What will the Knicks offer in their trade proposal for O.G. Anunoby?

Amit Mann is joined by Alex Wolfe of the Locked on Knicks podcast & The Strickland to discuss how O.G. Anunoby would fit on the Knicks and trade offers for 25-year-old. Full episode on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: All right, let's get to some of these trades. I don't want to keep you too long here, So what is your trade proposal for Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster to get OG in Toronto?

ALEX WOLFE: I think--

AMIT MANN: Or, sorry, in New York, my bad, in New York.

ALEX WOLFE: Yeah, yeah. I get what you're saying. I'm not sending him back to [INAUDIBLE]. ;

[LAUGHTER]

I would-- I--

AMIT MANN: I want him to stay, by the way. I want to make that clear, but, yeah.

ALEX WOLFE: I go back and forth on this. I mean, because of the fact that I don't necessarily see him as, like, a-- a franchise-altering talent, on the level of, like, say, that the Knicks were going for Mitchell over this past off season. I struggle with the concept of, like, giving up, like, three first-round picks or whatever, which apparently the Knicks have offered.

AMIT MANN: Yeah

ALEX WOLFE: My guess would be that their offer, whatever it was, like, two, three months ago, whatever that was reported, was most likely the three picks that they got from trading out of 11 this year, which would be Detroit and Washington's first-round picks, which are protected in similar ways, like, roughly lottery protected for, like, two years. Then eventually, like, four or five years down the line, they only become, like, the top eight protected.

AMIT MANN: OK.

ALEX WOLFE: In which case, they'll hopefully convey. Because you would hope that those two teams can get themselves out of the gutter by then.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

ALEX WOLFE: But-- so those picks are available. Milwaukee's pick, top four protected in 2025, was also part of that deal. So my guess is they probably offered those three. I think where I would probably land, Cam Reddish needs a new home, apparently.

And he's an intriguing player. I mean, you want to talk about guys that are playing, like, a 3 and D plus player, he was kind of playing like that for the Knicks earlier this year. And I don't know why things fell apart the way they did, but they have. And it's been a little frustrating because, like, we were just starting to, like, kind of fall for the kid. And then it's like, oh, oh, he's not in the rotation anymore. So I would probably start with him as, like, as far as a player compensation.

AMIT MANN: Mm-hmm.

ALEX WOLFE: If it took, like, Obi Toppin and Cam, that would break my heart a little, but that would probably be a pretty seamless fit for-- for Toronto, to kind of plug him into their lineup, where they love players that fit his profile. And then for the Knicks, you know, presumably, OG's gonna be taking a lot of those minutes that Obi would have been playing anyway, not that Obi plays a lot of minutes to begin with. But he would be taking, probably, whatever-- like, if Obi remained on the roster, he would probably be out of the rotation, then, with OG on the team.

So I would probably say Cam and OG-- or, sorry, Cam and Obi for OG.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

ALEX WOLFE: And then to make salaries work, I would throw Derrick Rose in, who I think, actually, Toronto would probably look at and be like, look, if we're still trying to play for the play in this year, like, kind of have our cake and eat it too, Rosa probably has the [INAUDIBLE]. I know that Malachi Flynn seems to have kind of fallen out of the rotation there.

AMIT MANN: There is no backup point guard. It's currently Scottie Barnes, yeah.

ALEX WOLFE: Yeah. So, I mean, you could throw Rose in there. And, like, he's still got some game.

AMIT MANN: Sure.

ALEX WOLFE: He got displaced by Immanuel Quickley, who's awesome. Like, Immanuel Quickley is awesome, and he's 23 years old. So, like, of course they're gonna play him. So I think Rose could go there and find a role, which is what he wants and what the team wants to find for him anyway.

AMIT MANN: Uh-huh

ALEX WOLFE: And then as far as [INAUDIBLE], I would want to do those-- I mean, look, if it came down to those three picks they got for number 11, I guess I'd be, like, fine with it. I've argued for a while, like, I don't love how protected those picks are, but I can see the value in them.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

ALEX WOLFE: So I would probably offer all three of those, if they were hard line, like, no, we want [INAUDIBLE], like-- like the Knicks, also Dallas has picked top 10 protected this year. So if they wanted that instead of one of them, fine, go for it.

AMIT MANN: Sure.

ALEX WOLFE: They want the Knicks own pick this year instead of that for one of them, I'd be, like, pick one or the other. You can have the Dallas pick or the Knicks pick, whichever team you think's gonna end up worse by the end of the year, throw a dart.

AMIT MANN: Mm-hmm.

ALEX WOLFE: Or could even work out some arrangement where they say, you know, hey, you get whichever is the better of the Knicks in Dallas's pick this year. Fine, I'm OK with that too.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

ALEX WOLFE: I just would prefer the Knicks able to add some talent this year in the Draft.

AMIT MANN: Mm-hmm.

ALEX WOLFE: So-- cause it's a good Draft. But, so they could work out something like that. I think that's about where I'd come down on three-- three picks, at least two of them protected. And I've moved up on that, to be honest. I even recorded a pod, like, three days ago, where I was like--

AMIT MANN: I know. And you-- I was thinking about that, your tune of--

ALEX WOLFE: Yeah, so I-- yeah, my thought process is changing a little bit, you know?

AMIT MANN: Sure.

ALEX WOLFE: I kind of look at him and more and more I think, like, he could potentially elevate them into a surprise, like, top 5, 4 seed this year, if things really click--

AMIT MANN: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

ALEX WOLFE: --and is locked up through next year. And then they get the right-- you know, in a pretty nice summer of 2024, they have options to retain him, or sign and trade, or whatever, which would be good. So it's-- yeah, it's become more appealing to me over the last few days.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

ALEX WOLFE: So I think that's about where I come down. So if we total that up, Cam Reddish, Obi Toppin, Derrick Rose, and then three, somehow, protected first-round picks. I think I would feel comfortable enough doing that. Cause then they're still basically protecting all their own Draft capital going forward. They still have a good cabal of young players to trade for, like, another star down the line, should the time come. That would make me feel pretty good for the Knicks.

And if I was the Raptors, I mean, if OG wants out anyway, I feel like that's probably about as good of a package as you can get from most teams.

AMIT MANN: Sure.

ALEX WOLFE: Because most of the teams that would be looking to get him aren't exactly flush with picks.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. That's not bad. Just real quickly, on Isaiah Hartenstein.

ALEX WOLFE: Oh, yeah, I mean, I'd include him, to be honest.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. Yeah, sure.

ALEX WOLFE: I'm not super huge on Hartenstein. Yeah, I mean-- but he would probably fit the Raptors needs quite well. I love Jericho Sims, though, who's backing him up. And so if the Knicks-- once Mitch gets happy-- healthy, had Mitch and Sims as their, like, center rotation and then maybe could finally convinced Thibs to run small with, like, Julius and OG out there as the four, five, from time to time.

AMIT MANN: That could--

ALEX WOLFE: That would be cool by me.

AMIT MANN: That has something. That could be real--