Rumored Indiana Pacers trade target OG Anunoby dealt to New York Knicks from Toronto Raptors
On Saturday, the Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks completed a trade that sent wing OG Anunoby and other young players to the Knicks while Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, and draft compensation went to the Raptors.
The Knicks played the Indiana Pacers the night after the trade and were shorthanded thanks to the deal. Indiana won by 14 on their home floor, which pushed the Pacers ahead of the Knicks in the standings. But that's not the only way that the trade impacts the Pacers.
Indiana had been linked often over the past year or so to Anunoby via trade. The Athletic was the most recent outlet to connect the blue and gold to the now-Knicks wing. Now, with Anunoby in New York, the Pacers won't be able to acquire him unless something jarring happens in free agency next summer.
The Pacers are searching for a two-way wing player to boost their roster, but those players are hard to find. Anunoby may have been available, but it's hard to say what a comparable trade price would have been for Indiana without knowing how much Toronto valued Quickley compared to any Pacers young players or picks.
"We're excited to get OG, Precious [Achiuwa], and Malachi [Flynn]," Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau said Saturday. "You're looking at both the short term and the long term."
Thibodeau is excited about Anunoby's positional size and his ability to guard multiple positions. "Everyone is looking for size wings," he said. All of those reasons are why the former Raptor would have fit well in Indiana. Anunoby played college basketball at Indiana University.
Now, all eyes turn towards Pascal Siakam, another reported Pacers target with the Raptors. According to HoopsHype, NBA executives are still musing about where Siakam "could be headed and what would it take to land him in a trade," after the Anunoby deal.
It's impossible to know if Indiana missed any sort of opportunity without knowing what the Raptors demanded from them in a potential Anunoby deal. But with one of the league's premier two-way wings landing on an Eastern Conference foe, the Pacers will have to look elsewhere for help at the forward spots.
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