Stephen A. Smith says Brunson deserves NBA first team ‘ahead’ of Doncic
Jalen Brunson just produced one of the most historic seasons for a New York player, despite losing to the Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. For example, even though his team has been eliminated for more than a week now, he is still the player with the most points collected in the current finals.
For this reason and many others, Stephen A. Smith is sure that the Knicks star was dismissed from being a member of the first team of the All-NBA, as last Wednesday it was announced as part of the honor of the second team.
According to experts, he deserved this place “even before Luke.” [Dončić],” despite the Dallas player still competing in the Western Conference Finals. “I wasn’t shocked, but when I thought about it, I thought Jalen Brunson deserved to be on the first team,” he said on ESPN’s. First Take on Friday.
Despite being sidelined for a week now, Jalen Brunson still leads the playoffs in total points:
1: Jalen Brunson (421)
2: Luka Doncic (392)
Third: Anthony Edwards (358)
Fourth: Pascal Siakam (346)
5th: Nikola Jokic (344) pic.twitter.com/6nrxpdZloP– SportsTalk (@THESPORTSTALKK) May 26, 2024
Aside from the icon concept, it would be very difficult to exclude the Slovenian from the All-NBA first team, especially since he averaged a career-high 33.9 points during the regular season, along with 9.2 rebounds and career-highs in assists (9.8) and steals ( 1.41).
The New York guard received 37 first-team votes, the most on his team, and 61 second-team votes. “To be honest with you, I had Jalen Brunson’s second team, but I regret doing that,” Smith said.
According to this broadcaster, Brunson’s season was special considering that he had to step up to the top of his team as most of the players he worked with were injured. Julius Randle, for example, suffered a season-ending injury back in January and Jalen averaged 31.5 points per game in his absence.
“All I said was that there was no way I was going to allow Shai Gilgeous Alexander. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is my league MVP. I voted, I voted for him,” Stephen continued.
Thunder guards averaged 30.1 points, while holding a 53.5% field-goal percentage, with 6.2 assists and 5.5 rebounds during the regular season. “To be on the second-youngest team in the league, to have them as the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, to score over 30 points in 50 games this year, I can’t say enough about Gilgeous-Alexander. “
New York Guard Broke His Left Hand In Knicks Playoff Game
The 27-year-old tackled opponent Tyrese Haliburton in the third quarter and appeared to have injured his left hand. He continued to the locker room but eventually returned to the court. However, he was back 14 seconds before he saw his game, and the season was over.
“I thought I was just pushing you, to be honest with you,” he said briefly before quickly going back down. “I looked down and saw that something was wrong.”
Despite a good campaign, Jalen still thinks he has a lot of room for improvement. “I would say there are good and bad things about the way I played,” said Brunson looking back on his year. “The good thing is, obviously I played well individually in other places in the play-offs. The bad thing is that I didn’t play well to help my team go forward.
“You could say I was injured in Game 7, I wasn’t playing well in Game 7. We were leading 2-0 and 3-2, it’s hard to look at things individually if you don’t help your team. ,” said the player from New York.
