Jalen Brunson's Free Agency About To Explode After Historic Performance

When Jalen Brunson turned down the Dallas Mavericks' extension offer earlier this season, he bet on himself. That bet is going to pay huge dividends for him this offseason in free agency. His 41-8-5 (and ZERO turnover) performance led the Mavs to a Game 2 win over the Utah Jazz,  evening up their series at 1-1. Stats geeks were sent scrambling to the record books.

Brunson becomes the first Maverick ever to have a 40 point, 0 turnover playoff performance, and only the 7th player in NBA history notch a 40-5-5 game with no turnovers, joining the legendary likes of Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dominique Wilkins and Chris Paul. 

Teams need to be getting those checkbooks ready for Brunson this offseason. It was back in January when it was reported that the 25-year-old turned down the Mavs' 4-year, $56M extension offer. At that time, he was said to be looking for something in the $18M per year range. That price has just gone up. 

Brunson's father Rick played nine years in the NBA, and he said his son is "a general manager's nightmare and a coach's dream." He explains: 

"GMs do the draft, but (Jalen) doesn't excite you, he doesn't sell tickets. But when you're on the team, the coach is 'I need to keep my job, I want to win, I'm gonna play this guy.'... I'm excited for him."

Brunson's career-high allowed the Mavs to split their two games at home, both played without superstar Luka Doncic.