For long weeks, Lauri Markkanen seemed to hold the rope for the best progression trophy of the season. But as the Jazz will probably not be in “play-in”, his candidacy could lose a few points.
In addition to Mikal Bridges, another New Yorker would like to take the opportunity to promote his own: Jalen Brunson.
“It’s a special trophy”, does he think in the Daily News. “I don’t think about it 100% of the time, but if I win it, I’d be really grateful. But that doesn’t occupy my mind. »
The Knicks playmaker is having an excellent season and like the Finn or the Nets winger, he has exploded his personal counters. He went from 16.3 points at 37% success at 3-pts and 4.8 assists per game in 2021/2022 to 24 points at 41% at 3-pts and 6.2 assists on average this year.
“It doesn’t matter the era – high school, college or NBA – every season he improves,” explains Tom Thibodeau. “He works a lot. He scores eight more points per game, he almost doubles the number of 3-pointers while shooting almost 42%. He doubled his number of free throws too. And most importantly: he helps us win. This is its greatest quality. »
Impossible to prove the Knicks coach wrong on this last point. With his reinforcement, New York found the playoffs when his departure handicapped the Mavericks, who have been looking for alternatives all season, to end up with Kyrie Irving. A long search that has weighed down the conference finalists, Dallas not having qualified for the “play-in” for the moment…
For Josh Hart, there is therefore no doubt: his teammate must be one of the candidates for this trophy, which was won by Julius Randle in 2021.
“He didn’t have that opportunity in Dallas because he had a huge player by his side in Luka Doncic. Here, he has a more important role and he has gone up a notch. We must speak of him as one of the players who has improved the most. Not just for his stats but also because the team is successful. »
| Jalen Brunson | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2018-19 | DAL | 73 | 22 | 46.7 | 34.8 | 72.5 | 0.3 | 2.0 | 2.3 | 3.2 | 1.7 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 9.3 |
| 2019-20 | DAL | 57 | 18 | 46.6 | 35.8 | 81.3 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 2.4 | 3.3 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 1.2 | 0.1 | 8.2 |
| 2020-21 | DAL | 68 | 25 | 52.3 | 40.5 | 79.5 | 0.4 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 3.5 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 12.6 |
| 2021-22 | DAL | 79 | 32 | 50.2 | 37.3 | 84.0 | 0.5 | 3.4 | 3.9 | 4.8 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 0.0 | 16.3 |
| 2022-23 | NYK | 68 | 35 | 49.1 | 41.6 | 82.9 | 0.6 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 6.2 | 2.2 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 0.2 | 24.0 |
| Total | 345 | 27 | 49.3 | 38.6 | 81.2 | 0.5 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 4.2 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 14.3 | |
How to read the stats? MJ = matches played; Min = Minutes; Shots = Shots made / Shots attempted; 3pts = 3-points / 3-points attempted; LF = free throws made / free throws attempted; Off = offensive rebound; Def= defensive rebound; Tot = Total bounces; Pd = assists; Fte: Personal fouls; Int = Intercepts; Bp = Lost bullets; Ct: Counters; Points = Points.
