OG Anunoby has missed the last five games for the New York Knicks with a bone spur in his right elbow. The Knicks had been listing Anunoby as day-to-day, with Tom Thibodeau providing little in the way of insight into the severity of the issue for New York’s new star wing.
Unfortunately, rest did not do enough to alleviate the issue and day-to-day will now turn into more than a month total away from the court for Anunoby, as he will miss another three weeks at least after having surgery to remove the bone fragment from his elbow.
BREAKING: New York Knicks F OG Anunoby had surgery to remove a loose bone fragment in his right elbow and will miss a minimum of three weeks, sources tell ESPN. Procedure is considered minor and he’s expected to resume basketball activities in three weeks. pic.twitter.com/jws9NC1s32
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 8, 2024
The goal, of course, is for Anunoby to be back and fully healthy for the final push to the playoffs in March. The Knicks have climbed into a tie for third in the East, and are comfortably ahead of the Pacers in sixth for the final guaranteed playoff position. Still, they will have to navigate the next week before the All-Star break without both Anunoby and Julius Randle, who will be re-evaluated at the end of the break as he recovers from a dislocated shoulder. All-Star does provide a week off that cuts into how many games Anunoby will miss, but it will still be at least nine more games without him.
The Knicks do have some reinforcements coming via the trade deadline after making a move to add Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks from the Pistons, but there will still be a lot of burden on Jalen Brunson (who tweaked his ankle recently) and the rest of the Knicks if they’re going to hold onto their current spot in the top-4 without Anunoby and Randle for a decent chunk of time.
