How the Knicks can survive OG Anunoby’s absence
From relying on the vets to maybe giving a surprise candidate a chance, Mike Brown has his work cut out for him in OG’s absence.
After just beginning to gel as a unit, Mike Brown’s Knicks took a huge hit. On November 14 in a game against the Heat, OG Anunoby suffered a left hamstring strain — the same injury that kept him out of the remainder of the 2023 playoffs, and a scary injury for one of the most vital players to this roster thanks to his history of injuries. But the hits didn’t stop there – just five days later in a game against the Mavericks, fan favorite Landry Shamet suffered a shoulder sprain to his right shoulder, the same shoulder that he dislocated at the end of the 2024 preseason.
Losing Anunoby not only creates a hole in the rotations, but more importantly a massive void is now left in the Knicks’ defensive scheme. He guards every team’s No. 1 option, is the only true “big wing” on the roster, and is an essential part of what makes the gap scheme defense flourish. And now down a gritty, competitive wing defender in Shamet, Mike Brown is down to just two true wings in the current rotation (Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart), and must use his well-known creativity and continue to buy into what works to help the Knicks tread water until their DPOY returns.
BUILD ON MIKAL’S MASTERY
Mikal Bridges is enjoying a much-needed bounceback season thus far, averaging 16 points, 4.5 assists, and 4.5 rebounds on 53/41/79 splits. He’s been arguably more impressive on the defensive side of the ball, emerging once again as one of the league’s best wing defenders. Here are some fun Mikal stats through the first 20 games of the season:
Only player in the league averaging 2-plus steals and 1-plus block per game.
Leads the NBA in games with 2-plus steals and 2-plus blocks with six. No other player has more than three.
Second in the NBA in total stocks with 60; last year he had 165 – he’s on pace for over 300 this year.
Leading the NBA with four stocks (steals plus blocks) per game in November.
Brown has done a great job maximizing Mikal this year, getting him off of the point of attack and allowing him to use his range and length as an off-ball disrupter. Now with OG out, it’s even more important for him to lean into Mikal’s defensive prowess. Double down on his menace tendencies as a defender – continue to allow him to be a pest off the ball, let him guard bigs occasionally so he can trap or double the ball handler, have him fly in from the weak side to pick off a pass and lead a fast break. It’s clear that Mikal is trusted with carrying a large burden to make this defense successful, and there’s no reason for that to stop now.
KAT’S IMPROVEMENT
Karl-Anthony Towns has been rightfully scrutinized for his lack of defensive ability at times. He’s never been a great defender by any stretch, and he probably won’t improve as a defender in his late prime at 30 years old.
Despite this, KAT has been quite impressive defensively this year, especially considering what we’ve seen from him historically. The gap scheme is definitely a better fit for him than drop, letting him move laterally and disrupt ballhandlers with his length rather than trying to recover vertically. It almost allows him to act as a pseudo-big (giant) wing for the Knicks in OG’s absence.
With Brown doing a good job putting quicker defenders around him, KAT has taken on the challenge of being a more mobile defender. His defense has historically been at its best at the 4 and the coaching staff has done an excellent job matching up the other four players in the lineup so he can do so. Not only has he improved tremendously as an individual defender, the Knicks also close more possessions than any other team in the league with KAT on the floor – a league-leading 75.6 defensive rebounding percentage while he’s on the court.
PLAY THE KID
In OG’s absence so far, the Knicks have been unable to fill his impact as a big wing. Thankfully for them, they have someone who is the closest physically to OG on the roster — none other than rookie second round pick Mo Diawara. It might sound ridiculous — and to be clear, this isn’t me saying he’ll match OG’s impact — but he could give the Knicks some few-minute spurts from someone who matches 75% of OG’s physical profile and provide another long, rangy wing to compliment Mikal and throw at shooters or secondary ball handlers. Brown has already spoken highly of him this season, backing his summer league and preseason praise of the young rookie with a start in the last game of the preseason against the Hornets. Since then, he’s shown flashes of a high-level defender in the spot minutes he’s played since OG was injured. In a single minute against the Heat, he recorded a steal, rebound, and assist.
In two minutes against the Mavericks he forced a backcourt violation, and had a block and loose ball recovery. And in two minutes against the Magic, Mo recorded another steal and a deflection.
I’m not asking him to play 15 minutes per game, or even 12, but if Brown plays him four to five minutes in each half it would help plug some of the holes we’ve seen in the defensive scheme recently. If the minutes hurt you in the short term, you can easily pull the plug on the experiment and continue to fill the defensive gaps as they’ve done. But if Mo makes impactful plays in some extended minutes, earns more minutes, and builds confidence early on in his career, the Knicks could bear the fruit of Brown’s experimentation by getting an impactful two-way wing in the future.
As of the day this article is being written (before the Bucks game), OG will be re-evaluated in two weeks and Shamet two as well. A lot can happen in two weeks – no wins or losses can be season-deciding, but Mike Brown’s rotation decisions now could end up winning them a championship in the summer.
