The Dallas Mavericks suffered a major loss this NBA offseason when point guard Jalen Brunson departed in free agency.
Brunson signed a four-year, $104 million contract with the New York Knicks and will be taking over as their starter. It is a family affair with the Knicks as his father, Rick Brunson, is an assistant on Tom Thibodeau’s staff and president Leon Rose is his godfather.
While many within the Mavericks organization are disappointed that Brunson left and some are likely even made given the circumstances surrounding his departure, there is one person who is happy for Brunson and that is head coach Jason Kidd.
While making an appearance on the “All The Smoke” podcast, Kidd shared his feelings on Brunson leaving and that he is happy for his former point guard.
“The biggest thing is I’m happy he got paid,’’ Kidd said. “He helped us. I know [Mavericks owner Mark] Cuban doesn’t like this, but I love when I can get a player get paid.’’
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Brunson was the second-best player on a Mavericks team that advanced to the Western Conference Finals a few months ago. He stepped up big time when Luka Doncic was sidelined, helping the team get a 2-1 series lead in the first round over the Utah Jazz without Doncic in the lineup.
After being a complementary player alongside Doncic, Brunson will now have the chance to run a team with the Knicks. He showed that he is more than capable of doing so whenever Doncic was not in the lineup, as Brunson averaged 20.4 points, 7.5 assists and 3.9 rebounds in 17 games without Doncic.
“I tell a player on the first day of camp, ‘Tell me what you want,’ ” said Kidd, who was the runner-up when the Knicks hired Tom Thibodeau as head coach in July 2020. “Everyone wants shots. Everyone wants minutes. But that’s not the truth. They want to get paid and want to play.
“Cool. I can help you do that. The other part of that is I’m going to ask for a couple of things. Trust, communicate and play hard. If you ask Brunson, he will tell you he listened [to me] and good things happened. I just want to put people in position to be successful.’’
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Kidd certainly did that for Brunson during the 2021-22 season. After beginning the season as their sixth man off the bench, Brunson shifted into a starting role alongside Doncic and things took off. His production across the board improved as a starter and he parlayed that into a lucrative contract with the Knicks.
“There’s 30 companies in the NBA,’’ Kidd said. “We all can’t stay in the same company. For him to go to New York to get paid and an opportunity to run his own team. I’m happy for him.’’
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That is certainly a refreshing take on things. Yes, the Mavericks are a worse team without Brunson and it will make Kidd’s job more difficult. But, he knows that he played a part in Brunson developing and earning the contract that he did, which is the second most important thing to a head coach behind winning basketball games.
