New York Knicks forward OG Anunoby has declined his player option for the 2024-2025 NBA season, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic. He has chosen to enter unrestricted free agency as one of the most intriguing players on the market.
League observers had long expected Anunoby to decline the player option for the final season of the four-year, $72 million contract he signed in December 2020 as a member of the Raptors. Toronto drafted Anunoby with the 23rd pick of the 2017 NBA Draft, with head coaches Dwane Casey and Nick Nurse helping fuel his development into one of the NBA’s best 3-and-D wings – a vital part of Raptors teams that made the playoffs in each of the NBA’s. of his first three years as a pro and won the 2019 NBA Championship in his second season. (Anunoby missed that entire title run after undergoing an emergency appendectomy just before the start of the postseason.)
Under that deal, Anunoby would make $19.9 million next season. In a financial environment where the salary cap has risen to $141 million for the ’24-25 campaign, he could nearly double that salary in the first year of a new multi-year deal — one with a total value likely to exceed the 24-25 campaign. the four-year, $118 million max extension that “Anunoby was limited to signing but would not have accepted with the Raptors,” as Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Jake Fischer reported in January.
That lucrative new deal could very well come from the Knicks, whose trade for Anunoby helped transform their season.
At the time of the trade, New York was 17-14, seventh in the Eastern Conference and 16th in the NBA in defensive efficiency, according to Cleaning the Glass. The addition of Anunoby – 6-foot-4, 240 pounds with a 7-foot-2 wingspan and an All-Defensive selection on his resume – provided a massive jolt of adrenaline for Tom Thibodeau’s team, as the Knicks took 12 of Anunoby’s won the first games. 14 games in and was starting to look like a bona fide title contender.
Anunoby’s individual production — 14.1 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 34.9 minutes per game for New York in the regular season — rarely jumped off the stat sheet. However, his overall impact was immediately apparent and difficult to overstate: The Knicks gained Anunoby’s minutes in all 23 regular season games he played for them, outscoring opponents by a whopping 21.7 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor.
Anunoby’s ability to space the floor from the corners — 39.4% from 3-point range on 4.5 attempts per game in New York — helped open driving lanes for emerging star point guard Jalen Brunson. His ability to take on defensive assignments across the positional spectrum; he spent a lot of time as the primary defender for both Joel Embiid And Tyrese Maxey during New York’s first-round playoff win over the 76ers helped lighten the defensive burden on the Knicks’ other perimeter players, allowing players like Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo to play a more natural role as relievers destroyers.
And Anunoby’s own individual disruption as a defender — 1.7 steals, 1 block and 3.2 deflections per game after the trade — helped spark New York’s transition game, with the Knicks moving from a bottom-10 unit during the break to a unit that scored. at the highest level in transition with him on the floor:
OG will guard Aaron Gordon on this possession, who comes back into the game late. So Anunoby takes advantage of the situation, sees the game developing and plays free safety for the pick 6.
Thanks to Brunson also for his aggressive hedge. pic.twitter.com/avh2Ra9RiA
— Knicks Film School (@KnickFilmSkool) January 26, 2024
All told, the Knicks went 26-6 with Anunoby in the lineup, outscoring opponents by 16.3 points per 100 in his minutes — a dramatic swing that marks him as the kind of two-way difference-maker that any team with enough money can afford. spend would like to add free agency. (Like, for example, the 76ers team that defeated New York in April.)
The complicating factor for Anunoby? His medical file. Since playing 69 games in the pandemic-shortened 2019-2020 season, he has missed 76 games over the past three seasons — including 32 in the past year, with surgery to remove a loose bone fragment in his right elbow and a flare-up after the return. which left him sidelined for most of the second half of the season.
Anunoby returned for the final week of the regular season and played a big role (and big minutes) for Thibodeau through the Knicks’ first seven playoff games. But in the third quarter of Game 2 against the Pacers — in the midst of perhaps the best performance of his career, with 28 points in 28 minutes — Anunoby pulled a fastbreak, stopped with a hitch in his gait, and immediately left the court with some later revealed to be a strained left hamstring:
Anunoby missed the next three games, as Indiana took control of the series. He tried to bounce back in Game 7 and made his first two shots; however, it was immediately clear that he simply couldn’t move at his typical level, causing Thibodeau to end the experiment after just five minutes and turning Anunoby into a spectator as the Pacers ended New York’s season.
“I just wanted to play,” Anunoby said after the match. “I wanted to try it. Like at least attempt to help my teammates.”
As he left the Madison Square Garden locker room before the summer, Knicks wing Josh Hart pointed to Anunoby and center Isaiah Hartenstein and said, “Those two better come back.” With Hartenstein already on the unrestricted market and Anunoby now joining him, we’ll soon find out if the Knicks can follow Hart’s orders – and how high the price will be for doing so.
