Knicks Nearly Lost OG Anunoby

The New York Knicks made it their mission to re-sign OG Anunoby this offseason, and they did just that.

Anunoby, 27, signed a five-year, $212.5 million deal at the end of June, keeping him with the Knicks after the team acquired him in a blockbuster trade with the Toronto Raptors back in December.

However, according to Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News, Anunoby was strategic during negotiations, threatening to leave the Knicks if they didn’t meet his contractual demands.

The Knicks obliged, making Anunoby the highest-paid player on the team even if it cost them Isaiah Hartenstein, who left in free agency for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Granted, the Thunder signed Hartenstein for far more than what the Knicks’ maximum offer could have been. However, the Knicks knew that their chances of signing Hartenstein would decrease if they brought in Anunoby.

While losing Hartenstein is a massive loss, keeping Anunoby is a big plus. He is one of the best defenders in the NBA, and the Knicks improved drastically once he was included in the lineup.

The Knicks went 20-3 in the regular season when Anunoby played and 30-29 when he was either in Toronto or on the sidelines in New York. And in the playoffs, that trend continued. The Knicks were 6-2 when Anunoby played the full game.

In his final full game of the playoffs, Anunoby scored 28 points on 10 of 19 shooting in the Knicks’ Game 2 win. However, he suffered an injury which held him out for the next four games.

With Game 7 on the line, Anunoby tried to give it a go, but it was far too early for him to be effective and healthy.

Anunoby wants to be with the Knicks, but he also wanted to be compensated fairly. Now that he has, he can simply focus on bringing a title to the Big Apple.

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