When Jalen Brunson took the court Monday afternoon, his new teammate approached with a message.
“I don’t really know what I’m doing,” OG Anunoby told him. “So I'll keep cutting.”
Anunoby made good on his promise during his first game with the New York Knicks — the second part of it, not the first. He ran, cut and sliced. He attacked those close to him and directed others who rushed into space in the same way he did.
This was a new look. Because of the way Anunoby performs, in a state of constant motion, the first part of his comment to Bronson doesn't ring true at all.
You would never have guessed that Anunoby, who was traded to the Knicks over the weekend and has yet to practice with the team, didn't know what he was doing. Instead, he looked like he belonged. The Knicks were in a better position after defeating the best in the West, the Minnesota Timberwolves, 112-106, on Monday afternoon.
“It's natural for him to play hard on both sides of the ball,” Brunson said. “When he sees something, he just attacks it.”
Anunoby finished his Knicks debut with 17 points and six rebounds on 7-of-12 shooting and 3-of-6 3-point shooting. Anthony Edwards manned most of the day, remaining as young a dynamo as one might expect and bothering Edwards once he got to the paint — though Anunoby fouled out with 4 minutes, 12 seconds left.
But that side of the ball has been covered (Anunoby is the reigning member of the NBA Second Team All-Defense), and that may be why the change in offense has been so apparent.
The main reason the Knicks acquired Anunoby — bringing him along with Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn from the Toronto Raptors in exchange for RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a second-round pick — was his defensive presence. New York wanted a tall, physical point guard, and few people in the NBA fit that description better than this particular 6-foot-7 linebacker.
Meanwhile, the Knicks can actually score. They have hovered around the top 10 in points per possession all season. But on Monday their approach changed.
These Knicks moved differently. They are without two offensive constants, Barrett and Quickley, whose shooting has become a staple of the group's offense. Now, New York must find other ways to score. Against the Wolves, who have the strongest defense in the NBA, it all started with the cutting.
“(I was) just reading my teammates,” Anunoby said. “Seeing if they're going to catch the ball or seeing where the defensive help is coming from. Read my guy as well. See if he turns his head.”
Until this weekend, coach Tom Thibodeau and Anunoby had never spoken, except for a postgame handshake here or there. They chatted after the trade about Anunoby's definition of speed. Coaches sent Knicks' top plays to rookies. Thibodeau explained the team's terminology to him.
Anunoby arrived at Madison Square Garden early Monday so he could show off some Knicks sets. Thibodeau wanted to simplify the game for him.
The coach didn't want Anunoby to do anything he wasn't comfortable with yet. If he doesn't know how to play out of bounds, stand in as an inside player so he doesn't get frantic. However, Anunoby never looked panicked — and that was true from the jump.
His first basket came on a corner 3, a look Knicks fans would do well to get used to, considering corner kicks are Anunoby's happy place. By the second quarter, it was accelerating.
Midway through the period, he upset All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns, who couldn't get to the rim and hit a panicked jumper short, received an outlet pass from Josh Hart and raced the other way, only the smaller Mike noticing. Kunley is in front of him.
But instead of attempting a layup that he could have justified, a move that was familiar in New York, Anunoby kicked an open Quentin Grimes, who passed the ball to Brunson, who passed it back to Hart, who hit an open 3.
what goes around comes around.
A few minutes later, Anunoby slid off the baseline to take an offload from Donte DiVincenzo for a powerful two-handed slam. Just moments later, he noticed his defender, Edwards, marking the ball and took off for the hoop.
Once again, the play ended with DiVincenzo unloading and an Anunoby handshake.
He did all this and he didn't know what to do.
That's why Julius Randle, who had 39 points and nine rebounds in the win, called Anunoby “the perfect piece.”
“That's who he is as a player. He makes very strong, sound decisions,” Randle said. “He understands how to play well in front of everyone. I think he's just a high IQ basketball player. This is of course, and it suits us just fine.
The Knicks, which was stocked with too many guards and not enough size, were due for a combination trade. The guy who was with Toronto balanced the roster. But Barrett and Quickley's migration has ripple effects.
There is not a lot of individual creativity. The bench lineup, which featured both of the most recent Raptors, doesn't have much scoring potential. The Knicks' backup point guard on Monday was defensive-oriented Myles McBride. The rotation had to be reconfigured.
Thibodeau made the first two substitutions for Brunson and Anunoby in each half, an honor that had previously gone to Barrett, sitting them out early so they could get back to running with the second unit. Anunoby becomes the de facto backup power forward, a role that previously belonged to Hart. Meanwhile, Brunson can now torch the backups.
The strategy separates Randle and Brunson so that the Knicks have one of the best shot-makers to ever play the game. Quickley isn't there to provide a jolt off the bench anymore. And Barrett isn't there to cut the basket.
But others can fill in.
The Knicks have more shooting in the starting lineup now. Anunoby drained three of his four three-point attempts off corner kicks on Monday. Defenses worry more about his long balls than Barrett's. They're looking for other ways to create shots. For example, Thibodeau says he wants to get Isaiah Hartenstein involved more as a cutter and creator. We saw some of that against the Timberwolves as Hartenstein passed from the high post, flipped plates to cutters and sliced from the corners to the hoop.
The new-look offense isn't just about playing basketball around the court more. Player movement promises to match ball movement – especially when each player knows what they are doing.
“(Anunoby) plays hard on both sides of the ball, which is — I guess you could say — a perfect fit,” Brunson said. “But I think he's only going to get better the more he gets to know the things we do and understand our terminology on both sides of the ball and things like that.
“It can be very special here.”
(OG Anunoby Photo: Mitchell Liff/Getty Images)
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