Is Jalen Brunson now a Top 5 player in the NBA?

[Muzzy66]

And before anyone goes crazy I think these 7 are clearly better players

Jokic, Giannis, Embiid, Luka, SGA, Tatum, Edwards

I also happen to think these guys are better as well, but they are more debatable

Curry, Lebron, Durant, Booker

I'd put Brunson in the group with

Davis, Kawhi, Butler, Morant, Mitchell

Well said.    Actually I would put AD and Kawhi above Brunson too in terms of sheer basketball ability, but given their health issues probably fair to drop them a level. 

I probably put Butler above him too, if im honest.

[Roy H.]

32.6 ppg is nice, but he did do it on 26.2 shots which is a pretty pedestrian 1.2366 points pet shot (Tatum in the playoffs is at 1.3575 as a comparison). 31% from 3 on 6.5 attempts is Marcus Smart level bad. 

Brunson may be a top 5 most valuable player as he is everything to the Knicks, but I think you could argue he isn't even a top 10 player almost as easily as you could he is a top 5 player.

It depends.  In the regular season, he was very efficient.  28.7 points / .543 eFG% / 40.1% 3PT% / .592 TS%

For about half the year, he was the only guy for defenses to focus on.

In the playoffs his efficiency dropped, down to a fairly pedestrian .482 eFG% and .536 TS%. 

In evaluating whether he's top-5 or top-10, I'd go by the larger sample size of the regular season.  To me, roughly 29 points on that type of efficiency will get you near the top-5 most years.  It's basically what IT did for us in his best season, and was similar to Cleveland Kyrie as well.  Like those two, he also failed to play any defense.

For this year's regular season, I'd have him behind Jokic, Giannis, SGA, Tatum and Luka.  Most years, he'd be behind Embiid as well.  He was probably ahead of Edwards and Mitchell this season, but I rate those guys all in the same category.  So, between 7th and 9th, with the possibility that I'm overlooking somebody.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I don't know how a guy can be considered top 5 or even top 10 if he's a bad defender. Top 5 offensive player? Yeah, maybe.