NBA betting: Why landing OG Anunoby adds value to Knicks' future bets - ESPN

One of the more underrated and underreported components of a successful NBA team is fit. Unlike in fantasy basketball, an NBA team can't just be a sum of good players; it has to be good players whose skill sets and games fit well together.

The recent trade between the Raptors and the Knicks is the latest example of this phenomenon, as both teams come out of the deal stronger than when they went in because they traded away redundant talents for players that fit their team needs. But let's focus on the Knicks, here, because the ramifications of this deal could solidly impact their daily betting and futures value.

The Knicks gave up RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and a second round pick in exchange for OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn.

Barrett and Quickley were the third and fourth-leading scorers on a Knicks team whose biggest criticism was a perceived lack of a «dude» (shoutout Becky Hammon), an MVP-caliber player to hitch their wagons to. So, intuitively, one might think they should have held onto their best supporting scorers if they wanted to compete this season.

But in this case, that is false because their two best players, Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle, are both high-volume, high-usage scorers that create shots off the dribble. As such, the ideal secondary scorers for that nucleus would be catch-and-shoot guys that can efficiently finish the looks that Brunson and Randle create for them.

That is not the strength of either Barrett's or Quickley's games. Both prefer to create their own looks off the dribble. Only 39.8% of Quickley's 2-point shots and 71.9% of his 3-point makes were assisted. For Barrett, 53.7% of his 2-point attempts and 100% of his 3-pointers were assisted. So, Barrett was did operate