In the NBA, some players dominate the ball of their teams. Entire offenses are built around them and their teams have varying levels of success. James Harden was a one-man show like with the Houston Rockets and the Dallas Mavericks do a lot of that now with Luka Doncic.
Given the injuries that the New York Knicks have had to battle through this season, their point guard, Jalen Brunson, has been put in a similar position at times. The entire game plan for opponents is to slow him down, forcing him to give up the ball to his teammates.
That has led to Brunson having the ball in his hands for a staggering amount of time per game. He is the offensive hub for the team, using an array of dribble moves to get to his spots on the court for easy baskets or draw in the opponents’ attention and find his teammates for open shots.
In turn, that has led to Brunson leading the NBA in an interesting stat this season. According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, via Knicks Nation on X, Brunson is averaging 480 dribbles per game this season, which leads the NBA.
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That is an interesting statistic because it would tend to give the impression that the ball is in Brunson’s hands too long and the team is over-reliant on him to get into actions. But, if you watch the Knicks play, that isn’t the case.
Very rarely does it feel like Brunson is playing too much hero ball and not getting his teammates involved. He doesn’t have the gaudiest assist numbers in the league, as New York plays at a slow pace and their offense includes a fair amount of isolation, but he gets the ball moving when it needs to.
Attacking the basket regularly, it is common for Brunson to have a possession where he dribbles the ball a double-digit number of times. But, that is what the team has needed to remain competitive in the last few weeks given how many key players have been sidelined.
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