EARLY AUGUSTAfter Jalen Brunson became the New York Knicks’ first captain in five years, the franchise unveiled a video compilation congratulating the general on the all-star floor.

The first message in the video, full of praise from the city’s sports captains past and present, was from New York Yankees legend and five-time World Series champion Derek Jeter.

“Man, I enjoyed watching you develop and get better year after year,” Jeter said in his message. “And I look forward to continuing that as you lead the Knicks back to where they belong.”

Jeter’s words undoubtedly carried weight with Brunson, who had studied the Hall of Famer and a handful of leadership methods from other iconic athletes in an effort to build a consistent winner at Madison Square Garden, where the Indiana Pacers will host the Knicks on Friday night. ‘home opener (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The 28-year-old Brunson raised eyebrows around the league in July when he signed a team-friendly four-year extension worth $156.5 million when he could have waited until the following summer to sign a much more lucrative five-year contract to bring in. The pick — which gave the Knicks’ front office coveted salary cap flexibility under the dreaded second apron — was in line with athletes like Jeter, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes, superstars who all needed less money to bolster the rosters around them.

Aside from the $40 million per year he will make during the 2027-2028 season, New York has invested heavily in Brunson’s future.

In two months, the Knicks have:

• Traded five first-round picks for Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges, Brunson’s teammate at Villanova;

• Re-signed defensive stop OG Anunoby to a five-year contract worth $212 million;

• And traded former All-NBA forward Julius Randle and guard Donte DiVincenzo (also Brunson’s teammate at Villanova) in another blockbuster deal to acquire four-time All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns.

As the Yankees prepare for their first World Series appearance in 15 years, and in the wake of the New York Liberty capturing their first WNBA title on Sunday, the Knicks and their captain could be next in line. And with Brunson sitting out the entire offseason, New York will need its captain to be in the middle of everything, if only to prove the Knicks were right to accelerate their build around him.

EVERYWHERE YOU LOOKIt looked like Brunson was there.

During the playoffs, he graced a giant Nike billboard at 34th Street and 7th Avenue, a block from Madison Square Garden. The two-time NCAA champion starred in a national AT&T commercial that aired throughout March Madness. And Brunson — alongside his father, Knicks assistant coach Rick Brunson — was featured on the sides of dozens of city buses as part of a Brooks Brothers campaign this summer.

“He’s the king of New York,” Knicks guard Josh Hart, who also worked with Brunson at Villanova, said during training camp. ‘It’s great to see where he ended up. But it doesn’t go to his head.’

Perhaps no one has done more to capitalize on Brunson’s meteoric rise to fame than the Knicks themselves.

The reason New York finally put its chips in: In the two seasons since Brunson signed with New York, he has starred in a way that makes the Knicks and their title-starved fan base dream. He’s a real superstar right now, or he’s about to become one. He finished fifth in the MVP voting in 2023-24, and in the playoffs he scored at least 40 points in four straight games. The last player to do that was Michael Jordan in 1993.

No NBA player had the ball longer than Brunson’s 662 minutes last season. But despite being undersized at 6-foot-1 and possessing a good jumper, the guard led the Eastern Conference in drive attempts last season with nearly 20 per game, losing defenders in his series of shoulder movements and hesitations. And despite Brunson’s reliance on complicated footwork and his foul-drawing techniques, he traveled just four times last season.

All of this allows Brunson to make more use of his high-arcing floater, a weapon that block-hungry bigs generally don’t have a chance to swat away. Brunson made 166 floaters in 2023-24, the most in a season since at least 2013-14, when Second Spectrum first started tracking players. And Brunson had 86 instances last season where he made a mistake and still scored, compared to just 64 instances where his shot was blocked — an incredible ratio usually reserved for taller, hulking stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James.

In return, the franchise added an All-Star big man who not only complements Brunson’s skill set but helps expand it.

ON THE SURFACENew York’s Brunson-led offense was elite last season.

Ranked seventh in efficiency, the Knicks saved their best performances for last, earning the league’s third-best offense in the month of April. Brunson himself recorded a career-high of 28.7 points and 6.7 assists on the season, even though he had to work harder than anyone in the NBA to buy space from one game to the next.

Without the injured Randle available as a second option, Brunson dribbled the ball more and longer per touch than any player in the league and served as the ballhandler for an NBA-high 3,224 on-ball screens last season.

Almost none of these possessions were pick-and-pops, with the play ending with a screener getting a jump shot. (When New York got pick-and-pops, they generally didn’t work well. Brunson and Randle split 32 such plays, averaging just 0.56 points per possession — last in the NBA among duos who made at least 30 such possessions, per Second Spectrum.) Overall, the Knicks ranked 29th in points scored by screeners in pick-and-pop scenarios in 2023-2024.

That’s where Towns should make a world of difference for Brunson and the Knicks’ offense.

Towns ranked second in the league in points from pick-and-pop situations last season, and the 28-year-old big man has made at least 100 triples in a season seven times. In fact, there are already indications that Towns has helped limit the opponent’s ability to crowd Brunson.

Brunson, who botched his first six shot attempts in the Knicks’ humbling opening night loss in Boston, saw an average of just 1.16 contending defensemen in the paint during the preseason — less than the average of 1.43 contending defensemen which he saw last season when he went for layups and floaters. The Second Spectrum data is a welcome sign for New York, as the All-Star duo hasn’t really had a chance to cheer yet, as the trade only happened a few weeks ago.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the Knicks will be world beaters. Even with the impressive defensive combination of Anunoby and Bridges, the Celtics’ offense repeatedly failed to address Towns’ trap tendencies on defense on Tuesday. They tied an NBA record with 29 three-pointers.

The show raised a key question New York must address this season: Can the Knicks find a way to thrive on that front with Towns under center after he slid to power in Minnesota to make room for the perennial candidate for Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert?

Still, even with that glaring question, it’s relatively easy to see how and why the Knicks’ front office wanted to combine Towns’ offensive skills with Brunson’s.

“It’s definitely a different dynamic,” Brunson said of the Knicks’ five-out stretch. “It gives us a different weapon, and the (pick-and-roll) reads are definitely different.”

“The court will be wide open,” Hart said. “The edge will be there.”

And no one is better positioned to take advantage of the team’s new offense than Brunson, the captain himself.

ESPN Research’s Matt Williams contributed to this story.