Jalen Brunson is on an expiring $1.8 million deal and will be a free agent this offseason immediately after a breakthrough performance in the playoffs.

Brunson, however, insists he's not thinking about his next contract.

"Not at all. Not at all. I promise you," Brunson told Tim MacMahon of ESPN. "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."

Brunson credits his father, Rick Brunson, for instill his work ethic. Rick Brunson was an NBA journeyman who insisted family vacations involve a high-rise so he could run stairs and a nearby gym where he could work out.

"The work ethic comes from him -- watching him, seeing that and then being able to work out with him summer after summer," Jalen Brunson said. "You get better and better and see results after results.

"Growing up, he always told me he had the answers to the tests. He was the study guide."

"We've got to figure out if Dallas wants him. Not words," Rick Brunson says. "Ain't no discount. So don't put it on us. Don't tell me you love me. Show me."

Sources tell ESPN that the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons are among the teams expected to pursue Brunson.

Dallas could have signed Brunson to a four-year extension for as much as $55.5 million before the season, but the Mavs didn't offer it then nor did they engage in negotiations with Brunson's representatives. 

NBA pro personnel scouts and executives polled by ESPN for this story anticipate that the floor for Brunson's next contract will be an average annual salary of $20 million.

The Mavericks could have signed Brunson to a four-year, $55 million extension before the season started, but they never offered it.