The New York Knicks did what they showed themselves to be doing in free agency, and that was sign point guard Jalen Brunson. Shams Charania broke the news an hour before the free hand was due to begin, but the deal was not made official until later on Thursday night.
Charania reported that Brunson intended to sign a four-year, $110 million deal with New York, but it ended up being a little less than four years and $104 million. The Guardian will be paid a salary of $1.8 million in 2021-22 and now he will make around $24 million in 2022-23. That’s just a slight increase.
Brunson will be the 47th highest-paid player in the league next season based on annual salary, but of course there are still rumors of Brunson being overpaid. However, there were a few NBA players who took to Twitter to voice their opinions in support of the Knicks’ new point guard.
Ja Morant, Mikal Bridges and Desmond Bane show support for Knicks’ Jalen Brunson
If there’s one group of people on this earth who know Brunson’s worth, it’s NBA players. You know, the people who play basketball at a high level to make a living.
Mikal Bridges was the first to intervene:
Shortly after Bridges sent out this tweet, Desmond Bane replied:
And after Bane offered his opinion, his teammate Ja Morant confirmed what Bane wrote:
In case you don’t know, Brunson is a good point guard. Because he signed with the Knicks, people want to assume it was a bad move, but it would be wise to disregard what Bridges, Bane and Morant had to say.
People say Brunson won’t be able to operate as lead guard in New York as he played alongside star Luka Doncic in Dallas. But in the three playoff games that Doncic missed, Brunson averaged 32 points, 5.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists and shot 50.7% from the field. Without Brunson, the Mavericks would not have made it to the Western Conference Finals.
Dallas wanted to re-sign Brunson. Mark Cuban said his top priority in the offseason was keeping Brunson, but that was before the Knicks rushed in. So, no, it’s not like Brunson is a “nobody.” He is far from that. And at 25, the best is yet to come.
