Grading The OG Anunoby To The New York Knicks Trade
Yesterday we got the first blockbuster trade of the season, with OG Anunoby becoming a New York Knick! Let’s break down this trade and grade it for each team.
FULL TRADE DETAILS
Knicks Receive: OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa, Malachi Flynn
Raptors Receive: RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, second-round pick
New York Knicks: B+
While the Knicks certainly shipped off a lot of value in this deal, on the whole I am a big fan of the trade for New York. Directly looking at the trade off between RJ and OG, I believe the Knicks upgrade not only from a talent standpoint, but majorly fit wise. RJ Barrett is a talented player but with the current construction of New York’s roster his role and skill set were often contrary to each other. Having Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle ahead of Barrett is sensible but also was always going to limit RJ’s growth as a player significantly. Barrett was hyped out of college being a true lead creator but with the Knicks being in win now mode and him not becoming an efficient on ball scorer, he was forced into mainly being a catch-and-shoot player but it has already been shown that he has yet to be good enough at that to gain teams respect in playoff series. RJ may grow into a great player and we could look back on this trade differently, but we shouldn’t as Barrett was simply never going to become that player. I have similar thoughts when it comes to Immanuel Quickly as he was never going to be the ideal backcourt player alongside Jalen Brunson even though he is very talented. Losing Quickly while already having Isaiah Hartenstein being forced into a starting role with Mitchell Robinson injured for the rest of the year does have me a bit concerned about the bench production moving forward so if some knocked this trade more for New York because of that I would totally understand. Now moving more towards what the Knicks acquired in the deal, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn remain project players but this deal was centered on OG Anunoby so let’s discuss what he brings to New York. OG is basically the perfect wing that the Knicks needed. Instead of forcing RJ Barrett was always a square peg trying to fit into a round hole so to fix that they got that “round hole” in Anunoby. OG is the ideal 3 and D wing in the modern NBA. Offensively Anunoby provides a much greater threat as a floor spacer while doing just enough as a creator to slide in perfectly as a 3rd or 4th fiddle in any offense. On defense is where OG brings his true value. RJ may have grown into a very respectable perimeter defender but Anunuoby is truly one of the premier stoppers in basketball. OG blends a perfect balance of strength, length, and foot speed to give the very best perimeter scorers all they can handle. New York is still likely a Donovan Mitchell type of move away from reaching real contender status but getting someone who can challenge the many elite scorers out East is a great first step to make them a far more dangerous match up in the playoffs than they were just days ago.
Toronto Raptors: A-
Long have myself and others campaigned for Toronto to finally give up fighting for the play-in and capitalize on the opportunity to kickstart a new era of Raptors basketball headlined by young star Scottie Barnes. If Toronto can get worthy value for Pascal Siakam they will be moving in a great direction where they will have both young talent and draft capital to be very excited about. While RJ Barrett is the higher profile name that the Raptors acquired, I think the best asset they got was Immanuel Quickly. Quickly has been forced into a limited role as New York couldn’t afford to put him next to Jalen Brunson for too long with the defensive limitations a backcourt that miniature had. Playing just 24 minutes a game and having a usage rate of under 25% we were never able to see him reach the obvious potential that is present within him. I am thrilled to see how IQ grows in this increased role as funnily enough I think we could see a very similar storyline to Jalen Brunson’s career where a player was limited due to the guard talent ahead of him and instead of just seeing flashes of greatness we see a full fledged all-star now that they have the reigns of an offense. Now talking more about RJ Barrett while I am not very high on him as a player, I do think it is good for him to get a change of scenery and it is an even greater story that it is in his home country. Being in New York especially as such a high draft pick puts so much pressure on a young guy like RJ and I think we often forget how much that weighs on the mental aspect of these athletes, so now in a smaller market where expectations are lower he could blossom under those circumstances. Until Pascal is off the team I do have similar worries to New York where Barrett could struggle to fit in but once he’s gone hopefully RJ will have the opportunity to make mistakes and grow as a creator to where that is actually an avenue that leads to winning. The assets Toronto got in the trade were excellent but more than anything this trade represents true direction which had been lost for them for years and their fans should be extremely grateful for that.
