CLEVELAND — OG Anunoby is conflicted. Knicks head coach Mike Brown is not.
On one hand, earning NBA All-Defensive Second Team honors firmly stamps Anunoby as one of the 10 best defenders on the planet.
And on the other hand?
“The Second Team is cool,” Anunoby said in a Zoom conference call following a film session on Sunday. “I was hoping I got First Team. I thought I should have gotten First Team. But Second Team is good.”
“There are great players out there. I’m not discounting anybody, but freakin’ OG got robbed,” added Brown, unprompted, in a separate conference call. “He should’ve been First Team All-Defense. First Team All-Defense.”
Anunoby joined Toronto’s Scottie Barnes, Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace, Miami’s 83-point man Bam Adebayo and Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels as All-Defensive Second Team honorees. Newly crowned unanimous Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama headlined the First Team selections, which also included OKC’s Chet Holmgren, Detroit’s Ausar Thompson, Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert and Boston’s Derrick White.
Each of the First Team members have a legitimate case: Wemby’s is open-and-shut. Holmgren finished as runner-up in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Thompson, one of the league’s brightest young perimeter defenders, finished third, Gobert fourth, and White sixth.
All-Defensive Teams are selected by a panel of 100 media members. Anunoby received 11 First-Team votes — more than Adebayo and Daniels but three fewer than Wallace, 31 fewer than Barnes and a whopping 47 short of the votes White received.
“The versatility [Anunoby] brings to this team — we’re a top-five defensive team. Top-five defensive team, OK?” Brown said in his rant on Sunday. “The versatility that he brings — and everybody always says, ‘Oh, you got KAT [Karl-Anthony Towns]. You got Jalen [Brunson]. Blah, blah, blah.’
“The versatility that that guy [Anunoby] brings to this team is off the charts, and I hope the voters get it right the next time around. I’m happy he’s Second Team. He deserves something, but it was wrong.”
Perhaps award voters rely only on counting stats.
Anunoby appeared in 67 games for the Knicks this season and averaged 16.7 points, 1.6 steals and 0.7 blocks per game.
For reference, Wemby averaged an unfathomable three blocks a night. White averaged over a steal and a block per game. Thompson posted two steals and nearly a block a night. Holmgren finished his third NBA season with 19 blocks and 0.6 steals, and Gobert averaged 1.6 blocks and 0.8 steals.
The more likely scenario? Voters merely picked from the league’s top defensive teams.
The Knicks finished the regular season seventh in defensive rating. Ahead of them: OKC (Holmgren, Wallace), Detroit (Thompson), San Antonio (Wembanyama), Boston (White), Toronto (Barnes) and Houston.
The Timberwolves, however, finished with a lower defensive rating than the Knicks this season, despite Gobert appearing in nearly 10 more games than Anunoby.
Players shot nearly 3% worse than their season average when guarded by Anunoby, according to data from the NBA’s stats page. They shot 3.1% worse when defended by Thompson, 3.3% worse when defended by White, 5% worse when guarded by Gobert, 7.4% worse when guarded by Holmgren, and close to an unthinkable 9% worse when defended by Wembanyama.
Those players, however, don’t quite have Anunoby’s job description. Thompson and White primarily defend guards. Gobert, Holmgren and Wembanyama are rim protectors.
Anunoby is the engine powering the Knicks’ versatile defense. He has defended All-Star guards, wings and bigs alike.
“He’s well-deserving of [First Team],” said Knicks captain Jalen Brunson. “He’s been tremendous, obviously, defensively. Him being able to guard one through five on any given night has really been a big part of who we are and what we’re allowed to do on defense because of him.
“So any publicity is good publicity, but I think he was well deserving of that First Team.”
Anunoby isn’t crying over spilled milk. He’s earned a second career All-Defensive Team selection. He’s playing some of the best basketball on both ends of the floor of his career.
And he’s powering what will soon be the last defense standing in the Eastern Conference for a Knicks team potentially looking at an 11-game winning streak entering the NBA Finals.
“It was cool to get the recognition. Anytime you’re recognized by coaches and the media, it’s really cool,” said Anunoby. “Every recognition is good, First team, Second Team. There’s a lot of good defenders in the league, so to be recognized as one of the 10 premier ones is really cool in itself.
“Just happy. Now I’m just focused on the rest of the playoffs.”
