With Brunson aboard, Knicks feel they have their point guard

NEW YORK (AP) — Jalen Brunson has the New York Knicks believing the search for a point guard is over at last.

Never mind that he was never even a full-time NBA starter until last season, or that the quest to find the long-term answer at point guard in New York seemingly never ends.

The former second-round pick has the keys at Madison Square Garden, and the Knicks appear sure it’s going to be a smooth ride.

“I think Jalen can provide whatever you need,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “So if you need him to do more scoring, he can do that. If you need more playmaking, he can do that. If you need him to create pace and create movement, he can do that. You need a big 3, a big shot, he can do that. I love the way he can control and manage the game, and to me that’s the No. 1 function of a point guard.”

Thibodeau said all that after coaching Brunson for just one preseason game, though he had been building intel on the 26-year-old long before then. Brunson would visit the Knicks as a boy in the late 1990s when his father, Rick, played for the team and Thibodeau was an assistant coach. Thibodeau later followed Brunson’s accomplishments in high school ball in the Chicago area, where he coached the Bulls, and then as a two-time national champion at Villanova.

So perhaps Thibodeau knew something when the Knicks seemed to lock in so early on Brunson as their priority in free agency, even before his strong playoff run for the Mavericks last season.

“He’s a winning player that would fit with any team, really, at any level,” said Rick Carlisle, who coached Brunson in Dallas before moving to Indiana. “He just figures it out and he’ll be great here.”

Brunson broke out last season after Jason Kidd replaced Carlisle, averaging a career-best 16.3 points. That number grew to 21.6 per game in the postseason, including a 41-point performance in a first-round victory over Utah, as the Mavericks made a surprising run to the Western Conference finals. The New Jersey native then left Dallas for a $104 million contract in New York.

Brunson — whose father is on Thibodeau’s staff — will need help, though. RJ Barrett, rewarded with a big offseason extension, must continue the growth he showed last season. And Julius Randle has to play closer to his 2020-21 form, when he won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.

If so, the Knicks could challenge for a playoff spot after falling from the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference in 2021 to out of the postseason…