is playing through Towns to begin the game.

4:17: As he mentioned after the Cavs loss, Brunson is making a concerted effort to get his teammates involved early. With Bridges at the line shooting free throws, Brunson goes to talk to OG Anunoby about what appeared to be the possession before, when Brunson wanted to feed Anunoby, who was being guarded by the smaller Terry Rozier in the post. It looked like Brunson asked him why he wasn’t able to get positioning and that he was trying to get him the ball with the size mismatch.

3:12: Brunson checks out for the quarter with a game-high three assists and only three shots. He’s standing by his word to get his teammates more involved, and it’s aided in New York already shooting seven 3-pointers through this point in the quarter. The Knicks are down one when Brunson checks out.

Second quarter

7:44: Brunson checked in about a minute ago and is playing alongside Miles McBride. On his second possession, Brunson is playing off the ball and McBride initiates the offense. The latter gets two feet in the paint and kicks it out to Brunson in the corner for 3. The shot just misses, but the process was interesting, simply because that was only Brunson’s second catch-and-shoot 3 on the season. One way for the Knicks to up their 3-point shooting and not rely so heavily on Brunson is by putting him in the position to be a threat as a spot-up shooter. The result wasn’t what New York wanted, but it’s an interesting process to monitor going forward.

5:09: Brunson finds himself isolated one-on-one with Jović. The Knicks’ guard breaks down Jović off the dribble, gets into the paint and kicks it out to the corner to Josh Hart when the help defender shifts over. Hart misses the 3, but Brunson’s intentions were clear from the beginning once he recognized that his drive would force an extra defender to come over. Brunson exploited the mismatch, created an advantage with the drive and then helped generate a wide-open 3. The Knicks came in with that clear initiative to shoot more 3s and Brunson has been a big facilitator of that. Usually, Brunson would take someone like Jović all the way to the basket.

3:08: The Brunson-Towns pick-and-roll/pop partnership has been a work in progress since they joined forces, but it just reached new heights: an alley-oop. Brunson dribbles right off the Towns screen, which features another screen behind it. When Brunson turns the corner, he quickly eats up the space in front of him, makes the lone defender in his path commit to him and then tosses the ball in the air to a soaring Towns. It’s a dynamic we’ve yet to see between the two stars, but one that, with time, should become more frequent.

0:32: After spending most of the half trying to get others involved, Brunson comes down and shoots a 3 in an attempt to get a two-for-one. The shot hits the rim and doesn’t go in. In an attempt to try to help others get into a flow, it seems Brunson has been unable to find one himself so far. He’s 1-of-7 shooting with just four points in 17 minutes. However, he does have five assists and probably should have a few more.

New York will go into halftime down six, and it’ll need to get more out of Brunson as a scorer in the second half.

Third quarter

9:41: After passing up a 3 and missing a midrange jumper, Brunson gets all the way to the basket for a layup to cut New York’s deficit to seven. The Knicks are still using Brunson off the ball to begin the third quarter and the offense just seems a bit out of sync. This team’s chemistry is still very much a work in progress and so is the offense. It’s evident that New York is experimenting with different actions to find a better balance and more attempts from 3. The latter has come to fruition, but the offense still feels out of sorts.

7:57: Brunson is pressing a little bit over the last few possessions, but a nice kick-out pass from Bridges to an open Brunson in the corner leads to a 3 for the guard, who desperately needed to see a jumper fall. It’s his first made 3 of the game and just his third bucket of the night. The previous possession, Brunson forced a tough midrange jumper that saw the ball hit the front of the rim as he fell on a cameramen on the baseline. It’s clear that he’s a bit frustrated, and having been around Brunson, it’s most likely with himself.

4:33: The Brunson-Towns pick-and-pop brings a huge momentum boost for the Knicks. Brunson goes right off the Towns screens, sees that Rozier is trailing behind him and Bam Adebayo is in front of him playing in drop coverage. Brunson takes Adebayo all the way down near the semi-circle, turns around and whips a pass back to Towns for a 3. It’s Towns’ first 30-point game as a Knick and ties the game at 74. Brunson controlled that entire play with his patience as he set up the defenders and created enough space for Towns to have space to shoot.

3:33: Brunson steps into a catch-and-shoot 3 and drills it after missing one just seconds before. The Knicks are rolling, as they lead by two after trailing by double-digits not long ago, and the offense has had a few good possessions in a row.

2:38: Brunson checks out with New York leading by two.

Fourth quarter

9: 36: Brunson checks back in with the Knicks up eight. On the first play, Brunson gives up the ball, only to get it back coming off a screen. He gets downhill and finds Jericho Sims over the top for a dunk. It’s Brunson’s eighth assist of the night. He may not be scoring with the efficiency that observers are used to, but his head is on a swivel and he’s been intentional in setting his teammates up to succeed. It’s been a solid, old-school “point guard” performance.

7:42: Brunson tries to isolate Jaime Jaquez Jr. and does a gather step from beyond the free-throw line that allows him to draw a foul. In the process, Brunson tweaked his ankle. He hobbled to the corner of the court after coming down awkwardly. He shoots both free throws but only makes one of the two. Knicks lead by five.

5:55: Big players make big plays, and Brunson stepped into a deep 3 early in the shot clock with the Heat collecting momentum and drilled it. He does his patented 3-point celebration after and forces a Miami timeout. After shooting the ball poorly in the first half, Brunson is 4-of-7 shooting in the second half. It hasn’t been pretty, but New York has found a proper balance with Brunson moving into the forefront and Towns taking a bit of a backseat.

4:01: Brunson takes Jimmy Butler one-on-one and gets him off his feet with a nice up-fake, but the midrange shot is long. New York, leading by four, has come up empty on the last few possessions and Brunson was able to create a good opportunity. It hasn’t been his night shooting the ball, but these moments are why he’s here, and he embraces that.

2:42: Brunson is doing what superstars do: make play after play with the game on the line. He followed up a drive and scored with a bullet pass from the 3-point line to a cutting Hart for a layup. It was a momentum-shifter for the Knicks, and a reminder that the best players, even on off-nights, find ways to bring it home.

0:00: Knicks beat Heat, 116-107.

Brunson is a leader. His words following Monday’s loss weren’t just put into the atmosphere for a sound-bite or fake accountability. Brunson said he needed to be better at putting his teammates in position to succeed, and he did by assisting nine times and spraying the ball around the court, even if it came at the detriment of his own rhythm.

Despite a rough shooting night, Brunson, who finished with 22 points, nine assists and just one turnover, did what the top players in this league do and close out games. He didn’t shy away from the moment because his shots weren’t going in. Brunson stepped into each shot in the fourth quarter like he hadn’t missed any previously. He kept his head on a swivel in the process, finding teammates and helping Towns, who scored 44 points, have a vintage Towns night in his new uniform.

Superstars always find a way to leave an impact on a game, and Brunson’s fingerprints were all over this win, most notably because of the unselfishness with which he played. That’s what separates the great from the good.

(Top photo of Jalen Brunson: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images)

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