{"id":836072,"date":"2026-06-01T04:42:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/836072\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T04:42:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:42:33","slug":"og-anunobys-versatility-could-make-him-knicks-victor-wembanyama-stopper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/836072\/","title":{"rendered":"OG Anunoby’s ‘versatility’ could make him Knicks’ Victor Wembanyama stopper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Through the Knicks\u2019 first eight postseason games, there was no player who was more valuable than OG Anunoby.<\/p>\n

In the NBA Finals, he may be Mike Brown\u2019s most important player again.<\/p>\n

While Anunoby will be counted on to continue his career-best postseason run \u2014 ranking second on the team with 19.7 points while shooting 57.7 percent from the field (48.3 percent on 3-pointers) \u2014 it may be the 28-year-old\u2019s defense that determines whether the Knicks will end their 53-year title drought.<\/p>\n

Anunoby is expected to spend significant time matched up with San Antonio\u2019s 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama, and the 6-7 wing\u2019s previous encounters with the French superstar offer hope that the Knicks can limit the damage done by the former No. 1 overall pick.<\/p>\n

Among players who have served as the primary defender on at least 100 possessions against Wembanyama, Anunoby has allowed the fewest points per possession, bothering the Spurs big man with his 7-2 wingspan, physicality and athleticism.<\/p>\n

\"NewOG Anunoby knocks the ball away from Paul George during the Knicks\u2019 May 6 game against the 76ers. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cOG is an extremely versatile guard, and you know, the luxury of having a guy like that is he\u2019s long enough, athletic enough, strong enough to guard quick, smaller guys, he\u2019s obviously got the size and athleticism to guard big wings, and then he\u2019s got the strength and the length and the intelligence to guard bigger guys,\u201d Brown said Sunday. \u201cSo having a guy like that gives us a ton of versatility to be able to move him around, knowing that he can adapt, slash, adjust, or whatever you want to call it, on the fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VictorVictor Wembanyama goes to dunk the ball during the Spurs\u2019 March 1 game against the Knicks. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Wembanyama \u2014 the first unanimous NBA Defensive Player of the Year \u2014 will create countless issues for the Knicks as a rim protector, but the 22-year-old\u2019s offensive impact has seen him ping-pong between being the best player in the world and a passive observer.<\/p>\n

In San Antonio\u2019s postseason wins, Wembanyama has averaged 27.9 points and 12.1 rebounds while shooting 55.3 percent from the field and 46.3 percent on 3-pointers. <\/p>\n

In the Spurs\u2019 losses, he has posted 14.5 points and 8.3 rebounds, shooting 39.4 percent from the field and 18.5 percent on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

It is the biggest test of Anunoby\u2019s career, the greatest opportunity to prove he deserved better than a selection to the NBA\u2019s All-Defensive Second Team.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201c[The voters] were wrong,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe should have been First Team All-Defense because of his versatility. And it\u2019s shown throughout the course of the most important time during the year, which is the playoffs, and it will continue to show going into the Finals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Through the Knicks\u2019 first eight postseason games, there was no player who was more valuable than OG Anunoby.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":836073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,1260,3578,3579,304733,405,403,3122,5226,5225,5228,5227,17380,3138,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-836072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-playoffs-2026","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-og-anunoby","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116673023808553076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}