Front office hits midseason home run with acquisition of Anunoby
NEW YORK — As Knick president Leon Rose, senior Vice President Gersson Rosas, and Senior Basketball Advisor William Wesley watched their team hang a 40-burger on the defending champion Denver Nuggets at Madison Square Garden on Thursday, a sellout arena collectively came to the same conclusion.
Damn. That OG Anunoby trade worked out pretty well.
Less than a month ago, the Knicks were in freefall defensively and allowed 120 or more points in nine of the 13 games preceding the deal that sent RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a valuable second-round pick to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn.
My, how a few weeks can change a season outlook.
Thursday’s 122-84 victory over the reigning champs marked New York’s 11th win in the 13 games played since the Anunoby deal. The Knicks have the second-best defensive rating in basketball behind only the Cleveland Cavaliers (8-2) during this stretch. Only one opponent has scored 120 or more (the Dallas Mavericks), and the Knicks have allowed a league-best average of just 102.6 points per game since the deal.
In short: Anunoby has transformed the Knicks, so much that the Knicks unraveled the Nikola Jokic-led Nuggets without their two-best centers: Isaiah Hartenstein (day-to-day, left Achilles tendinopathy) and Mitchell Robinson (ankle surgery, could return by end of regular season).
The Knicks are quick to downplay the significance of beating the Nuggets: Denver completed an 11-day, five-game road trip at The Garden and head coach Mike Malone suggested his team ran out of gas.
“That’s a really good team. I think we caught them on a bad night,” said starting guard Jalen Brunson. “Not typical of them.
But a win’s a win.”
No one — neither within the organization or among those who have watched the Knicks since the trade — is downplaying Anunoby’s impact in the Big Apple.
“He makes life a lot easier. He can switch one through five,” said Brunson. “It looks effortless when he plays out there defensively. So what he’s been able to do has been special.”
If there’s any stat that encapsulates a player’s impact for a team, it’s plus-minus, or net rating. This stat tracks how many points a team outscores an opponent by when any player is on the floor.
Anunoby finished Thursday’s matchup with a team-high 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the field. He recorded six steals, and the Knicks outscored the Nuggets by 38 points in their three-and-d wing’s 29 minutes on the floor.
“It just seems like he’s always in the right place [at the right time],” said Julius Randle. “The thing I liked today was [that] OG was aggressive.
“He’s starting to figure it out for sure. He’s starting to pick his spots, like when he waved me off, I’m like ‘just go.’ Just hoop. We’ll figure it out. I like him being in an aggressive mindset, coming off of dribble handoffs, and I think his shooting [helps us].”
The Knicks are outscoring opponents by an average of 24.7 points per 100 possessions, according to data from the NBA’S stats page. Three Cavaliers players trail Anunoby (Dean Wade, Max Strus, Donovan Mitchell), and Brunson checks in seventh.
“Well I think it’s two-fold: I think it’s what he brings to the team. but it’s also what the guys here are bringing to him,” said head coach Tom Thibodeau after the victory. “When you get everyone invested in each other, good things come from that. And so, I don’t think it’s any one guy doing something that carries everyone else. It’s everyone playing to their strengths, covering up their weaknesses.”
The proof is in the pudding: prior to the deal, the Knicks owned just a 6-16 record against teams with a record currently .500 or better.
Since the deal, they are 3-2 and secured a 15-point victory over a Houston Rockets team currently one game below-.500.
The impact is mind-blowing considering Anunoby is still living out of a suitcase in a hotel and has yet to close on a new home. The newest Knicks starter said he didn’t give any thought as to how his new team would hold up after giving up two valuable rotation pieces in Barrett and Quickley.