The New York Knicks have been a hot name recently as a team looking to add another piece at the trade deadline. Despite their 16-11 start and hot stretches from Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle, many think that this team doesn’t have the top-end talent to contend. On Thursday’s NBA Today episode, Hall of Famer and Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon agreed with the critics.
“At the end of the day they don’t have a dude, you’ve gotta have a dude, you’ve gotta have a 1A dude and they’re missing that,” Hammon said.
Former champion Kendrick Perkins was quick to interject, saying that Brunson was that “dude” for the Knicks. And Hammon instantly responded, “Nah, he too small.”
She continued with a list of shorter “1A” guys that have come up short in terms of winning the championship.
“If your best player is small, you’re not winning. John Stockton, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash…[Stephen Curry] is in a different class.”
Which really pondered the question, can you win in today’s game with a guard? And is Brunson really as “small” as Hammon might think? History surely thinks so.
Since the turn of the century, only five guards have won Finals MVP: Chauncey Billups, Dwyane Wade, Tony Parker, and Kobe Bryant twice. Of those five, only Billups and Parker are 6’3 or shorter. Brunson is listed at 6’2.
But what sticks out to me about Billups and Parker’s situations is that they were a part of complete teams, not just a traditional superstar dominating en route to a championship. That’s the mold that the Knicks could attempt to follow. But, Brunson is also no stranger to playoff stakes.
Perkins later in the show compared Brunson to other guards such as Devin Booker and Donovan Mitchell largely due to his playoff success. In 2022 with the Mavericks, Brunson averaged 21.6 points per game and aided them to a Conference Finals appearance. And then of course, Brunson and the Knicks eliminated Mitchell’s Cavaliers last season.
Brunson has also been stellar this season, averaging 25.3 points and 5.9 assists per game. He’s also shooting an incredible 47% from the field and 46% from three this season. Just a week ago, he notched a career high 50 points on nine for nine from beyond the arc.
Hammon later made a clarifying statement on X showing respect to Brunson’s game. But she also doubled down on stating that he isn’t in the tier of players like LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Joel Embiid.
Now sure the Knicks could still swing a trade to push towards expanding their ceiling. But Brunson sure seems like a “dude” capable of winning games.
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