THE TRADE:
On Saturday, December 31st, the New York Knicks celebrated the new year by pulling the trigger on a blockbuster trade. Said trade sent RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, and a 2nd-round pick to the Toronto Raptors in exchange for Malachi Flynn, Precious Achiuwa, and OG Anunoby. Since completing the trade, both teams have been hotter than they’ve been all year. Toronto has won three out of their first four games in January, while the Knicks are yet to lose.
To New Yorkers, RJ Barrett represented more than just a guard putting up 18 points and 2.5 assists per game. In 2019, the Knicks drafted RJ Barrett with the 3rd pick of the draft, and RJ was supposed to change their franchise. Let’s dive into Barrett’s significance in New York and why the Knicks were willing to trade him for Anunoby.
RJ BARRETT:
Going into the 2019 draft, three super-prospects were a tier above everyone else. The prospects were Murray State University’s point guard Ja Morant, and Duke’s elite duo, forward Zion Williamson and shooting guard RJ Barrett. While Zion was considered much better than Ja and RJ, all three players were viewed as “franchise changers”.
The New York Knicks were coming off a historically bad 2018-2019 season, in which they led the NBA with 65 losses. New York hoped to change their fortune by drafting Zion Williamson but only got the 3rd pick in the draft lottery. While they were disappointed to miss out on Williamson, the city of New York quickly rallied around RJ Barrett. Barrett instantly became the face of New York basketball and received nicknames, such as “the Maple Mamba” and “Broadway Barrett”. The fanbase was convinced that things would be different with Barrett.
In RJ’s rookie season, the Knicks looked a bit better before the season was abruptly ended due to COVID-19. But in RJ’s sophomore year, the team finally came together. Between Barrett and their newly acquired forward Julius Randle, both playing at high levels, the Knicks were good. New York went 41W-31L in the 2020-2021 season and clinched the 4 seed in the east, yet failed to win a playoff series.
The series loss wasn’t too horrible because New York was a young talented team, and led by Barrett they were only going to develop and improve. However, that didn’t happen. Even though RJ set career highs in points, the team fell off in 2021-2022 and missed the playoffs entirely. The lack of success motivated the Knicks to bring in free agent guard, Jalen Brunson prior to the 2022-2023 season. Brunson’s arrival made RJ now the number 3 option on offense and the secondary option at guard. Brunson had an immediate impact on the team and electrified them the way Barrett was supposed to years ago. In Brunson’s first season in the Big Apple, the Knicks went 47W-35L and shocked the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs to win their first series since 2013.
With Brunson and Randle now running the show, RJ wasn’t playing as big of a role. However, it still caught me by surprise when 32 games into the 2023-2024 season, the Knicks traded away RJ Barrett.
OG ANUNOBY:
In June 2017, with the 23rd pick, the Toronto Raptors selected a British forward by the name of OG Anunoby. Anunoby played a minimal role in his rookie season, averaging only 20 minutes and 4.7 field goal attempts per game. While he did not see an increase in minutes, OG took 1.3 more field goal attempts per game in his sophomore season. Anunoby slowly improved year by year until he set career highs of 17.1 points and 2.6 assists per game in 2021-2022, while also tying career highs in rebounds and steals.
In OG’s top season, the Raptors were great and went 48W-34L. However, in the 2022-2023 season, OG Anunoby put up almost identical numbers, but the Raptors dropped to 41W-41L and fell in the play-in. This raised questions regarding if the Raptors already got all they could out of Anunoby.
After Toronto got off to a poor 12W-20L start to the 2023-2024 season they looked to make a change. Even though there were questions regarding Anunoby, it still caught me by surprise when 32 games into the 2023-2024 season, the Toronto Raptors traded away OG Anunoby.
JANUARY 2024:
According to basketball-reference.com, the 2022-2023 New York Knicks’ offense posted a 117.8 rating, 3rd best in the NBA, while their defense posted a rating of 114.8, 19th in the NBA. Therefore, trading away RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, two of their top scores, in exchange for a great defensive forward brought more balance to the team. Yet the basketball world didn’t realize how large OG Anunoby’s impact would be.
In OG’s first game as a Knick, New York faced the top team in the Western Conference, the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Knickerbockers were coming off a terrible defensive performance against the Indiana Pacers, in which they allowed 140 points. Led by Anunoby, the team bounced back in a big way, beating Minnesota 112-106. They kept the ball rolling two nights later, as they took down the Chicago Bulls 116-100.
OG’s third game was the real test. The Knicks traveled to Philadelphia to take on the 76ers, one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. New York blew the 76ers out of the water and topped them by 36, 128-92. The Knicks had 7 different players score 10 or more points while they held Philadelphia to only 3. Now on a 3-game winning streak, the word started to spread that this new and improved Knicks team is legit.
The following game, the Knicks took down the Washington Wizards, 121-105, before hosting the Portland Trail Blazers. Portland has the second-to-worst offense in the NBA, and it showed. The Knicks held the Trail Blazers to a mere 84 points as New York picked up their 5th consecutive win, 112-84.
5 games is still a small sample size, so we shouldn’t read into this success too much. Nevertheless, since acquiring Anunoby, the Knicks’ defense has allowed 97.4 points per game, 16.5 points less than they allowed in their first 32 games of the season (113.9). Meanwhile, despite giving up Barrett (18.7 points per game) and Quickley (15.4 points per game), their offense hasn’t taken much of a hit. Since acquiring Anunoby, New York has scored 117.8 points per game, somehow 2.5 points more than the 115.3 they averaged in the first 32 games of the season.
THE OG EFFECT:
If OG Anunoby and the Knicks can keep this up, they might make some noise in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Right from the start, the Eastern Conference was considered a two-horse race between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics. Led by Tyrese Haliburton, the Indiana Pacers have raised some eyebrows by scoring 127 points per game. The Knicks did make some noise in the In-Season Tournament by qualifying for the Eastern Conference wildcard. However, that was short-lived as Milwaukee abused their defense for 146 points to eliminate the Knicks. Now that New York is allowing 16.5 fewer points per game, they can take the next step toward being the “third horse”. While Boston and Milwaukee are still the top two teams in the Eastern Conference standings, Anunoby and the red-hot Knicks, are not a team anybody would like to face in a 7-game series.
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