Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Stats with team: 26.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 6.7 apg, 48.5 FG%
Accolades with team: Two-time All-Star, two-time All-NBA 2nd Team, Clutch Player of the Year
When we first did this exercise, it was Allan Houston who owned this spot. Since then, Jalen Brunson has done more than enough to take this distinction from Houston to be considered the best free-agent signing in Knicks history.
Since getting to New York, Brunson has turned the Knicks into one of the best squads in the Eastern Conference, leading the team with his fantastic scoring and steady playmaking as a floor general.
After making the playoffs just once in the nine seasons prior to Brunson’s arrival, New York has not only made it to the playoffs all three years behind Brunson’s fantastic play, but it has also made it past the first round in each of those appearances, including reaching the Eastern Confernce Finals in 2024-25.
Questions remain on whether Brunson can be the best player on a title-winning team, but even then, for the Knicks to even be in that conversation now goes to show just how great Brunson has been, as the franchise had struggled to be taken seriously for a long time before Brunson’s arrival.
In February of 2024, Brunson discussed his decision to leave Dallas and sign with New York in free agency. Part of it had to do with money, of course, although Brunson claimed he would have been happy to extend with the Mavericks on a four-year, $55 million contract. However, Brunson claims that eventually, he realized he had outgrown a contract of that size with his play, so he decided against signing that extension when Dallas finally offered it after the trade deadline in 2021-22.
Brunson also claims he didn’t feel pursued heavily enough by the Mavericks once he did hit free agency that summer, while noticing that New York was making a lot of moves to clear up the salary-cap space needed to sign him, which he appreciated:
“And so that all happens. I’m trying to think of my timeline so I don’t mess up,” Brunson said. “So after losing the Western Conference Finals, I remember seeing something on Twitter after the game, and it was like Mark [Cuban] saying, ‘We can pay him the most money.’ And so he says that in the interview right after the game. And then so I’m thinking, like, I’m okay. After that, it was like crickets, from my point of view, I can’t speak to anyone else. I’m not. Just from my point of view, it was crickets.” “I saw, like, New York making moves and saw all that stuff,” Brunson explained. “I was close to home — two hours away from where I was, an hour away from where I was born. Parents over the East Coast, whole families on the East Coast. So I started thinking, like, ‘Could this be a real thing?’ And so, then, here we are.”
New York eventually did get fined by the NBA for tampering with Brunson while he was still signed with the Mavericks.
Not that it matters, as whatever fine the team had to pay has proven well worth it considering how good Brunson has been for the Knicks.
Honorable mentions: Allan Houston, Amare Stoudemire, John Starks
