The day before the New York Knicks' season-ending loss, OG Anunoby stepped in as head coach.
Anunoby had not played since Game 2 of the group's second series against the Indiana Pacers, which ended the team's seven-game losing streak. The 26-year-old forward is yet to run and he is still nursing a hamstring injury he injured 11 days ago. But with the Knicks one loss away from elimination and the rest of the roster in turmoil, any notion of what was healthy disappeared.
“I wanted to at least help my teammates. … I wanted to at least go out there,” Anubobi said.
That's what he told Tom Thibodeau.
The Knicks were fighting for their lives, but Anunoby, who had a bad hamstring, wanted to play. He must have made a convincing argument.
Anunoby started Sunday's Game 7 against the Pacers, but he seemed to be doing an over-the-top Willis Reed impression. He couldn't sprint, defend, or drive. Thibodeau took him out of the game less than five minutes after tipoff and never played him.
“I didn't think he was moving well,” Thibodeau said. “I didn't understand what that meant.”
A man famous for approaching every game as if it were his team's last was the one who had to save Anunoby from himself.
That's what the Knicks have done this season, losing to the Pacers 130-109 in Game 7, leaving them one win short of reaching the Eastern Conference finals. New York kept giving until there was nothing left.
“This group, we didn't make excuses for anything,” Jalen Brunson said. “If something happened, we just used what we had and moved forward. Obviously, we want everybody to be healthy. I think that's the most important thing, but I think as a group, we just had a mindset of being the next guy. We really took that to heart.”
Anunoby was one of them.
Less than 48 hours after injuring his abdominal muscle, Josh Hart was hustling all over the court, setting up screens on the irresistible Aaron Nesmith and going for rebounds.
Minutes after breaking his hand in the third quarter, Brunson was trying to return to the game. He played 14 seconds, realized his grip wasn't feeling right, was ejected again, and headed to the locker room, but an errant swipe at Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton caused him to lose his position. I learned that not only that, but I also broke a bone.
The Knicks could have assembled a playoff team with only injured players.
They were without Julius Randle, who dislocated his shoulder in January and hasn't played since. Mitchell Robinson, who came back from ankle surgery, injured his ankle again, came back from that injury, injured it again early in the Pacers series and needed another surgery, was not on the team. Bojan Bogdanovic underwent foot surgery in the first round of the series against the Philadelphia 76ers and missed Game 7.
New York completed an outstanding season, winning 50 games for the first time in 11 years and emerging as the No. 2 seed without having a single Opening Day starter on the floor. The Pacers' historic offensive performance, in which they shot 67.1 percent in Game 7, the best in an NBA playoff game, was only outweighed by the physical pain that came with the loss.
The Knicks won despite injuries throughout the season. As the incline got steeper, they kept pedaling until the wheels came off.
“This team is special,” Brunson said. “In a way I can't really explain.”
Once a fallen franchise, the Knicks didn't always boast this competitive culture, but it's become their hallmark. With each tweak, twist, sprain and pull that disrupted the season, a feeling of “what if” permeated up and down the organization.
The Knicks went 12-2 in 14 games immediately after trading Anunoby midseason. Injuries to Randle and Anunoby derailed the run. Randall never returned.
The Knicks will be the talk of the office in January heading into the offseason. This group looked like a favorite to win if they gave it their all. However, there is no guarantee that the same crew will return in 2024-2025.
The first question of the summer is about the coach who revamped the culture. Thibodeau is currently in the final season of his contract. The two sides are expected to negotiate an extension this summer. The Athletic's Shams Charania reported last week that the Knicks are “very keen to keep (him) around” long-term, and that his new contract could approach eight figures a year. Since Monty Williams reset the market last summer by signing a six-year, $78 million contract with the Detroit Pistons, coaches are no longer signing at a discount.
“That will be resolved by my agent,” Thibodeau said. “The Knicks have been great to me, so this is where I want to be.”
Regardless of whether an extension happens or not, the Knicks have questions to consider about their roster.
Anunoby is a free agent and New York is the overwhelming favorite to re-sign him, but questions remain about the details. Will he come back for $35 million a year? Or could the average annual value be closer to his $40 million? Or even more? There aren't many defenders who are as versatile as this one, who can start at center or point guard. Only a few players who fit this criteria can achieve 15-18 points.
Isaiah Hartenstein is also a free agent. Even if he insists he wants to stay in New York, his return is not guaranteed.
Due to the quirks of the salary cap, the Knicks can't offer Hartenstein more than $16.1 million as a starting salary, of which $1.8 million must go toward bonuses. But coming off his best season to date, the team could give him more than that.
The Knicks will likely push to re-sign Hartenstein, a dynamic defensive center who also serves as Brunson's most trusted pick-and-roll outlet, but when someone is offered a life-changing sum of money, who knows? I don't know how they will react.
There's another factor shaping a team's offseason. It's a never-ending chase for a second star.
The Knicks have already made Brunson their first hire. But he needs a partner, another running mate who creates shots when defenders swarm him. If Randle hadn't gotten hurt and a healthy roster had pushed this group to the conference finals to play against or past the Boston Celtics, this conversation probably wouldn't exist.
Alas, in this world, the Knicks would be left chasing their faceless star to determine his future with only a January heater and sporadic evidence and theories.
According to league sources, the organization is still targeting the upcoming summer as the time to make a trade for its next big name. The Athletic. Randle could become a free agent in 2025 and is due for a raise at that time, and Brunson is similarly eligible for a contract extension this summer, but will become a free agent in 2025 and receive a new contract. If you wait until it's tied, you could potentially earn more money.
A year from now, the Knicks will be worth even more. Financially and with the current collective bargaining agreement, this summer is star trade time.
New York has a lot of draft picks. The company owns all future first-rounders, including one drafted by the Dallas Mavericks in this summer's draft and three protected players who will play for other teams in the future. There are tradable contracts. The encouraging thing about this season isn't just that the Knicks won. That means they won while the front office, like every other team, is preparing for 2025 and beyond.
It's unclear who that star will be. Even the Knicks don't know. They rely on his one universal truth. That said, in the NBA, someone unexpectedly becomes available all the time.
Karl-Anthony Towns, Paul George opt-in-and-trade, defeating the Miami Heat, bringing Donovan Mitchell back, Phoenix Suns reshuffling — no matter what happens, the Knicks will insert themselves into the conversation. plan to do so. Of course, the situation today is not the same as it was just a few summers ago when they were searching for Mitchell.
At the time, the Knicks were a team that had won 37 games and was looking for a first star. If the fit with Brunson doesn't work out, they'll figure it out later. The objective was to recruit talented people.
Not so today.
The Knicks have talent. Brunson is the clear star. He, Hart, Hartenstein, Robinson, Anunoby, Miles McBride, Donte DiVincenzo and even Randle are better players than ever. Their culture oozes into every action they take. They hope to have another top-level talent next to Brunson and perhaps add Randle as well. But they also have success with certain types of personalities, and that's something to keep in mind when searching for the next big name.
It's no coincidence that the Knicks are best known for their try-hards. Coach Thibodeau demands it, but as the players say, this is how they operate regardless of who leads the locker room. After the Cam Reddish and Evan Fournier gaffes, the front office realized that if Thibodeau was the head coach, they had to supply him with Thibodeau-oriented players.
That doesn't change even when you're chasing the stars.
The Knicks will be looking for the next great player, but they also hope to not destroy the culture that helped most of the roster have career years and encouraged players to keep swinging like they had no feeling in their arms. right.
“I think (the future) is very bright,” Hart said. “I think there's hope in what we're building, and I think that's the biggest thing. … I think we've laid the foundation for a franchise that's going to fight, a franchise that's going in the right direction. It's not going to end like this. It's tough, but we're moving in the right direction, and I think we're giving this city and Knick fans hope.”
(Jalen Brunson Photo: Elsa/Getty Images)
