Obi Toppin Is The Missing Piece For The Knicks
Every player who is selected in the Top 10 of the NBA Draft is under enormous pressure especially because they are expected to start helping their teams right away.
Toppin has occasionally displayed glimpses of his true potential in New York but his playing time has been erratic during the 2022–23 season hindering his development and preventing the young striker from helping his club.
Due to Randles absence last Friday Toppin earned his first start of the year scoring 12 points in 19 minutes. Toppin though played 33 minutes on Sunday and finished with 21 points four assists two steals and a block. Both games were comfortable wins for the Knicks.
These games are also not a coincidence as Obi Toppin has regularly produced at a high level when he has been added to the starting lineup and when his minutes have increased.
Toppin has appeared in at least 30 minutes eight times over his career averaging 24.3 points 6.2 rebounds and 2.0 steals per contest while shooting 57.4 percent from the field.
With Julius Randle out Toppins playing time will undoubtedly grow but in the grand scheme of things the Knicks may have discovered something with Toppins recent play.
In terms of bench points per game New York is 25th in the league and aside from Immanuel Quickley their bench players have failed to consistently contribute to the teams success.
The Knicks are a difficult basketball club that will be challenging to defeat in a seven-game series even if they are still a step away from being a team that can go to the NBA Finals.
Obi Toppin has to play more for the Knicks to have long-term success since he performed well without Julius Randle last season and this season when he was in the lineup.