A championship isn’t stopping bulletin-board material coming in for Jalen Brunson and the Knicks.
ESPN’s analytics guru Dean Oliver, widely considered the godfather of basketball analytics as a pioneering statistician and data scientist, rated Jalen Brunson “around the No. 25 range” among NBAers.
Brunson’s standing has entered the spotlight after ESPN revealed its top-100 rankings as voted on by seven panelists, although Oliver did not have a vote.
That panel ranked Brunson No. 6 overall, behind only No. 1 Nikola Jokic, No. 2 Victor Wembanyama, No. 3 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, No. 4 Luka Doncic and No. 5 Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Ben Golliver, Vincent Goodwill, Zach Kram, Bobby Marks, Dave McMenamin, André Snellings and Matt “Stats” Williams composed the group of voters.
To Oliver, the key cog in inflating the NBA Finals MVP’s overall ranking is the “New York media bias.”
“That bias might also help you forget that Brunson missed the shot in the most iconic image from the Finals,” he said, “when OG Anunoby swooped in for the putback game-winner to clinch Game 4.”
Oliver, who has published two basketball analytics books and was an assistant coach for analytics on the Wizards before returning to ESPN in 2024, adds that Brunson’s size limits his upside and defensive metrics.
However, that did not stop Brunson from winning the NBA Finals MVP in leading the Knicks over the Spurs in five games.
Oliver did not list anything specific that explains the disparity between Brunson’s rating in his models and the general consensus.
Brunson has averaged at least 26 points per game in each of his last three seasons with the Knicks, while shooting at least 46.7 percent from the field and 36.9 percent from 3.
Oliver does list multiple advanced metrics and player rating systems that he says “provide a useful counter perspective to the humans, with their good eyes but occasional biases.”
Oliver, who received an engineering PHD from the University of North Carolina, also listed Jaylen Brown far below the consensus pollsters.
Brown ranked between No. 9 and No. 23 according for the panelists, though he says his model placed him around No. 60.
Most NBA teams probably agreed on that one, since many didn’t want to trade for Brown and his big contract this offseason.
Brown was traded between rivals as the Celtics moved him to Philadelphia in exchange for a first-round pick and Paul George.
