OG Anunoby, Knicks agree to five-year, $212.5 million deal: report

NEW YORK — Bag secured. Infinity stone collected. Crisis averted.

The Knicks and unrestricted free-agent forward OG Anunoby agreed to terms on a five-year contract worth $212.5 million, a deal keeping New York’s floor spacer and defensive stopper at Madison Square Garden for the foreseeable future albeit at a hefty price for a player who projects as the fourth scoring option on a team hoping to compete for a title.

After acquiring Mikal Bridges in a deal with the Brooklyn Nets and re-signing Anunoby to a long-term deal, the Knicks now have a pair of wings they hope can go toe-to-toe with the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics duo of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Retaining Anunoby as a free agent was priority No. 1 for the Knicks given the cost of acquiring him in the Dec. 30 deal with the Toronto Raptors.

The Knicks traded former No. 3 overall pick RJ Barrett and 2023 Sixth Man of the Year runner-up Immanuel Quickley as well as the No. 31 pick in the 2024 NBA draft for a package headlined by Anunoby, whose arrival spurred a 12-2 run pushing the Knicks up the Eastern Conference standings.

The Knicks ultimately went 20-3 in regular-season games Anunoby appeared in after the deal and finished with the East’s No. 2 seed, an improvement largely attributed to the former Raptor’s lockdown defense and floor spacing.

He was a threat, however, to leave as an unrestricted free agent when he declined the $19.9 million player option on his deal on Monday night. And for that reason, the Knicks were left with little choice but to pay Anunoby, who was set to command maximum salary offers from a number of teams with cap space to sign him as a free agent, most notably the Philadelphia 76ers, who were armed both with $55 million in room and Anunoby’s former Raptors head coach, Nick Nurse.

Threat neutralized. Anunoby now returns to a reimagined Knicks starting five, set to feature Bridges, All-NBA guard Jalen Brunson, and — for now — All-Star forward Julius Randle, though the Knicks are expected to be more active finding deals to improve the roster in a way that puts them on par with the reigning NBA champions next season.

Anunoby averaged 14.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.7 steals and one block in the 23 games he played following his trade to New York. He averaged 15 points and six rebounds on 41 percent three-point shooting through nine playoff games as the Knicks’ second-round playoff run came to an end in seven games against the Indiana Pacers.

Anunoby comes with notable recent injury history.

He missed two separate stretches during the regular season after discovering inflammation in his right shooting elbow attributed to a loose bone fragment needing surgery that sidelined him for a month and a half.

Three games after returning to the floor, he aggravated the elbow injury and left the team during a five-game road trip, missing another nine games before returning to play the final six games of the regular season.

Anunoby then sustained a significant hamstring strain in Game 2 of the second-round series against the Pacers. He returned for Game 7 but played less than five minutes before checking out of the game for good.

Anunoby is expected to make $36.2 million in the first year of his contract with an 8% annual raise. He is expected to make just under $50 million in the fifth and final year of his contract.