The New York Knicks won their first title in over half a century behind the brilliance of Finals MVP Jalen Brunson, but none of it would have happened without the Detroit Pistons.
Brunson is one of the best stories in the NBA, as he went from second banana to Luka Doncic to a guy who is the best player on a title team. Given that Brunson looks more like an unc at the park compared to some of the elite athletes in the NBA, it makes his story even more amazing.
But the story doesn’t happen without the Pistons, whose generosity allowed New York to build the team they have.
The Detroit Pistons made Jalen Brunson possible
When the Pistons took Kemba Walker, Nerlens Noel and Alec Burks off the Knicks’ hands back in 2022, they probably didn’t realize it would have a ripple effect that would lead to a title for the Knicks.
But without Detroit taking on those salary dumps, the Knicks wouldn’t have had the cap space to sign Brunson as a free agent. Old Troy Weaver probably thought he was getting one over on the Knicks, as he was able to land Jalen Duren in the exchange, but that $30 million in cap space proved to be more valuable to the Knicks.
They signed Brunson to a four-year deal (after paying some tampering fines), and built their roster around him, which now seems like a stroke of genius considering he was a 6th man at the time.
The Knicks had the vision, but it wouldn’t have been realized without the Pistons serving as a dumping ground for their bad contracts.
A different version of this story was close to happening for Detroit
The Pistons were also considering signing Brunson to a free agent deal themselves and are likely kicking themselves that they didn’t, as he’s the type of ball handling scorer they are still looking to put next to Cade Cunningham.
The funny thing is that fans were so worried about having “two point guards” and that Brunson was too small, so there were plenty of people who were against the idea of the Pistons signing Brunson, especially to the type of lucrative deal he ended up getting from the Knicks.
This was the eventual downfall of Troy Weaver, as he kept kicking the can down the road instead of trying to acquire players who could actually help the Pistons win games. Walker and Noel never really even played for Detroit, and Burks was pretty much washed, though he had his moments.
You never know how transactions will end up working out in the long run. The Pistons are happy to have Duren, but if they had to do the Brunson saga again, it might end up differently.
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