Jalen Brunson has played in all 19 games for the New York Knicks so far this season. Right now, however, the 26-year-old is in danger of missing his first game for his new team after Brunson popped up on the injury report ahead of Sunday's marquee matchup against Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies.
Brunson has officially been tagged as questionable after reportedly missing Saturday's practice. The 6-foot-1 combo guard is dealing with what the Knicks have labeled as a right-quad contusion, which he suffered during Friday's overtime loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Knicks are in a slump right now, losing three out of their last four games, and the last thing they need is to lose their best player for an extended period.
At this point, New York head coach Tom Thibodeau isn't very confident that Brunson will be available against the Grizzlies:
“We’ll see where he is [on Sunday],” Thibodeau said, via Peter Botte of the New York Post. “I think he’s been so huge for us, just because of so many different qualities that he has.”
The silver lining here is that the injury doesn't sound serious. It's very much possible that Brunson plays through it on Sunday, but given how little we know about the issue, we also must not count out the possibility of him sitting out multiple games.
What you can say for sure is that Brunson has been nothing short of outstanding this season. Coach Thibs had nothing but high praise for his star point guard, noting how valuable his arrival has been to the Knicks thus far:
“The leadership, I think point guard is a leadership position, and it helps you to manage and control the team,” Thibodeau added. “I think Jalen is so team-oriented, I think it makes your team play unselfishly. I think we’re scoring a lot of points, and he gives us an attack, a pace to the game, downhill, guys are playing off each other.
“And if you move and you’re open on a cut, he’s gonna hit you. He wants to get the ball up the floor fast and when we do that, I think it presents a lot of easy scoring opportunities for everybody.”
The Knicks paid Jalen Brunson a lot of money to take his talents to New York. It has paid dividends for them thus far, with the former Villanova standout averaging a career-high 21.4 points on 49.3 percent shooting, 3.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists (also a career-best), and 1.1 steals per game.
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