![\"Jalen](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2270144096-e1775997462931.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks <\/p>\n
The New York Knicks<\/a> are less than a week away from the tip-off of the NBA playoffs, but it\u2019s safe to say that the anxiety has already been kicking in. The team has as much talent as anyone in the East, yet it\u2019s sitting with the No. 3 seed in the conference. At times the Knicks have shown themselves to be a true contender, and at other times, they\u2019ve folded the moment adversity strikes. But through it all, for all the money spent on the supporting cast and the star-studded starting five, it might well all come down to Jalen Brunson<\/a>.<\/p>\n During his tenure as the Knicks\u2019 leading man, Brunson has had some ups and downs in the postseason, but his numbers are very good: 29.9 points, 45.8% shooting, 33.6% from the 3-point line, with 6.8 assists. Last spring, though, the Knicks tended to get somewhat stuck offensively, as their offensive efficiency dropped from 117.3 in the regular season to 112.7 in the playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n While there are plenty of spots on the Knicks roster that will be watched closely during the playoffs, the Knicks\u2019 playoff hops are mostly in the hands of Brunson.<\/p>\n Jalen Brunson Can Be \u2018Dominant\u2019<\/p>\n For former Washington Wizards<\/a> All-Star John Wall, Brunson still needs to figure out how to navigate his role as the Knicks\u2019 engine and top scoring threat, while making sure all the other scorers on the team are getting their opportunities, too.<\/p>\n That\u2019s partly on coach Mike Brown, to make sure the ball is moving the way the offense dictates. But it is ultimately Brunson who is running things on the floor.<\/p>\n In a conversation with the New York Post<\/a>, Wall said, \u201cJalen Brunson, we know how dominant he is, how much he scores the ball, but he\u2019s ball dominant, and I think a lot of times all those other guys don\u2019t get implemented into the offense and they kind of get lost. I feel like we were gonna get more ball movement, and we don\u2019t get too many of those, it\u2019s kind of like the same offense we had before.\u201d<\/p>\n Knicks Need Everyone Involved<\/p>\n Wall, now an analyst for Amazon Prime, was also asked by the Post\u2019s Steve Serby if, indeed, the Knicks inability to move the ball was more on Mike Brown than Jalen Brunson. And Wall as clear, it\u2019s not Brown.<\/p>\n It\u2019s up to Brunson to continue developing the sense of when to dominate a game and when keep the Knicks\u2019 other stars rolling.<\/p>\n \u201cMike Brown\u2019s not the problem,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s the players in figuring out how to play well with each other at a high level. It\u2019s about how can you get Jalen Brunson to still be efficient and be the way he is \u2019cause he\u2019s so gifted, but he\u2019s at his best when the ball is in his hands.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like anybody that coaches him is how can you get him to still be that killer guy he\u2019s been for them and the clutch guy he has been for the Knicks and this city, and the fans love him, to get everybody else to also get going also? I\u2019m not blaming Mike Brown for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSean Deveney<\/a> is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Knicks\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks The New York Knicks are less than a week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806],"class_list":{"0":"post-708978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-knicks","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkknicks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116391878278137110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}