NBA playoffs 2022 - Jalen Brunson's star turn for the Dallas Mavericks has massive free agency implications

AN EIGHT- OR nine-figure subplothovers over Jalen Brunson's star rise during these NBA playoffs.

Brunson, the other guard the Dallas Mavericks landed in the 2018 draft, is poised to enter unrestricted free agency this summer.

Suffice it to say that the price to retain his services, a priority for the Mavs, has gone up. Brunson's spectacular showing over the first four games of the Mavs' first-round series against the Utah Jazz — an efficient 29.8 points and 4.8 assists per game, highlighted by 41- and 31-point performances in the Mavs' pair of wins while superstar Luka Doncic was sidelined by a strained calf — has boosted his status as an attractive offseason target.

Who could blame Brunson if he heard cha-ching every time one of his jumpers or southpaw floaters splashed through the net during a tied series that resumes with Monday's Game 5 in Dallas?

But Brunson, the former 33rd overall pick who is making $1.8 million in the final season of his rookie deal, insists his next contract — and potentially his next franchise — isn't on his mind as he tries to help the Mavs make it to the second round for the first time since Dallas' 2011 championship run.

«Not at all. Not at all. I promise you,» Brunson says. «My dad, we'll joke about it, but [my family knows] that I don't want to talk about it until the season's over. That's really not going to help me right now.… I know it's a weird situation. People don't believe that I don't talk about it, but it's not a topic of conversation until I guess we get there.»

It's not a surprising answer for Brunson, the son of a former NBA journeyman and assistant coach.

«He's boring as s--- to interview. He learned that from Jay Wright,» Rick Brunson says with a laugh, crediting the former