Mike Brown was full of praise for the New York Knicks star, who he believed had the best defensive performance of the entire team.
The New York Knicks opened the 2025-26 NBA season with an emphatic victory over the Eastern Conference’s biggest threat, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Despite concerns about the Knicks missing Mitchell Robinson and potentially Karl-Anthony Towns, new head coach Mike Brown got things done.
The Knicks relied on Jalen Brunson, who dropped 23 points against the Cavaliers, to score a decent amount of points.
But more impressive than Brunson was one of the Knicks’ stars, and after the game, Mike Brown credited him not only offensively but defensively as well.
Mike Brown said this after the New York Knicks’ win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. When addressing the entire roster, OG Anunoby was immediately singled out for praise.
While Brown liked Anunoby’s offensive contributions, the head coach was most impressed with his defensive contributions, especially Anunoby’s versatility in guarding players.
“OG was a monster. He was 9-17 with 14 rebounds and 24 points. But he was our defensive player in the game. I think he had six or seven deflections. He was guarding a lot of different guys. He was a monster.”
“He saw a lot of different types of players tonight. I think he came up with a couple of 50-50 balls. He did a really great job, especially defensively and rebounding.”
Mike Brown was full of praise for OG Anunoby, but also took a moment to acknowledge the important rebounding changes brought to him by Karl-Anthony Towns.
“We needed every rebound they got, just like we did with KAT.19 and 11.”
The addition of Mike Brown breathed new life into the Knicks’ roster. Prior to his firing, we learned that Tom Thibodeau had clashed with Anunoby and Mikal Bridges over plays.
Brown appears to have given Anunoby and the rest of the Knicks the green light to play to their strengths and not worry about filling specific roles.
If last night’s performance was a harbinger of what’s to come for the Knicks, Anunoby and Brunson’s warnings to Eastern Conference teams may need to be taken seriously.