Just another day at the office for Knicks' Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle

Jalen Brunson had 38 points and nine assists and Julius Randle had a triple-double (18 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists) to lift the Knicks to a win Saturday over Toronto.

The night will be remembered as RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley’s first game as visiting players.

For Brunson and Randle, it was just another day at the office.

Both players have been performing at a high level since the OG Anunoby trade.

Brunson is averaging 29 points and 8.4 assists in nine games post-trade. The Knicks are outscoring opponents by an average of 18 points with Brunson on the court in that stretch.

Randle is averaging 25.6 points, eight rebounds and five assists per game since the trade. New York is outscoring opponents by an average of 11.5 points per game with Randle on the floor in that span.

“We’re flowing out there. I think the chemistry is just unexplainable,” Brunson said after the game. “We’re able to flow and feed off of each other. Just trying to make plays while still being aggressive. We’ve been in a groove, so we’ve just got to keep doing what we’ve been doing, keep giving each other confidence and keep moving forward.”

The Knicks are 9-2 since the Anunoby deal. They are 8-1 with Brunson on the court. New York is +124 in the 258 minutes Brunson and Randle have shared the floor.

Of course, any Knick who plays big minutes has a great plus-minus since Anunoby arrived.

Anunoby and Isaiah Hartenstein are plus-157 in 310 minutes on the court together since the deal.

Each starter with Anunoby is at least +95 as a two-man combination since the trade.

The plus-minus numbers are gaudy. But Brunson’s assist numbers are equally impressive. He averaged 6.0 assists per game prior to the trade and 8.4 since the trade. The 8.4 mark would be the seventh-highest in the NBA. 

Brunson’s assist ratio has also jumped from 20 before the trade to 25 since the trade. And his assist percentage is up from 27 before the trade to 35.5 since the deal, which would rank sixth in the NBA.

Why have Brunson’s assists jumped?

It could be as simple as adding Anunoby and subtracting Barrett.

Barrett’s usage as a Knick (26.6) was nearly double Anunoby’s (14.7).

Barrett shot 42 percent from the floor (32 percent from three); Anunoby is shooting 51 percent from the floor and 40 percent from beyond the arc.

BROWN TO NY?

As noted on Honda Sports Night on Saturday, the price for Jordan Clarkson has been very high, according to teams monitoring the situation. Clarkson has been linked to the Knicks in various trade reports. Bruce Brown continues to be a player New York sees as a potential target.

We should have added in the Honda Sports Night report that Alec Burks is a name to watch. As Hoopshype earlier reported, Burks is a trade target for New York as the club looks to bolster its bench. Burks was a key player on the Knicks’ 2020-21 team that finished fourth in the Eastern Conference. The trade deadline is still roughly three weeks away (Feb. 8).

Things change quickly this time of year. I’m sure the Knicks are monitoring many players as the deadline approaches. But at the moment, Brown and Burks are two players squarely on New York’s radar.

RANDLE LEADERSHIP

Both Quickley and Barrett mentioned Randle as a mentor to them during their time in New York and in the aftermath of the trade. Randle noted Saturday that Barrett and Quickley impacted him significantly as well.

“It’s a special relationship I’ve built with them,” Randle said. “I know they talk about how much I meant to them, but they mean a lot to me, to be honest.

“Talking about leadership, how I carry myself, how to be open, how to be honest, how to be motivated, those are things I didn’t necessarily have coming in vocally. I always wanted to lead by example, just play hard every night. But those guys with me brought a different side out of me. … The relationship that I have with them is extremely special.”