How Jalen Brunson’s game has evolved during the 2024 Knicks season

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What often separates the best players in the league from their All-Star peers is the continued development and evolution of their games after joining the elite of the sport. LeBron James added his entire post game after leaving Cleveland, Steph Curry took his inside finishing to new levels during his peak and Giannis Antetokoumpo turned into a full-time roll man for his championship run, among other examples.

We’re seeing a similar approach taken by Jalen Brunson, who may not stand among those names yet, but is unsurprisingly doing the work necessary to get there. His Knicks career arc of under two seasons going from possibly overpaid bench guard to reliable starter to MVP candidate and franchise great is testament enough to his growth.

But that bird’s eye view doesn’t provide proper context and credit for Brunson’s meteoric rise, much of which has come in just the past year. Let’s break down some of the ways Brunson has improved his game throughout this season.

Coming into 2023-24, one piece of low-hanging fruit Brunson plucked was his three-point shooting. He shot 40 percent from three over the three prior seasons, yet despite playing off Luka Doncic and becoming a lead ball handler in New York, little of his volume came from range.

That changed this year, as 32.3 percent of Brunson’s shot attempts have come from three, a career-high, and he’s attempting 9.7 threes per 100 possessions, an additional three shots from his previous high last season. Not only is he seeking out the deep ball more, he’s done it in a variety of ways.

First, he’s pulling up from three much more on the pick-and-roll, in order to punish defenders going under or playing drop coverage. He’s also much more comfortable taking threes from an extra step or two beyond the arc, a useful tool for catching defenses off guard, especially in above-the-break isolations.

Despite the major uptick in attempts, Brunson hasn’t lost any efficiency from there, thanks to his ridiculous 45 percent clip on catch-and-shoot looks. This development paid real dividends in getting him atop the scoring leaderboards, but his improvements didn’t…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/jalen-brunsons-game-evolved-during-140000446.html

Author : SNY

Publish date : 2024-03-31 14:00:00

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