Monday marked exactly 51 weeks since Leon Rose officially began to mold the Knicks in his preferred image, and it was right that to mark the occasion, the Toronto Raptors were the opponent.
For it was exactly 51 weeks earlier — Dec. 30, 2023 — when Knicks fans received one of the first stunning bits of news they’d gotten since the Knicks had begun working their way back into the fabric of the city.
That was the day they swapped RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley for OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa. It wasn’t like the news had fallen entirely out of the sky. At various points in the summer of 2023, there were rumors that the Knicks coveted Anunoby, and the most obvious giveback was sure to be Barrett, the No. 3 pick in the ballyhooed 2019 NBA Draft.
Still …
