It didn’t take long for Jalen Brunson to announce himself as a legitimate candidate for the NBA’s sixth man of the year award.
Two games into the season, he’s already cemented as the first guard off the bench for the Mavericks. And he’s averaged 11 points while hitting four of his seven 3-point tries in the early going.
But it’s too early to base anything on such a small sample size.
What makes Brunson such a solid sixth man is the fact that he can come into the game and do two super-important things – give Luka Dončić a breather, plus handle the ball and take some of the wear and tear off of the Mavericks’ superstar when the two of them are on the floor together.
And that’s significant because they have averaged better than 15 minutes of court time together.
If that continues, it’s only going to bolster Brunson’s reputation as one of the best young sixth men in the league – and remember, he finished fourth in the voting last season. Tim Hardaway, who is firmly in the starting lineup now, finished fifth in sixth man as he and Brunson shared top billing as the Mavericks’ top reserves.
Now, it’s Brunson’s stage. The 6-1 guard out of Villanova doesn’t like to put himself in the spotlight.
But he does acknowledge that there are a couple of team-oriented reasons why he and others should have strong seasons.
“Everyone has gotten better,” Brunson said. “Everyone has found a way to get better. We just have to stick together and keep moving forward.”
Brunson started the season with a 17-point outing against the Atlanta Hawks, but the Mavericks were big losers in that game.
They came back with a solid road win at Toronto. Brunson did not have a great offensive night, but he did fill up the stat sheet with five points, six rebounds and four assists.
And while it will take a lot of production to catch the attention of voters for the sixth-man award, Brunson admits: “It’s something that I’ve thought about, but my eyes aren’t set on that. I’m focused on what can I do to help this team win and move past the first round and beyond.”
And, true to Brunson’s personality, it will start with consistency. He tries never to get too high or low. And he knows he’s not the equivalent of a home-run hitter. He has to earn his respect the old-fashioned way.
After last season, when Brunson averaged 12.6 points, 3.5 assists and 3.4 rebounds, he had a substantial dip during the playoffs.
It got his attention, and that of a lot of other people. And he wanted to do something about it in the best way he knows how.
“I just want to keep hitting singles,” Brunson said. “Keep hitting singles and chipping away, keep getting better.
“Everything comes from your confidence. Everything comes from your work ethic. I find that those things go hand in hand. I don’t want to say I lost confidence (in the playoffs). But I just know how hard I work. I just got to keep that mentality whenever I’m on the court. I’m going to keep trying to strive for that, even though it may be difficult to reach that level of perfection, but it’s my job to stay as consistent as I can.”
If that happens, you can bet his name will be in the conversation when the sixth-man award is voted on in April.
Twitter: @ESefko
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