Jalen Brunson Is Playing Like an MVP - And Mike Brown Wants the League to Wake Up
Knicks head coach Mike Brown isn’t mincing words when it comes to Jalen Brunson’s impact this season. All-Star talk?
That’s yesterday’s news. Brown believes Brunson belongs in the thick of the MVP conversation - and he’s got a compelling case to back it up.
“To me, we’re talking MVP,” Brown said after practice on Thursday. “When you look around the league, and you’re talking about an MVP candidate, you’re talking about probably the top-three teams in each conference. You’ve gotta look at their main guy.”
Through 24 games, Brunson has been exactly that - the main guy on a Knicks team that’s not just winning, but winning with purpose. New York entered the NBA Cup semifinal against the Magic with a 17-7 record, sitting second in the East behind the red-hot Detroit Pistons (19-5). That’s no small feat in a conference where Boston, Orlando, and Toronto are all tightly packed in the race for playoff positioning.
And while the West has its own juggernaut in the 24-1 Oklahoma City Thunder, Brown’s MVP criteria is clear: team success matters. If you’re leading a top-tier team and driving winning night after night, you belong in the MVP mix.
“That boils down to Cade [Cunningham] and Jalen, Luka [Doncic] and Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander], and I don’t know who’s third in each conference, but whoever’s third,” Brown said. “Those are the names that you start with and end with.”
It’s a fair point. MVPs don’t just fill up box scores - they tilt the balance of games, elevate teammates, and most importantly, win. That’s exactly what Brunson has been doing.
He’s averaging 28.3 points and 6.3 assists per game while shooting a sharp 48 percent from the field. His plus-9.2 net rating ranks third among all players averaging 25 or more points - trailing only Nikola Jokic (plus-10.2) and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (plus-15.4), the league’s last two MVP winners.
In other words, Brunson isn’t just putting up numbers - he’s producing winning basketball at an elite level.
“And so for me, Jalen is just doing what he gets paid to do,” Brown added. “He’s an MVP candidate in this business, and he’s just showing it again to everybody, and hopefully, you guys and the rest of the world take notice of it.”
The MVP race, of course, is no walk in the park. Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder have been nearly untouchable, with just one loss on the season.
Jokic is doing Jokic things - flirting with a 30-point triple-double on a nightly basis. Luka’s stat lines look like something out of a video game, and Cade Cunningham has Detroit sitting atop the East while putting up his own nightly triple-double threats.
But here’s the thing: Brunson’s production isn’t just comparable - it’s historically significant for this franchise.
Despite leading the Knicks to back-to-back 50-win seasons, Brunson has never received a single MVP vote - not even a third-place nod. That could change this spring. If it does, he’d become the first Knick to earn MVP consideration since Carmelo Anthony finished third in 2013, behind LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
Before Melo, you have to go back to the '90s, when Patrick Ewing carried the Knicks into annual contention. Earlier eras saw Bernard King, Walt “Clyde” Frazier, and Dave DeBusschere get MVP nods. But only one Knick has ever taken home the award: Willis Reed, back in 1970.
That’s the kind of historical company Brunson is edging toward - and he’s doing it with a calm, steady brilliance that’s become the heartbeat of this Knicks team.
He’s not the flashiest name in the MVP conversation, but that’s never been Brunson’s game. He’s a technician - a floor general who controls pace, punishes mismatches, and makes the right read more often than not. He’s the kind of player who makes his teammates better and his team tougher to beat.
And if the Knicks keep stacking wins the way they have, the MVP chatter is only going to get louder.
The race will be tight. The competition is fierce. But if you’re looking for a player who checks every box - production, leadership, winning - then it might be time to start taking Jalen Brunson’s MVP case seriously.
As Mike Brown put it: the conversation might start with names like Luka, Shai, and Cade. But don’t be surprised if it ends right here in New York.