New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby was listed as a potential San Antonio Spurs free agency target.
The San Antonio Spurs have some big-time decisions to make this summer. Victor Wembanyama is already a superstar, and putting solid pieces around him should be the top priority as the Spurs look to improve their overall level of competitiveness. The 2024 NBA Draft will give them a chance to do that, and so will free agency this offseason.
Tyler Watts of FanSided recently put together a list of potential free agency targets for the Spurs this summer on Air Alamo. One of the guys he mentioned San Antonio should target, should he hit the market, is New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby.
Watts believes Anunoby’s two-way play would be a perfect fit next to Wembanyama.
“If Anunoby becomes available, a massive bidding war will take place,” Watts wrote. “Every team wants a 6’7 wing who is an elite defender capable of sinking open 3-pointers and averaging over 15 points per game. It is a crucial role. Anunoby is one of the best in the league at it and would draw massive interest.
“The Spurs would likely have to overpay, but this is a wish list. Could San Antonio convince him to spend his prime playing next to Victor Wembanyama? It is worth a shot even if he quickly re-signs with the Knicks and tries to chase a championship in the Big Apple over the Alamo.”
Clarifying that this is a “wish list” target for the Spurs, Watts believes that San Antonio should go after Anunoby if he left the Knicks for some reason.
Anunoby made his debut for the Knicks on Monday during a victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves, one of the strongest teams in the West. Although it was his first game, he finished with 17 points (7-of-12 from the field, 3-of-6 on 3-pointers) while adding six rebounds and two steals.
After the game, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson called his new teammate a “perfect” fit for this New York roster. While it was a small sample size, it provided insight into the role Anunoby will play for his new team.
On the offensive side of the ball, Anunoby was mostly used as a catch-and-shoot floor spacer who used off-ball screens and someone who finished cuts at the basket. But it was on the defensive side of the floor where he mostly proved his value.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch summarized it well: Anunoby can defend star guard Stephen Curry during one game and star big man Joel Embiid the following match and have similar success against both.
OG Anunoby begins his first game as a Knick guarding Anthony Edwards – exactly the kind of player he was acquired to go up against.
During his first game in New York, for example, Anunoby exemplified that perfectly. The wing defended Anthony Edwards for 32.9 partial possessions and switched on to Karl-Anthony Towns for 10.5 partial possessions.
Edwards scored 8 points when he was defended by Anunoby on Monday. For comparison, Edwards scored 9 points on 20.4 partial possessions guarded by Josh Hart and 11 points on 7.6 partial possessions defended by Julius Randle.
Anunoby held Edwards to 24.3 points per 100 possessions during this game, which is significantly better than what the Minnesota star is averaging (36.9) this season. It was hard to ignore his defensive presence whenever he was on the court.
It was a significant upgrade for New York to have Anunoby for this matchup.
When the Knicks faced the Timberwolves earlier this season, Quentin Grimes drew the assignment against Edwards. Grimes’ defensive matchup difficulty has ranked in the 99th percentile or higher both this season and last, per BBall-Index.
Now, he won’t have to do that as Anunoby will take on such tasks. Even when it’s not Edwards, like Grimes did, we already know that Anunoby will step up to guard the best player on the opposing team.
Both this season and last, Anunoby has also ranked in the 98th percentile or better in defensive matchup difficulty. But his overall defensive impact is far higher than what we have seen from Grimes.
For example, per DARKO, Anunoby grades out far better than Grimes in the defensive catch-all metric D-DPM.
Last season, via dunksandthrees.com, Anunoby had the highest overall D-EPM (Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus) among those who played at least 26 minutes per game. He also led the league in steals and he earned NBA All-Defense Second Team.
While he isn’t having the same type of impact this season, he still has one of the most unique intersections of defensive positional versatility and matchup difficulty.
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau had concerns about playing two smaller guards and he didn’t want to play Brunson and Quickley in the backcourt at the same time.
Anunoby, at 6-foot-8 with a massive 7-foot-2 wingspan, addresses those problems and will provide the length and versatility desired on the perimeter. His presence is a relief to Grimes and his offensive usage rate is low enough that he won’t take the ball away from Brunson, who is the most capable floor general and engine for New York.
This trade already looks like a win for the Knicks, who will eventually need to agree to terms on a long-term contract with the former NBA champion.
Coach Nick Nurse gives thoughts on the big OG Anunoby trade as well as any possible upgrade for the Philadelphia 76ers.
The first domino of trade season fell on Saturday afternoon when the Toronto Raptors and the New York Knicks combined to make a big deal.
The Raptors sent OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn to the Knicks for RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a 2024 second-round pick. Anunoby is the big get for New York. He brings an elite 3-and-D ability to the Knicks to fit next to Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson.
Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse has a great deal of history with Anunoby from Nurse’s days with the Raptors, and he gave his thoughts on the deal.
“I obviously know very well most of the guys in it,” Nurse told reporters. “Quickley’s the only guy I haven’t coached pretty closely, but I think there’s a lot of good players changing teams there. I think RJ was amazing to coach for Canada. He’s really a good team player. Kind of complete player. He does a little bit of everything. OG, as I’ve mentioned many times, is as good a defender as there is in this league. You can put him on everybody in every position. So those two guys are switching and hope makes both teams worse (he said as a joke).”
Anunoby is averaging 15.1 points and shooting 37.9% from deep to begin the season. He will make the Knicks a much tougher team to contend with and one has to wonder if the Sixers need to make an upgrade of their own.
“I think you’ve always got to be in the mindset to upgrade at all times,” Nurse added. “Whether I was coaching the Iowa Energy or coaching the Sixers like there’s always places. Can you improve 10 through 12? Can you prove eight through 10? Can you improve three through five? I think you’re always trying to do that or are you getting assets so you can do something else so I think there’s always that’s what Daryl (Morey) and these guys do every day, right?”
With that being said, the Sixers are still a very good team. Whether they make a move or not, they are going to contend for a championship in the Eastern Conference. Nurse knows that as Philadelphia moves forward.
“I do think that we got guys,” he finished. “We got some experienced guys. We have a lot of experience coming off the bench. I think when we lose a few guys, we’re able to withstand and not have to lose a whole bunch of games in a row or something like that. We can plug away and keep our head above water a little bit. So there is — I’m still trying to figure out half of these guys I got right now so we’re OK.”
An inter-division trade is sending a two-way star back to the New York Knicks
The New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors are shaking things up with an inter-division trade on Saturday morning.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Raptors are sending OG Anunoby to New York for a package including Immanuel Quickley and Toronto-native RJ Barrett.
It’s not a surprise to see the Raptors move major pieces and attempt to retool at this point in the year. Toronto is 12-19, last in the Atlantic Division and already falling behind in the race for the postseason play-in games. The Knicks, meanwhile, get another star player on an expiring contract to pair with Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle.
After Victor Wembanyama stuffed him in the San Antonio Spurs’ loss to the Toronto Raptors, OG Anunoby had a hilarious reaction post-game.
The San Antonio Spurs lost a tough one to the Toronto Raptors on Sunday, falling 123-116 in overtime. Scottie Barnes stole the show with an electrifying performance, but the Spurs will walk away believing they should have won. They were up by double digits for a large portion of the game but allowed a late-game comeback by Toronto.
That said, Victor Wembanyama still pulled off a few of his signature highlight-reel plays. He finished the game with five blocks, and the most viral one was a snatch block against OG Anunoby at the rim. Anunoby tried to put the ball up for a layup, but Wembanyama just grabbed the ball on his shot attempt.
After the game, Anunoby couldn’t do anything but laugh when asked about the moment.
Before the start of the 2023-24 NBA campaign, Curry and his longtime trainer Brandon Payne of Accelarate Basketball hosted a recent minicamp with multiple other members of the Warriors and other NBA players in Las Vegas.
During the camp, the players worked on fundamentals and shooting drills.
Watch highlights from Curry and Payne’s minicamp via YouTube:
Along with hosting a camp in Las Vegas with NBA players, Curry recently organized a players-only camp for the Warriors. Every member of the Warriors except for Dario Saric was in attendance.
Training camp for the Warriors is scheduled to start on Oct. 2 in San Francisco. The Warriors’ preseason slate will start five days later on Oct. 7 against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Raptors “got some guys on some expiring contracts coming up that might be available to the Celtics” per the Globe reporter.
If the Boston Celtics plan on making more moves this offseason, one prominent NBA reporter believes they ought to look beyond the borders of the US for a pair of intriguing targets. The Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn related in a recent interview with NBC Sports Boston that the Celtics should “look up north for some solutions” to make a trade with the Toronto Raptors for what the team needs to take a step forward as a contender.
“Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby,” floated Washburn. “Toronto has got to figure out whether it wants to rebuild or whether it wants to retool. They lost Fred VanVleet. They signed Dennis Schroder; they’re a team in total limbo right now.”
“They’ve got some guys on some expiring contracts coming up that might be available to the Celtics with all this draft capital, all the second round picks they’ve picked up over the last couple of weeks,” continued the Globe reporter.
“I think looking north would be their next move, but … they need to wait to this market to dry out,” suggested Washburn. “There are going to be some available guys in free agency who are going to be up to minimum deals.”
“They could come to Boston to have a chance to win a championship and continue their careers, because right now the market is drying and some of these guys are going to get left out.”
Before acquiring Chris Paul in a deal with the Wizards, the Warriors reportedly made a call to the Raptors with interest in a trade centered around Jordan poole and OG Anunoby.
Before landing Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis in the 2023 edition of the NBA Draft, the Golden State Warriors made headlines on draft night with a blockbuster trade.
The Warriors agreed to trade a package centered around Jordan Poole to the Washington Wizards for veteran All-Star point guard Chris Paul. Along with Poole, the Warriors traded Ryan Rollins, Patrick Baldwin Jr. and picks for the 38-year-old point guard.
Prior to agreeing to a deal with the Wizards, the Warriors reportedly made other calls about trade packages around Poole. According to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, the Warriors made a call to the Toronto Raptors about a trade centered around Poole and OG Anunoby.
One of the Warriors’ calls, I’m told, was to check with Toronto about a proposal centering on Poole for 25-year-old forward OG Anunoby. But the Raptors weren’t interested. According to Yahoo Sports’ Jake Fischer, the Warriors also had talks with the Celtics and had interest from the Spurs, though it’s hard to come up with good trade matches for Poole on either team.
How the Sacramento Kings could use $35 million in cap space to improve the team and renegotiate and extend Domantas Sabonis.
The Sacramento Kings are heading into the offseason looking to build off their successful 2022-23 campaign. They entered last night’s draft with the 24th overall selection, which they could’ve used to add another building block toward their future. Instead, they traded the pick and Richaun Holmes to the Dallas Mavericks for nothing. While the deal may look bad from a value proposition, the Kings clearly prioritized getting off Holmes and the remaining two years, $26.7 million left on his deal.
This trade also accomplished another thing: they’re now a cap space team. They project to have $33-36 million in cap space, which should be more than enough to acquire an impact player or two while potentially renegotiating and extending the expiring contract of Domantas Sabonis.
Here is the breakdown of a mock trade between the Brooklyn Nets and the Toronto Raptors proposed by James Piercey of the NBA Analysis Network.
The Brooklyn Nets have a lot to consider this offseason as they have to make decisions on a lot of different things starting with the 2023 NBA Draft that is less than two weeks away. Until then, it’s safe to say that it is officially mock trade for the NBA space.
With the Nets trying to figure out the best way to move forward after the trades of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, it’s interesting to contemplate the available options. For one, Brooklyn could enter a full rebuild, but the Houston Rockets essentially own the Nets’ draft for the next few seasons.
Since it seems that rebuilding is an unlikely option, Brooklyn may be poised to do what it can to try to be competitive at this moment. The fastest way to do that is to go star-chasing and James Piercey of the NBA Analysis Network has a player that the Nets could go after in a trade:
