Obi Toppin is all the things the Knicks guess towards.
Twenty factors on 50% taking pictures. 4-of-seven from deep. Two steals, six rebounds, and a plus-eight in 23 minutes off the bench — within the NBA Finals.
The previous eighth-overall decide isn’t just taking part in on basketball’s largest stage. He’s excelling — and doing so within the precise function the Knicks by no means believed he might fill.
New York traded Toppin to the Indiana Pacers for 2 second-round picks in 2022, citing his inconsistent minutes behind All-Star Julius Randle and then-coach Tom Thibodeau’s reluctance to increase leashes to younger gamers on win-now rosters.
They’d like to have that deal again now.
Randle’s in Minnesota. Thibodeau is out. And the Knicks, as soon as once more inches from title competition, at the moment are looking for the very factor they gave as much as construct their present roster: younger, playoff-ready contributors who could make an influence off the bench.
Toppin is the obvious instance — a participant who didn’t simply revitalize his profession, however helped bounce the Knicks from the convention finals as a mainstay on a championship-contending Pacers roster. He’s averaging practically 13 factors on roughly 50% taking pictures from the sector and 40% taking pictures from three-point vary within the Finals towards the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder.
And he’s carried out it behind Pacers All-Star Pascal Siakam, as a trusted bench scorer in the identical function New York doubted he might deal with.
It’s the sort of mistake the Knicks can now not afford in the event that they wish to flip a powerful core into a real championship contender.
The entrance workplace has made a behavior of shifting on from younger gamers. Toppin for 2 seconds. R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to Toronto for OG Anunoby. Quentin Grimes to Detroit within the Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks rental deal. Barrett and Quickley had been high-cost chips to land Anunoby, whose influence has been simple. However Grimes — like Toppin — grew to become a casualty of a shrinking function, then flourished with actual alternative in Philadelphia.
Toppin, nevertheless, stands aside. The Knicks traded a lottery decide for pennies on the greenback — solely to look at him nail a dagger three within the convention finals and ship 9 double-digit scoring video games off the bench throughout Indiana’s playoff run. He’s offering precisely what the Knicks lacked down the stretch: second-unit firepower and depth that may shift a playoff collection.
The irony? New York has extra gamers like Toppin in-house — they only need to decide to growing them.
Final 12 months’s rookie class included first-round decide Pacome Dadiet, second-rounders Tyler Kolek, Kevin McCullar Jr., and Ariel Hukporti, plus James Nnaji through the Karl-Anthony Cities commerce. Nnaji might be a part of the Knicks roster for subsequent season, and the Knicks additionally management decide No. 50 within the 2025 draft.
However the monetary runway is tight. New York solely has the $5.65M taxpayer mid-level exception and veteran minimums to supply free brokers, except they dip into Fowl Rights to re-sign gamers like Delon Wright or Landry Shamet. Including even $8M in wage will set off the second apron — a line that brings harsh penalties and restricted flexibility.
Which implies probably the most viable path to enhancing this roster is inside: maximizing end-of-bench expertise and making certain the following head coach trusts these gamers to supply when it issues.
That’s precisely what Rick Carlisle has carried out in Indiana. That’s why Toppin is posting career-highs in scoring, rebounding, assists, area aim share and three-point share. And whereas Thibodeau didn’t commerce Toppin — the entrance workplace did — it’s now on Knicks administration to make sure these sorts of miscalculations don’t proceed.
As a result of if the Knicks wish to construct a contender with out burning by way of future belongings, they’ll must spend money on what they have already got — and rent a coach who can deliver one of the best out of each title on the roster.
NNAJI IN NY
Nnaji is making his transfer.
The 20-year-old’s representatives have reportedly knowledgeable Euroleague membership Barcelona of his intent to go away and pursue an NBA profession, and he’s at the moment in New York understanding with the Knicks at their Tarrytown coaching facility.
Drafted thirty first general by the Charlotte Hornets in 2023, Nnaji is a bodily specimen — a seven-footer with a 7-7 wingspan and a 9-4 standing attain. The Knicks acquired his rights as a part of theTowns commerce and at the moment are evaluating whether or not he can contribute to a entrance court docket in want of depth.
With Treasured Achiuwa unlikely to return, and solely Cities, Mitchell Robinson, and rookie Ariel Hukporti penciled into the rotation, there’s a possibility for Nnaji to earn a roster spot — and probably actual minutes — if he proves prepared.
He averaged 5.3 factors and 4.1 rebounds final season for Girona and is predicted to affix the Knicks’ Summer season League squad in Las Vegas.
