Before his unfortunate injury, it was hard to miss OG Anunoby's elite two-way play against both the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers.
But amid all of the madness with his injury, one key detail got lost about the first eight games of the Knicks' playoff run: the wing scored 0.45 more points per possession on isolation plays than anybody else in the NBA thus far this postseason.
Once Anunoby is healthy and back in the Knicks' lineup, they're going to get right back to being a wrecking ball of a squad on both ends. If he keeps up this level of self-creation. New York will continue to have a third player behind Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns that's playing at an All-Star level. And that's bad news for everyone else in the Eastern Conference.
Three Knicks are in the NBA's top 10 playoff ISO scorers – and OG's in 1st
Going into Thursday night's games, three different players on the Knicks were in the NBA's top 10 most efficient postseason scorers in isolation. Karl-Anthony Towns' 1.08 points per possession were good enough for ninth in the league, ahead of elite scoring artists like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Jonathan Kuminga, who wreaked havoc against the Knicks in Round 1, and Donovan Mitchell are next up. Ahead of them, in sixth place, is Jalen Brunson. But all the way atop the list, ahead of De'Aaron Fox, Paul George, Anthony Edwards, V.J. Edgecombe, Brunson, Mitchell, Kuminga, Towns, and even Gilgeous-Alexander?
Anunoby.
The wing's 1.90 points per possession are head and shoulders above everyone else's production, with Fox's second-place mark coming in at 1.45 through Wednesday night.
So much of his postseason success has come off of timely cuts, with Towns finding him at the perfect moment. Brunson setting more than twice as many off-ball screens as he did in the regular season helps create clear paths to the paint for Anunoby. The wing's physicality does the rest.
But his success in isolation is different from his execution within the flow of Brown's offensive scheme. His prowess as a 1-on-1 scorer lends itself to the Kawhi Leonard comparisons that quietly come his way. Even 76ers head coach Nick Nurse, who worked with both Anunoby and Leonard in Toronto, fueled that fire ahead of Game 2 at Madison Square Garden.
The case for Anunoby as the best Knick thus far this postseason is mounting. His excellence on both sides of the floor makes it a conversation, despite Towns' rapid rise through the ranks of the record books. But regardless of who's playing the best, what matters most to the Knicks is that they're all wearing orange and blue.
The team is clearly a different animal to deal with when they've got three stars shining as bright as Brunson, Towns, and Anunoby have been. If Anunoby heals up soon, it's hard to imagine anyone in the East – even the Detroit Pistons – being able to stop them on their way to the NBA Finals.
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