Knicks Lose But Obi Eats

Over his last five starts, Toppin is averaging 18.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.2 made triples in 34.8 minutes per game, while shooting 56% from the floor and 83% from the FT stripe.

Happy Thursday, everybody. I hope your week is going better than the Knicks' 2021-22 season!

Let's take a good news/bad news look at Wednesday night's loss to the Nets, shall we…

Good News:

Obadiah Richard Toppin Jr. was the Knicks' best player last night, finishing with 19 points, five rebounds, three assists (vs. zero turnovers), three blocks, two treys and a steal. 

Julius Randle has missed five games due to a sore quad over the last two weeks, giving Obi an opportunity to get busy. Toppin has started each of those five contests and is averaging 18.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.2 made triples in 34.8 minutes per game, while shooting over 56% from the floor and 83% from the free-throw stripe.

Over New York's last eight games, Obi has converted 14 of his 35 three-point attempts (40%). His accuracy from downtown has forced defenders to close out with more urgency, which has opened up driving lanes and allowed him to showcase his full skill set by attacking the tin. He's also held his own defensively.

It's not hard to see why Knicks fans have been clamoring to see more of him on the floor for the last six months. Last night was the second time in the past two weeks that Obi has scored 18+ points and dished out 3+ assists without committing a single turnover. Randle has had one such game in his three years as a Knick. 

Toppin's production shouldn't be all that surprising. Remember, this is a dude who was the eighth overall pick after being named the NCAA National Player of the Year in 2020 due to his dominant play at Dayton, where he averaged 20.0 points to go along with 7.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists while shooting a scorching 63.3% percent from the field and 39% from behind the arc. Per Basketball-Reference, he was just the sixth underclassman in the last 25 years to average at least 20 points and shoot over 60% from the floor.

However, he hasn't had much of an opportunity to strut his stuff since arriving in New York. Randle was superb last season and has been quite durable. Incredibly, Topping logged more than 19 minutes just twice his entire rookie year. And even when Randle struggled mightily this season, coach Tom Thibodeau was unwilling to reduce Randle's workload. Before Randle's recent quad injury, Obi was averaging fewer than 15 minutes a night. 

Tommy Beer @TommyBeer

As it turns out, Obi Toppin is pretty good and is capable of doing more than standing in the corner or the dunkers spot…

Speaking with reporters after practice on Tuesday, Toppin acknowledged "there's nothing like being in the game." 

"When you are in the game and have the opportunity to get the reps in and mess up a couple of times and learn from those mess-ups, I feel like that helps a lot," Obi explained. "These past couple games, I'm starting to learn, and I'm getting a lot more minutes, and I'm starting to see little mistakes I'm doing. And I can easily fix those by learning. I wouldn't know what to fix if I wasn't put in those positions. So I feel like me having that opportunity is helping me a lot."

This brings us to…