2025 playoffs

71% of Brunson’s FGs came from his own on-ball actions (ISO, post up, pnr ballhandler).

Only 19.3% of his FGs were assisted

2026 playoffs

56% of his FGs came from his own on-ball actions.

35.7% of his FGs were assisted

Those are massive differences.

Maybe he was the least impacted player under Brown’s offense, but he was still hugely impacted by Brown’s offense.

What if Brunson’s the best player in the NBA now and it doesn’t matter if we get a backup center because he’s in his 90’s MJ or late 00’s Kobe era and is just going to beat all these clowns because he can? What if he’s just that good?

Apparently, the only guy who can beat Brunson is Thibs.

<a href="Remember biggest story line of the 2025 ECF was (remarkably) that Brunson and KAT couldn’t play together. Thibs had completely abandoned KAT as a screener for reasons only he knew. OG & Mikal had no role other than to stand in the corner. Josh Hart was never guarded."

Here are the highlights from Brunson’s magnificent Game 5. I didn’t see a single screen set by KAT.

Here’s Brunson’s Game 4 scoring. Not a single KAT screen.

Here’s Brunson’s highlights from game 1. No KAT screens.

I agree about Brunson’s alpha mentality, but I’m pretty sure this was the strategy for the whole team.

You’re right, and I was going to edit it to say everyone except his own teammates but I ran out of time.

That said, it’s one thing for KAT & OG to attack Wemby when he’s on them. It’s another thing entirely to have Dylan Harper on you and say “nah, give me Wemby.”

And I couldn’t disagree more about that.

If there was a single player for whom the switch from Thibs to Brown made the least difference, it was Brunson. He iso’ed his brains out under Thibs. He iso’ed his brains out under Brown.

Couldn’t disagree more.

The quantity of ISOs may have been similar but the quality of them were night & day.

A Brunson iso under Thibs lacked all possibility. It started late in the shot clock. Josh Hart set the screen. The other 4 players were stagnant and hadn’t been involved in the offense for a long time.

Remember biggest story line of the 2025 ECF was (remarkably) that Brunson and KAT couldn’t play together. Thibs had completely abandoned KAT as a screener for reasons only he knew. OG & Mikal had no role other than to stand in the corner. Josh Hart was never guarded.

What Brunson was able to accomplish in that stagnant offense is arguably more impressive than what he did against the Spurs

Thibs 48-55
Brown 66-43
Carlisle 86-87

Brown and Carlisle have both made it to 2 NBA Finals each winning 1 NBA championship. Carlisle is obviously a very good coach but I think Mike Brown is better than he’s given credit for.