The New York Knicks won’t have to worry about one of their most important players stirring up internal strife over his role in the offense next season.
Knicks: OG Anunoby is ready to put winning over individual stats in 2024-25
Per Antonio Losada of Posting and Toasting, Knicks standout forward OG Anunoby recently came out and declared that he’s not about to prioritize his own offensive numbers over the prime objective, being winning games in 2024-25:
“It’s (about) knowing that everyone’s gonna have their night. Some nights it’s gonna be this guy, that guy, someone off the bench. At the end of the day, winning is the most important thing,” Anunoby said.
The Knicks look like they’ll avoid a feud over offensive workloads next season
Scoring is a particular area that the Knicks have been fully equipped with from the time they traded for two-way star Mikal Bridges last summer until now, but with that came questions regarding who may have to sacrifice touches for the betterment of the team.
Now that the Knicks dealt away their former franchise player and 2024 All-Star Julius Randle, as well as Donte DiVincenzo to the Minnesota Timberwolves for fellow All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns, they reduced the number of mouths they’ll need to feed next time out, though New York’s starting lineup still has four scorers that can put up points in volume.
Last year’s MVP candidate Jalen Brunson took 21.4 shot attempts per game. Towns took a considerable backseat to Anthony Edwards in Minnesota last season, but he is customarily used to taking around 17 shots a night. The same can be said for Bridges after coming onto the scene with the Brooklyn Nets from the 2022-23 NBA trade deadline to the present day. Anunoby had only launched 11.1 FGA for the Knicks last time out, and 11.5 FGA for the entire 2023-24 campaign. He has also yet to take more than 14.5 shots a night in any season for his career.
Anunoby is deferring taking the next step in his career as a scorer to compete for a title
At this stage in his career, the British star would have every right to want to take the next step as a bucket-getter and establish himself as one of the top-shelf two-way wings in the Association. However, from his own admission, it sounds like the expected pecking order of Brunson-Towns-Bridges-Anunoby will take shape next season. The seven-year veteran’s desire to win above all else should be music to the ears of the Knicks’ front office and will position him to anchor the team on the defensive end with hounding ball-stopping efforts.
