KnicksGadfly wrote:Clyde_Style wrote:HarthorneWingo wrote:I’ll start.
Who - other than HIM - is key to the success of our playoff run?
Wingo’s choice: Monster Mitch.
Most objective answer I can give is:
It takes a village
My fan answer:
OG
After Brunson he is the biggest key to our playoff success on BOTH ends of the court. If he can average 18 PPG while chopping away at the scoring opportunities of the people he defends, he's going to be a monster net positive player in these playoffs.
The thing that is great about OG is you can't measure his full defensive impact by opponent shots missed. He literally stops people from even taking shots and drops their FGA's per game which doesn't show up in the box score.
Another cool Athletics article from today about OG:
https://theathletic.com/5417952/2024/04/16/og-anunoby-cuts-knicks-nba-playoffs/
"OG Anunoby’s ‘sacrificial cuts’ could benefit Knicks, Jalen Brunson in playoffs"Mired in a tight game, OG Anunoby had to create a bucket. The one issue? He wasn’t holding the basketball. Of course, that didn’t stop him.
Most of the NBA’s headiest off-ball players receive kudos because their movement opens themselves up for shots. Others get credit for the frenzy they create when they rush nonstop from sideline to sideline.
For example, two-time MVP Stephen Curry swerves around screens, inspiring nervous breakdowns in defenders who follow him. Eventually, someone heads the wrong way, and either Curry or one of his teammates finds an easy basket because of it.
On this occasion, Anunoby attempted something different, a move that’s become familiar since he arrived in New York three and a half months ago.
Midway into the fourth quarter of a two-point game in Sacramento, Jalen Brunson tried a step-back jumper on the left side of the court. The Kings guarded it well, and Brunson couldn’t release the shot. With Anunoby stationed on the opposite wing, Brunson was stuck — until his teammate rebalanced the floor.
Just before Brunson handed the ball off to Isaiah Hartenstein, an escape that would mean hurrying around his center and in Anunoby’s direction, Anunoby jogged across the paint, from right to left, removing his defender from the area that seconds later would become Brunson’s path to the basket.
[Insert super cool video you guys can't see]
This subtle move is called a spacing cut.
Its purpose isn’t to free Anunoby for a bucket. It’s not to take advantage of an inattentive opponent. It’s not to cause those dreaded nervous breakdowns. It’s to clear the way for Brunson.
“What it says is, you’re putting the team first,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “It’s an unselfish move.”
On this occasion, just as it has on many others, it worked. Hartenstein delivered a bounce pass to Brunson, who zipped past where Anunoby’s defender once stood and finished an and-1.
Brunson gets the points. Hartenstein, for those who care about the analytics, gets the screen assist. And Anunoby gets … nothing, other than a stamp of approval from DiVincenzo.
“You look at the guys on the team, on any team, that don’t cut and just stand the entire time — you’re almost saying, ‘You have to pass me the ball,’ ” DiVincenzo said. “I think what not just him but what we’ve been good at is doing those cuts. … You’re just saying to your teammates, I’m trying to do whatever it takes to win.”
The trade for Anunoby, which sent RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to the Toronto Raptors, transformed the New York Knicks’ identity. And for all the talk of a remodeled defense that includes one of the world’s most versatile stoppers, habits morphed on the other side, too.
The Knicks were 20-3 and performed like the league’s stingiest squad when Anunoby was in the lineup during the regular season. Yet, the offense also revved up when he was present, scoring 7.5 more points per 100 possessions while he was in the game, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Anunoby is dynamite shooting from the corners. He streaks in transition, but don’t ignore his activity once the Knicks commit to their half-court attack.
When a defender leaves the back door open, Anunoby notices it. He’ll dart to the rim or create 3-pointers for himself just because he understands spacing and how to respond to defense. Anunoby deploys his powers as he did against the Kings when he’s somehow essential to a play that at first glance doesn’t appear to involve him.
“He’s got a really good feel for it,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He’s very unique in that sense. … He knows how to read defenses and he knows how to attack.”
Come playoff time, DiVincenzo will press that stamp of approval with more vigor.
Improvisational cuts become even more important during the postseason when opponents will key in on every detail of the Knicks offense.
The Knicks, who finished 50-32, second in the Eastern Conference, must wait until Wednesday, when the Philadelphia 76ers face the Miami Heat in the No. 7 versus No. 8 portion of the Play-In Tournament, to learn their first-round opponent.
A date with the Sixers would mean a bash with abundant perimeter defenders, as well as one with reigning MVP Joel Embiid, who controls the paint. Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse remains one of the league’s most flexible, willing to try out imaginative defenses to thwart scorers as dominant as Brunson. He’s familiar with Anunoby, too, considering they overlapped for years in Toronto.
Encountering the Heat, the team that eliminated the Knicks from the playoffs last spring, would bring back memories.
Miami swarmed Brunson during that series, and though the point guard fought through crowds to average more than 30 points in the six-game defeat, the rest of the offense could not support him enough for New York to pull away. Of course, both because of personnel and style, this is not the same Knicks attack as the one from a year ago.
The Knicks have far more 3-point shooting than they did in 2022-23. Brunson is more active off the ball than ever, as The Athletic detailed earlier this month. DiVincenzo is a keen relocater. Josh Hart will cut behind the defense. Hartenstein prefers to catch the basketball on the move.
Whether they’re the Heat’s or the 76ers’, defenders will mob Brunson starting next weekend. That’s when Anunoby’s “sacrificial cuts,” as Hart calls them, become even more significant.
“You can’t game plan for that stuff. I think that’s the biggest thing,” Hart said. “You can sit there and game plan certain plays or certain guys’ style or whatever it is, but when you make those spur-of-the-moment cuts or plays or whatever, it’s hard to defend. It’s hard to scout.”
A postseason series means playing a squad four to seven consecutive times. Players learn their opponents’ tendencies. Coaches jam the other group’s schemes into their guys’ brains. Everyone knows everyone else’s actions.
But when Anunoby takes off, it’s not pre-planned. It’s because he recognizes something faster than the defense does.
“(I look at) which side the ball is being sent to and where my man is,” Anunoby said. “If my man is in the middle watching the ball, I cut through. If the bottom guy messes up and pulls in, I go through. Just know what’s going on, where the ball is.”
I love that quote from DDV.
Donte and OG are two of the headiest players in the league. That means so much to the offense.
I love this team.
