I’ve been going back and forth on the issue this season, buffeted as I am by the howling winds of hype, but this game has really clarified things for me: OG Anunoby is definitely, 100 percent, for sure the next Kawhi Leonard in Toronto. No doubt about it.
Forget about Terence Davis. Norman Powell? Forget about him too. Matt Thomas was never really in the conversation, but if for some reason you had him in the conversation, you can take him out of the conversation, because Anunoby is OFFICIALLY the next Kawhi. Everyone else will have to settle for being the next Danny Green. You can definitely but Thomas in the conversation for that one.
But I also feel that it’s sort of unfair to shoehorn Anunoby into being the next Kawhi. What if he doesn’t want to be the next Kawhi? That’s a lot of pressure to put on a young player. So I would say it’s perfectly okay for him to be the first Anunoby.
First Anunoby or next Kawhi, whichever you pick, you can’t deny that this was a pretty Kawhi-esque performance from Anunoby. 23 points, an EFFICIENT 23 points, and I bet he locked down LeBron so hard that he’s having trouble making it back to his hotel room because he keeps seeing Anunoby smothering him out of the corner of his eye.