Through six games of the Knicks’ title defense, Jalen Brunson’s season has already given the full spectrum: one explosive outburst, a couple of solid wins, and a few nights that looked nothing like the guy who was carrying this team in June. New York is 2-4, and Brunson’s start has been uneven enough that his first six outings can already be sorted from best to worst.
The clear No. 1 is the most recent one, the Knicks’ win in Chicago on Oct. 28.
That was Brunson at his sharpest, piling up a season-high 38 points on 13-of-25 shooting and going 6-of-10 from deep. Every three he hit came on a pull-up, and he finished 6-of-8 on pull-up threes overall while connecting on 11-of-16 pull-up shot attempts.
He also handed out seven assists that led to 25 points, and he either scored or assisted on 57 of New York’s 133 points. No other Knick has been responsible for more than 41 points in a game this season.
That performance stood out even more because it looked like a reset after a cold opening stretch following an NBA Finals MVP performance and wrist surgery over the summer.
His next-best game likely came the night before that, in the win over Detroit at Madison Square Garden. Brunson scored 23 points on 18 shots, a rough shooting line at 27.8% from the field, but he found other ways to matter.
He got to the line 16 times and finished with a season-best plus-14. Against a physical Pistons group, he was also excellent defensively, holding Detroit to 3-of-11 shooting as the primary defender across 65.6 partial possessions.
As a switch defender, he took on eight screens and allowed just 0.25 points per screen. With Brunson on the floor, the Knicks posted a 128.6 offensive rating, a 104.1 defensive rating and a +24.5 net rating in 36:26, their best mark with him on the court this season.
Karl-Anthony Towns was especially productive alongside Brunson in that game, scoring 21 points on 9-of-13 shooting in 23:35 with him, compared to six points on 3-of-8 shooting in 8:58 without him.
Brunson’s trip to Boston on Oct. 23 lands in the upper half too, even though it was the first time this season he didn’t reach 20 points. He finished 7-of-17 from the field with three turnovers, but he did add two blocks and the Knicks won his minutes by six.
Towns carried a lot of the offense there, going for 22 points on 69.2% shooting with 10 rebounds, and New York still managed a 120.8 offensive rating with Brunson on the floor. It wasn’t a big Brunson scoring night, but the team was still functioning well around him.
Friday’s NBA Cup opener was rougher. Brunson put up 24 points, six assists and five rebounds in the loss, but he needed 22 shots to get there and had a game-worst -2.96 shot selection over expected, per The Court Lab.
He struggled on pull-up looks again, going 5-of-14 overall on pull-up attempts and 2-of-9 on pull-up threes. He also had a tough time in one-on-one offense, scoring only 0.29 points per isolation play.
Even so, he still created 43 points through scoring or assists, and the Knicks scored 1.71 points per Brunson drive, with only Towns doing better among players with multiple drives in that game.
The worst performance of the bunch came against Orlando, and it wasn’t close. Brunson scored 28 points, but the numbers behind the box score were ugly.
His Value Added was -2.51, with only James Wiseman (-2.86) and Jase Richardson (-2.63) lower in the game. Most of the damage came on offense, where he was at -6.52 Value Added.
He shot 3-of-12 on pull-up field goals and missed 16 of his 28 attempts overall. New York’s offense was a 91.2 ORTG with him on the floor, compared to 129.0 in the 15:31 he sat.
The Knicks had jumped out to a 12-point lead early, but they faded badly and lost by nine, with Brunson collecting some late garbage-time points after Orlando had already taken control.
His first game of the season also belongs near the bottom. On a night when the Knicks got their championship rings and welcomed LeBron James and the new-look Sixers to MSG, Brunson looked out of sync.
He scored 21 points on 19 shots and had only three assists. In his 34:06 on the floor, New York posted an 89.0 offensive rating and was outscored by 11.
When he sat for 13:54, the Knicks had a 125 offensive rating and won those minutes by five.
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