The long-anticipated OG Anunoby trade has finally dropped. As first reported by ESPN, Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn are headed to the New York Knicks, who are sending a package of RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a 2024 second-round pick back to the Raptors.
Let’s grade the trade.
New York Knicks: A-
This is all based on the assumption that Anunoby, who is slated to become a free agent this summer, will indeed re-sign with the Knicks. If he doesn’t, this is a bust. But I can’t imagine the Knicks doing this deal without such assurances. An agreement is almost certainly in place.
Now, the question becomes: What kind of contract will Anunoby get? He slots into that dangerous zone of a non-max player who is going to command near-max money. North of $35 million annually is in play, while Barrett is locked into an AAV of $26M over the next four years.
Two things on that. First, Anunoby is going to make more money than Barrett because he’s a better player than Barrett. Second, who cares if the Knicks overpay a little bit for Anunoby? The last thing anyone should be worried about is James Dolan’s bottom line, and the little extra cap space that Barrett’s deal might have afforded them this summer — with which they were not going to be in the market for a player as good as Anunoby — is largely inconsequential.
Now, onto the basketball.
Anunoby is everything the Knicks wanted, and needed, Barrett to be. He’s a 6-foot-7 wing who defends at an elite level and consistently makes 3-pointers. Barrett is younger, but continuing to hope on the upside of his physical archetype and occasional flashes of shooting was increasingly a fool’s errand for a Knicks team that is not operating on as long a timeline as some people like to think.
Jalen Brunson is 27 years old. Julius Randle is 29. Mitchell Robinson will be 26 the next time he plays for the Knicks. This is not an OKC situation. Anunoby is ready to take the Knicks to another level right now. If you haven’t spent a lot of time watching the Raptors, he’s really good. His on-ball wing defense is a major boon for a team making plans to potentially contend with the likes of Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler and/or Damian Lillard in the playoffs.
Brunson is having a monster shooting season, and now having a second knock-down shooter next to him does wonders for New York’s spacing. Longer term, when Robinson returns, New York’s defense goes to another level in support of Brunson.
The only reason I’m throwing a minus on the Knicks’ A grade for this deal is I hate the loss of Quickley, who is really good and going to get even better but was just not, for whatever reason, one of Thibodeau’s guys.
The Knicks were always better with Quickley on the court, but with his impending restricted free agency, New York was going to be in the difficult predicament of not wanting to pay him what he’s worth but also not wanting to lose him for nothing.
So they cut ties. It’s the Raptors’ gain, which we’ll get to, but from the Knicks’ perspective, it opens up more minutes for Quentin Grimes, another really good defender who was starting to break out last season before having his own playing time cut from 29 MPG last season to 20 this season. Grimes’ likely development is what made Quickley expendable. Hopefully, it happens.
On top of all this, the Knicks keep all their future first-round picks.
Toronto Raptors: B+
This is a win-win trade for the most part, but I do wonder if the Raptors could’ve gotten a better package for Anunoby had Masai Ujiri not procrastinated on this seemingly inevitable trade for so long.
By “better package” I mean one built around draft picks. The Knicks reportedly tried to get Anunoby last season with their picks, but I think Ujiri was smart to resist that offer if it was built around the Washington and/or Detroit picks that New York is owed, which are at a pretty elevated risk of eventually conveying as second rounders given the state of those franchises and the protections in place.
Not knowing exactly what other teams may have offered, or been willing to offer, for Anunoby, Toronto gets a player in Quickley who is likely better than anyone they could’ve drafted with a non-lottery selection. Will he make a Tyrese Maxey leap with a full opportunity in Toronto? That’s ambitious. But however large of a leap he’s capable of making, he’s now in the perfect position to do so.
Quickley is a superb fit next to Scottie Barnes. With Barnes as a natural, well-rounded hub and Quickley a downhill attacker and pull-up shooter waiting to fully pop, the two-man actions are going to rule. Handoffs. Pick and rolls. These two guys will play read-and-react styles that should further unlock both of them. They become the foundation of Toronto’s future, and it’s suddenly a pretty promising one with more pieces likely on the way once Pascal Siakam is — probably — traded.
Also, Barrett is a good player. Anunoby is definitely better, but the Raptors weren’t going to keep Anunoby and Barrett is locked up on a reasonable deal. Don’t rule out a leap from Barrett. The Knicks just couldn’t keep waiting on it. The shooting is tantalizing enough that consistency isn’t out of the question, and if he ever dials that in, he does a lot of the things, less consistently, that Anunoby does.
Losing Achiuwa and Flynn is no big deal. They weren’t moving the needle
