Becky Hammon finds a case for Jalen Brunson, but keeps her view on small guards in title runs

Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon walked back part of her own debate on Tuesday, without surrendering the larger thesis that has followed her into the postseason conversation: that small guards rarely lead teams to NBA championships.

Her pivot came in reaction to Knicks guard Jalen Brunson’s run to the Finals, culminating in his Finals MVP award after New York finished the championship series with a five-game victory over the San Antonio Spurs. Hammon acknowledged Brunson’s uniqueness as an exception to the pattern she believes has held up across multiple eras.

Hammon’s comments also trace back to an earlier public exchange. In December 2023, Hammon made the point on ESPN that Brunson was not a “1A dude,” a remark that framed him as a player whose size, skill set, and role do not naturally translate to the most demanding offensive burden of a title team. Tuesday’s remarks, reported by Yahoo Sports, did not erase that disagreement so much as refine it.

In Hammon’s view, Brunson’s profile is a mismatch for her usual guard-size argument, but it does not necessarily invalidate the idea. She characterized him as fitting into a special category, not a trend that can be generalized into a recruiting or roster strategy. In other words, the Knicks’ success, in her telling, makes Brunson more of an acknowledged outlier than a proof of concept for every similar player type.

The Knicks and Spurs context matters because it sharpens what Hammon was responding to. New York’s path to the Finals was not framed as a case of a team with overwhelming size or a dominant scoring giant, but rather as a club built around guard play and efficient, repeatable half-court offense. That kind of identity is exactly why Brunson’s championship-level output became difficult to dismiss.

Hammon’s stance is not simply a quibble about height. It is a basketball-operations argument about what it takes to win when matchups tighten, defenses get physical, and shot quality becomes both scarcer and more heavily contested. Guards who are smaller often have to overcome the same obstacles in different ways, through shooting, creation, ball security, and the ability to avoid being swallowed by pressure across the full length of games.

By separating Brunson from the general rule, Hammon is effectively making two statements at once. One is that a smaller guard can still orchestrate a championship offense at the center of it. The second is that championship-level success does not automatically transfer to the typical small-guard build, because Brunson’s combination of shot-making, decision-making, and sustained lead-guard responsibilities is not easily replicated.

For the league at large, the takeaway is less about whether small guards can win championships and more about how teams should evaluate the full package around them. Brunson being labeled an outlier leaves room for debate, especially in an NBA where roster construction is increasingly about system fit and spacing as much as it is about raw physical dimensions.

What to watch next is how other high-level coaches and front offices respond to this kind of framing. If Hammon’s view resurfaces, it could shape broader conversations about primary creation, postseason durability, and what roles smaller guards should be asked to perform when the series score stops being forgiving. Even as Brunson’s Finals MVP stands as a public counterexample, Hammon’s maintained stance suggests the argument will persist, just with fewer absolutes.