00:00Jalen Brunson, without a doubt, is the king of New York.
00:03The guy's got the key to the city.
00:0547 points, 8 assists, 0 turnovers,
00:09and another standing ovation at the guard in the win over the Heat.
00:12But has he made a strong enough case to be an early favorite for NBA MVP?
00:17Let's talk Captain Clutch with Steph Bondi, our Knicks beat writer for the post.
00:21Steph, what's going on, my man?
00:23I was at the Giants game, so I had to miss the greatness.
00:26I want to start with what Mike Brown said about Jalen Brunson's masterpiece
00:31after last night's performance, and I want to get your thoughts on it.
00:37With the way we shot the ball tonight, that saved us obviously on top of Jalen.
00:43Again, you're struggling a little bit offensively.
00:46You want to have an MVP of the league on your side.
00:50And for him to score 47, especially on 15 for 26,
00:566 for 13 from the 3-point line and 11 for 11 from the free throw line
00:59while dishing out 8 assists.
01:03You know, again, I have to mention it, but that's what he's capable of doing,
01:07and that's what MVPs are supposed to do on nights like tonight.
01:11The man didn't stutter when he casually just let out MVP like that.
01:16Steph, we're about a quarter way through the season.
01:18Does Jalen Brunson have a strong enough resume to make a case for league MVP?
01:23Now, listen, I respect what Mike Brown's trying to do.
01:27He's been doing this for weeks now where he's pumping up Jalen Brunson as an MVP candidate.
01:32It's just impossible to see him winning MVP.
01:35I mean, he's the best player in the Eastern Conference.
01:36You can argue that for sure.
01:38It's either him or Cade Cunningham right now.
01:40But if you factor in Shea Gildress, Alexander, and the Thunder,
01:43who are on a remarkable stretch to start this season,
01:46Nikola Jokic is averaging a triple-double for the Nuggets,
01:51who are having a great season.
01:53And Luka Doncic is averaging over 34 points per game for the Lakers,
01:57who are also, I think they're 19-8 right now.
01:59So there's no way you could put Jalen Brunson in the top three right now.
02:05And when you factor in how great Jokic is
02:08and how great Shea Gildress-Alexander is,
02:11I don't think there's much of a shot of him winning MVP.
02:13There's certainly a shot of him becoming the first Nick to go,
02:18first team All-NBA since, I believe, Patrick Ewing.
02:22Carmelo Anthony never did it.
02:23But MVP, given the players in the Western Conference,
02:27I don't think that's realistic.
02:29So with what he's done early in the season as a Nick,
02:33you've covered this team for a long time now.
02:36Is there anything that he's doing early in this season
02:39that's a comparable run to a former Nick great?
02:42I mean, you know, Carmelo had a great 2012-2013.
02:50He was, he got an MVP vote that year.
02:53I think he was, he was the one guy that kept LeBron James
02:55from becoming the first unanimous all-unanimous MVP.
03:00Later became Steph Curry.
03:02But I know LeBron is probably still upset that Carmelo got that vote.
03:06So, you know, what Carmelo did when they won 54 games that season,
03:09it was great, but Jalen Brunson, I mean, there's no question Jalen Brunson
03:13is the best Nick since Patrick Ewing already.
03:16I mean, he's amazing and he keeps getting better.
03:18And I think that's a remarkable part about it is you watch what he did
03:22in the playoffs last season and you watch what he did in the playoffs
03:25two years ago and you're like, this is the ceiling of this guy, right?
03:28He's six foot one.
03:29He can't really jump.
03:31He's not that fast.
03:32Like, how high can he go?
03:34You know, what's the ceiling?
03:36And, you know, you cap it and then you're always wrong.
03:38So, you know, he's proven a lot of people wrong throughout his career
03:42as a second round pick and he keeps raising his game.
03:46You know, I can't really go back and compare him to anybody else
03:48because there's nobody, you know, in the NBA that's like him right now.
03:52I mean, the guy, you know, given his size and stature,
03:55he's doing things that no other player has done in history.
03:58And I understand, you know, Allen Iverson was also small
04:00and a great scorer, but Allen Iverson was an athletic phenomenon.
04:04That's not who Jalen Brunson is.
04:05He does it with wit.
04:07You know, he does it with, you know, pivots and movements
04:10and understanding the game better than anybody else.
04:12So, different kind of player and certainly, like you said,
04:15you know, he's the man in New York right now.
04:17Let's break down this team a little bit
04:19because they have their star in Jalen Brunson.
04:21They've got other scoring options
04:23and they've got a lot of guys on this roster that can hoop.
04:26They also have probably, what, the best bench we've seen in the wild.
04:30So, is this the best Knicks team that you've seen in recent years?
04:35Yeah, I think so.
04:36And I think, now, the bench is, that's not entirely true
04:39because when the Knicks had, two years ago,
04:41when the Knicks had Emmanuel Quickly and Obi Topping
04:44and Quentin Grimes coming off the bench
04:48and Josh Hart was coming off the bench too sometimes,
04:51that was the best bench that they had.
04:53Now, they traded, you know, they traded it to get OG Ananobi.
04:56So, that kind of altered the dynamics there.
04:59And I forgot to mention Dante DiVincenzo was coming off the bench at one point as well.
05:03So, that was the best bench that they had.
05:05But this bench is certainly better than last year's bench.
05:08And the ceiling is higher for a couple reasons.
05:11One is the competition in the East.
05:14Boston, you know, they lost Jason Tatum.
05:17He might return and that's a big wild card.
05:19But they're not the dynamic team that they were last season when you feared them.
05:24The Indiana Pacers are now a bad team.
05:27They won the Eastern Conference last year.
05:29And now they, you know, they lost Tyrese Halliburton.
05:32And now they're a terrible team.
05:33So, you know, the Cleveland Cavaliers as well.
05:35We came into the season saying, all right, well, this might be the number one team in the East.
05:40They're playing very poorly.
05:41So, if you look at the competition, I think that's where you say, all right,
05:45the Knicks are the favorite to win the Eastern Conference.
05:47You weren't saying that last season until the Knicks went up 3-1 against the Celtics
05:51and Jason Tatum's Achilles blew out.
05:53So, that's number one.
05:55Number two is, like we talked about already,
05:57Jalen Brunson is a better player than he was last season.
06:00And, you know, you go by how far you go with your star and he's better than he was.
06:06And the other reason is the, you know, the depth and the system.
06:09I think the system helps out the wings more than anybody.
06:12I think it's a good system for Mikael Bridges and OG Ananobi.
06:15And that's a good formula for winning in the playoffs.
06:18So, I think those are the factors that make this year's team better than last season's team.
06:23I'm going to go back to the Jalen Brunson MVP thing.
06:26You mentioned three guys that probably are in the league or ahead of him right now,
06:30if we were to pick an MVP right now.
06:33But is there anything Jalen Brunson can do to put himself in that top three?
06:39I mean, listen, you win games, right?
06:44If you win 65 games, the Knicks win 60 plus games, now we're having a different conversation.
06:49And, you know, the MVP is a lot of, well, you know, you look at the stats and you look at the impact.
06:55And certainly Jokic is going to have better stats than anybody.
06:58I mean, what he's doing is ridiculous.
06:59But if the Knicks win more games than any other team, then we're going to have that conversation.
07:04Certainly, he gets put in the upper echelon and, you know, that's really what the MVP is about.
07:12You know, voters take that into account more than anything is which team had the best record.
07:16So, if the Knicks can somehow have a better record than the Thunder,
07:20now we're having a different conversation.
07:22The problem is the Thunder are on a ridiculous stretch right now to start the season.
07:26It's hard to see that happening.
07:28Now, listen, the Thunder have lost two of their last three.
07:31So, maybe they're more vulnerable than we thought.
07:33But it will take, you know, the Knicks just going on a tremendous tear to end this season
07:38to elevate Jalen Brunson into that conversation of the top three.
07:42And, you know, I think that there's a realistic way that he surpasses Doncic
07:46because, you know, I'm still not sold on the Lakers as a good or a great team.
07:51So, you know, if the Lakers take a big tumble, then Jalen can crack that top three above Doncic.
07:57But getting above Jokic or SGA is really a tough ask.
08:01Steph Bondi, always appreciative of your time, man.
08:05Happy holidays, bro.
08:07All right, bro. You too.
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