Jalen Brunson has emerged as a full-fledged star in 2023-24, leading the New York Knicks toward the top of the Eastern Conference while playing the best basketball of his career. Even before his debut campaign in New York after signing with the Knicks as a free agent in the summer of 2022, though, there was an assumption that Brunson would top out as little more than a solid starting point guard.
How else to explain New York bringing him in for the bargain contract of four years and $104 million? Or the Dallas Mavericks' refusal to not just match the terms of that deal, but refuse to afford Brunson the four-year, $55 million extension he sought before hitting free agency?
It's clear by now that Mark Cuban and the Mavericks erred wildly when opting against making Brunson a long-term fixture next to franchise player Luka Doncic, a massive mistake from which the franchise is still recovering. At least Dallas isn't the only one who misjudged Brunson's level of talent and ultimate ceiling relative to his former superstar teammate's, though.
Appearing on All The Smoke, Brunson recalled his early impressions of Doncic when the pair entered the league as Mavericks rookies in 2018-19.
“He came in right away, he just looked so effortless. Like my style, I have to come in everyday, I have to do this, have to do that, have to do this just to make sure they see,” Brunson said. “He would just come into the gym, he’d do his work, then we’d play pickup , it’d just look like he’s in slow motion but it looked like he was doing whatever he wants. I’m thinking I play at my own place, I control the game whatever, I do it a little differently, but his is just on another level. So from day one I was like this dude is good, but like also I’m thinking like damn this dude is good, do I belong? That’s the type of doubt he put in my mind, he was that good.”
Luka Doncic returns Jalen Brunson's praise
Brunson and Doncic haven't been shy to praise one another since their times as teammates came to an unceremonious close. The former is New York's biggest star since Carmelo Anthony, while the latter has found another dynamic sidekick in the backcourt in Kyrie Irving. But there's no doubting that both Brunson and Doncic miss playing together, wondering what could've been had their shared time in Dallas not been cut short.
Just like Brunson saw something special in Doncic early, the same can be said vice versa. Talking with JJ Redick on a recent episode of The Old Man and the Three, Doncic—who missed the first two games of the series due to injury—recalled Brunson's career-altering performance in the first round of 2022 playoffs against the Utah Jazz.
“So that second game, if we lost that second game, it would be tough to come back. We'd be 0-2, and then we have two in Utah,” Doncic said. “So the second game I think he had like 45 or something like that. Like it was a tough game and we needed a win no matter what. And that game, I was really impressed. I was just on the bench watching like, ‘Wow, this guy's amazing.' But just starting [when we] first got together, like the way he worked out every day, coming back in the afternoon. You know, it was just amazing to play with that guy.”
Clearly, separating has worked out just fine for both Brunson and Doncic. As Dallas tries to work its way up the Western Conference standings after an active trade deadline, though, it's still hard not to imagine what could've been had the Mavericks simply paid up to keep Brunson as Doncic's co-star.
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