Knicks forward OG Anunoby is expected to return to action as early as Tuesday, The Athletic’s Shams Charania tweets.
The Knicks play a home game against Philadelphia on Tuesday before embarking on a West Coast swing. He’s listed as questionable to play against the Sixers, Ian Begley of SNY TV tweets.
Anunoby, who hasn’t played since January 27 after undergoing elbow surgery, had been trending in the right direction in recent days, scrimmaging five-on-five and taking contact. The Knicks are 12-2 with Anunoby in the lineup this season after acquiring him from Toronto and have gone just 8-10 since he was sidelined.
We have more on the New York teams:
- It’ll take more time for Julius Randle to return to the lineup, Charania reported in a video relayed by New York Basketball (Twitter link). The Knicks have to be careful that Randle doesn’t aggravate his shoulder injury during his rehab. “These shoulder injuries are ones where you want to make sure when you’re back on the court, you don’t just pop it again, you don’t have another issue that then leads to that season ending surgery,” Charania said.
- Nets forward Cameron Johnson has missed the last three games due to a sprained right ankle. Interim coach Kevin Ollie said he’ll know more about Johnson’s progress when the team practices on Tuesday. “It’s day-to-day with Cam, how’s he responding to treatment,” Ollie told The New York Post’s Brian Lewis. “I know he got on the court a little bit … and probably seeing how he responds. It’s just day-to-day. I can’t speculate if he’s going to be ready to practice on Tuesday when we get back. That wouldn’t be right for me to speculate that. But like I say, I’m always gonna say, I’m gonna lean on the player, lean on our medical staff to make the right judgment. And when he’s out there and when he’s ready to go, I expect the full Cam Johnson to come out and play his best basketball for us in this last little homestretch that we have.”
- Nets guard Cam Thomas believes he should be given heavy consideration for the Most Improved Player award, he told Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes in a video interview (hat tip to Clutch Points’ Eric Slater). “I feel like my name should definitely be in the conversation more… With what I’ve honestly gone through my first two years just playing sporadically… Having a jump like this, that can’t go unnoticed,” Thomas said. In 50 games this season, Thomas is averaging 21.3 points and 2.7 assists in 29.8 minutes per contest. During his second NBA season in 2022/23, he averaged 10.6 points and 1.4 assists in 16.6 minutes per game.
Im telling you knicks are in trouble. Got a good platform and roster with trade able assets going forward though.
Championships aren’t won in a day. They have a ton of draft capital, players under 30 and money money money.
Young legs age faster under Thibs…
But he has many of them. Just needs to get the injured back.
These reporter based narratives are comical. The NYK (FO and HC) don’t have to “careful” with Randle relative to his medical condition. The doctors who clear him to return (if and when they do) need to be careful before clearing him that there is no special risk of reinjury. But they will be, it’s their job, and they’re generally not the types to wing it.
That said, the more recent news flow on Randle’s possible return hasn’t been positive. I wonder if the FO made the DET trade (for BB in particular) with this mind. We can’t be at our highest and best without Randle, but if everyone else is healthy, and BB finds his offensive game alongside Brunson (no evidence of that yet), then it’s possible we could still compete.
What news hasn’t been positive? Maybe I missed something but it seems like things are going slowly but surely.
Maybe, but the slowly part is a concern for this season. When he was hurt in late January, the timeline put out there was for a re-evaluation in mid-February, and a possible return as soon as after the All Star break. I didn’t expect that, but we’re now in mid-March and surgery (in lieu of a return this year) still hasn’t been ruled out, and he hasn’t been cleared for contact. Only a month left in the season.