Knicks having OG Anunoby from the start of the season should unlock the best of his skill set
OG Anunoby #8 of the Knicks speaks with reporters on Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. Credit: James Escher
GREENBURGH — Understandably, much of the talk about the Knicks this season has focused on the two new starters, Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns. But training camp has also given the Knicks the chance to fully implement OG Anunoby.
Acquired in a midseason trade and then sidelined with injuries during much of his time in New York, Anunoby begins this season healthy and able to work through the offensive and defensive schemes. That will allow the Knicks to figure out how best to use his versatile skill set he showed in brief flurries last season.
“It’s been every day getting better and better,” Anunoby said after the Knicks' first practice at their training center after spending nearly a week away, training in Charleston, South Carolina. “We’re figuring each other out, going through some mishaps here and there but growing through it each and every day.”
When Anunoby first joined the Knicks last season the results were startling. The team had a 12-2 record in which he put up historic plus-minus numbers, averaging a plus-18 per game while scoring 15.6 points per game and putting his defensive skills on display. But he said at that time that much of what he was doing was just playing a sort of playground game. He would just cut and try to find open areas of the court without the opportunity to really know the offensive schemes.
He played just 23 regular-season games and nine playoff games (including less than five minutes in the Game 7 loss to Indiana when he tried to play through a hamstring injury).
“Yeah this year I know what to expect more,” he said. “So definitely having a whole training camp and season will definitely help out a lot.”
“It’s great, first to see him healthy again and just to start the year off with him,” Jalen Brunson said. “It’s a lot easier when you have the whole team and go through training camp, [making] sure you’ve got your basics down.
"In-season trades are always tough for an individual learning an offensive scheme and defensive scheme. It’s just easier when you’re in training camp to learn all that stuff.”
There was a momentary scare in the exhibition opener as Anunoby came down awkwardly on his ankle, but he said there was no issue and he participated in practice Tuesday. If it put a scare in the fan base it certainly did to the Knicks as well. The team is aware that every day of practice and every preseason game will help smooth the transition for Anunoby and the two newcomers in the starting lineup.
“That's the challenge for our whole team,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Because when you look at it, OG didn't play in a lot of games last year, and obviously KAT wasn't here and Mikal wasn't here. So you have a new starting five, and then we have a new bench.
"So the challenge is we got to get everyone up to speed real fast, and so you can't waste any time. You got to be locked in. You got to be focused. You have to have great concentration.
“[Anunoby] missed a lot of time last year, too. So we still got to get reacclimated to everything we're doing. Obviously you start at a zero base and you build. And that's where we are. We're building right now, but we have to understand that you build together. And so you're asking everyone to share the floor, share the ball, and then be committed together defensively. And so that's what we're working on.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
