While everyone's busy lambasting Mikal Bridges for his truly horrific start to the 2026-27 NBA season, there's another New York Knicks player who's quietly playing an equally underwhelming brand of ball.
OG Anunoby, last year's playoff darling, has found himself in a troubling rut during these infancy stages of New York's title-defense tour.
The club's best 3&D talent has severely struggled in both of these areas to start off the campaign, as he's shooting just 29.3 percent from beyond the arc while allowing his opponents to convert at a ridiculous 46.4 percent clip from the floor while registering the worst defensive rating among New York's regular rotation players at 110.5.
Of course, Anunoby's woes don't just stop there.
OG Anunoby falling short of typical production seen during Knicks tenure
OG Anunoby is shooting just 56.0 percent at the rim, has made just one shot between the restricted area and the three-point arc, and is tied for the fifth-most personal fouls (35) committed in the entire league.
With him on the floor, the Knicks place in the 44 percentile in points per 100 possessions (112.5), the 34 percentile in opponent effective field goal percentage (54.8), and the 16 percentile in New York's own effective field goal percentage (50.0).
Add to that the fact that he's boasting a net rating of minus-1.0 on the year, and it's undeniable that Anunoby seems to be in the midst of an ugly championship hangover.
OG Anunoby hasn't relented on his aggressive play with Knicks
Despite these struggles, OG Anunoby has remained aggressive throughout these first few weeks of the campaign. In fact, one could even say he's taken things up a notch in this department during these early stages.
It's proven to do wonders to his free throw activity.
Over these first nine games of the year, Anunoby has attempted eight or more free throws on five separate occasions.
To put this in perspective, this matches the exact number of times the veteran reached such a mark in all of 2025-26.
During his 10 years in the association, Anunoby has found himself struggling to come across consistent trips to the charity stripe, averaging just 2.1 a night for his career.
His 6.2 per game this season is by far the most to date, and his 87.5 percent success rate from the line has directly led to 33.1 percent of his total points scored so far this year.
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