As Jalen Brunson walked onto the court Monday afternoon, his newest teammate came up to him with a message.
“I don’t really know what I’m doing,” OG Anunoby told him. “So I’ll keep cutting.”
Anunoby kept his promise during his first game against the New York Knicks — the second part, not the first. He ran, cut and cut. He attacked leftovers and handed out others who flew into space in the same way he did.
This was a new look. And due to the way Anunoby behaved in a state of constant motion, the first part of his comment to Brunson didn't seem true at all.
You would never have guessed that Anunoby, who the Knicks traded over the weekend and who hasn't yet practiced with the team, didn't know what he was doing. Instead, he looked like he belonged. And the Knicks were better off as they defeated the West's top-ranked Minnesota Timberwolves 112-106 on Monday afternoon.
“He naturally plays 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 shots. He occupied Anthony Edwards for most of the day, stayed in front of a young dynamo as well as could be expected, and disrupted Edwards when he arrived in the box – although Anunoby did foul with 4 minutes and 12 seconds left in the game .
But that side of the ball was covered (Anunoby is a reigning NBA Second Team All-Defense member), which may be why the change on offense stood out so much.
The main reason the Knicks acquired Anunoby – they brought him, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn from the Toronto Raptors for RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a second-round pick – was his defensive presence. New York wanted a long, physical stopper, and few people in the NBA fit that description better than this particular 6-foot-7 linebacker.
Meanwhile, the Knicks were already scoring points. They have ranked in the top 10 in points per possession all season. But on Monday her style changed.
These Knicks moved differently. They don't have two constants on offense: Barrett and Quickley, whose shot creation has become an integral part of the group's attack. Now New York has to find other ways to score. Against the Wolves, who have the NBA's stingiest defense, it started with all those cuts.
“(I was) just reading my teammates,” Anunoby said. “See if they pick up the ball or see where the help defense is coming from. I also read my husband. Let’s see if he turns his head.”
Until this weekend, head coach Tom Thibodeau and Anunoby had never spoken, aside from a postgame handshake here and there. They talked after the trade about bringing Anunoby up to speed. The coaches sent the rookie the Knicks' most important plays. Thibodeau explained the team's terminology to him.
Anunoby arrived at Madison Square Garden early Monday so he could go over some of the Knicks' sets. Thibodeau wanted to make the game easier for him.
The coach didn't want Anunoby to do anything he wasn't yet comfortable with. If he doesn't know an out-of-bounds play, step in as an inbounder so he doesn't rush. And yet Anunoby never seemed hectic – and that was true from the first moment.
His first basket came on a corner 3, a sight Knicks fans better get used to considering the corners are Anunoby's favorite spot. He got into full swing in the second quarter.
Midway through the half, he pressured All-Star big man Karl-Anthony Towns, who couldn't reach the rim and left a panicked jumper well behind, received an outlet pass from Josh Hart and ran the other way, taking Conley only noticed the smaller Mike in front of him.
But instead of attempting a layup that he could have justified, a play that would have been familiar in New York, Anunoby kicked to an open Quentin Grimes, who threw the ball to Brunson, who threw it back to Hart, who made an open 3 achieved.
What goes around comes around.
A few minutes later, Anunoby slid off the baseline and received a dump from Donte DiVincenzo for a two-handed slam. Just a few moments later, he noticed his defender, Edwards, watching the ball and made his way to the basket.
Once again the game ended with a dump off by DiVincenzo and a two-handed jam for Anunoby.
He did all this without knowing what he was doing.
That's why Julius Randle, who had 39 points and nine rebounds in the win, calls Anunoby the “perfect piece.”
“That’s just who he is as a player. He just makes very solid, informed decisions,” Randle said. “He knows how to play well against everyone. I think he’s just a high-IQ basketball player. That’s who he is, of course, and that’s a perfect fit for us.”
The Knicks, armed with too many guards and not enough size, faced a consolidation trade. The one with Toronto balanced the squad. But Barrett and Quickley's emigration has far-reaching implications.
There's not as much one-to-one creation. The bench lineups that once housed the two newest Raptors no longer pack as much punch. The Knicks' backup point guard on Monday was defensive-minded Miles McBride. The rotations had to be reconfigured.
Thibodeau made Brunson and Anunoby the first two substitutions of each half, an honor previously bestowed on Barrett by sitting them out early so they could continue running with the second unit. Anunoby becomes the de facto backup power forward, a role that previously belonged to Hart. Meanwhile, Brunson can now catch fire against backups.
The strategy separates Randle and Brunson so the Knicks have one of their top two scorers in the game at all times. Quickley is no longer there to provide a jolt off the bench. And Barrett isn't there to drive to the basket.
But others can step in.
The Knicks now have more shots in their starting lineup. Anunoby sank three of his four 3-point attempts from the corners on Monday. The defense is more concerned about his long balls than Barrett's. They look for other ways to record. For example, Thibodeau says he wants to involve Isaiah Hartenstein more as an editor and creator. We saw some of this against the Timberwolves as Hartenstein played from the high post, throwing plates to the cutters and cutting to the basket from the corners.
A revamped offense isn't just about banging the basketball around the court more. The movement of the player corresponds to the movement of the ball – especially if each player knows what they are doing.
“(Anunoby) plays really hard on both sides of the ball and, you could say, he fits in perfectly,” Brunson said. “But I think he's only going to get better the more he knows what we do and the more he understands our terminology on both sides of the ball and things like that.
“He can be something really special here.”
(Photo by OG Anunoby: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)