The final game was relatively meaningless for the Knicks, who finished 37-45, six games out of qualifying for the play-in tournament, but not for Toppin, who scored a career-high 35 points in the previous game and averaged 27.2 points in the last five games.
“I just feel real confident,” Toppin told reporters after the game. “We had a lot of fun today. We went into the last two games like, ‘Let’s not ruin anything, and let’s not embarrass ourselves. Let’s win these last couple of games,’ and we did it.”
Toppin’s fellow second-year player, Immanuel Quickley, scored a career-high 34 points in the final game. Their performances came against the Toronto Raptors, who were resting starters for the playoffs, but still impressed coach Tom Thibodeau.
“Terrific,” he said said of Toppin. “Behind the scenes I see how hard he works, and it’s a result of the work that he’s put in. He and (Quickley) have great chemistry.”
To put Toppin’s season-ending run in perspective, he has scored 901 points in two seasons, and 15 percent of those points came in the last five games of the 2021-22 season. Toppin saw his minutes increase when Julius Randle was sidelined by a quad injury in April. An All-Star in 2021, Randle still led the Knicks in scoring with 20.1 points per game this season but saw his numbers decline across the board.
Toppin’s late-season success helped him increase his scoring average from 4.1 points per game as a rookie to 9.0 in his second season. He played 17.1 minutes per game this season after averaging 11.0 minutes as a rookie. His rebounding (2.2 to 3.7) and assist numbers (0.5 to 1.1) also increased.
Toppin struggled from 3-point range most of the season but ended up enjoying a slight improvement thanks to his success after the All-Star break. He shot 30.6% from long range as a rookie and 30.8% this season. He shot 37.5% (12 of 32) in March and 46.3% (19 of 41) in April.
What does Toppin’s strong finish mean for his future? Two Toppin experts who followed the Knicks all season — Jonathan Macri, of the Knicks Film School podcast, and Damon Durbin, a 2008 UD graduate who keeps track of all former Flyers throughout pro basketball on his Professionally LOWD account — broke down Toppin’s second season in interviews with the Dayton Daily News.
Q: How hard was it watching Toppin and the Knicks most of the season?
Durbin: It was a very frustrating experience. The thing that was really frustrating was that he was showing flashes of brilliance. There were a lot of games where in the first half he would score II points in eight minutes, and then he would only play four minutes in the second half. Thibs made the comment in one of the postgame press conferences about earning your time on the floor and the guys that were on the floor were the guys that earned it, and that didn’t seem to jive with what everyone saw in the game.
Q: How did Obi handle the ups and downs?
Macri: From what I can tell, his attitude never wavered. He was always super positive. Every time we saw him on camera he had a smile on his face and was cheering on his teammates. There were a couple of moments we might see a little frustration when he screwed up on the court or missed a shot or something, but the positivity was there.
Q: Did it feel like the many hours you spent watching Obi paid off in the last few weeks?
Durbin: I couldn’t believe it. I never imagined him reaching the heights he did last weekend with 35 and 42 in back-to-back games. It was just out of the question for me. In my wildest dreams, I didn’t think that he would score that many points in an NBA game.
Q: How did those performances change the narrative for Toppin?
Macri: I think the narrative surrounding Obi Toppin all season long was that he was a player who was very capable of producing when he got a chance to actually produce, and he just wasn’t getting enough of a chance to produce. Now I think there were some folks who came up with reasons as to why he wasn’t playing more. He was struggling for most of the season mentally with his 3-point shot. There were times where he was down under 20%, or around 20%. So there was that. And then there was also the notion that his defense wasn’t quite up to par. But the big difference between this season and last season is last season the player playing ahead of him was an MVP candidate. This year, that flipped on its on its head, and Randle obviously had a very bad year. It got very ugly, and he just was not good at all.
So the only thing that changed in the final few weeks was he got a chance to play. Over the last week or so, the discussion has been, “Well, did he perform better because he could take his time?” Or was it, this has always been there and he just needed a chance to show it. Then obviously, Obi himself added a little bit of fuel to that fire when in one of the last press conferences, somebody asked him, “What changed?” He’s like, “Well, I’m not looking over my shoulder when I make a mistake. so that’s really freed me up.” I think he said it best.
Durbin: He knew if he missed a shot or messed up a rotation or whatever that he was going to get the chance to redeem himself. So he didn’t worry about it. That’s definitely how he played those last couple of weeks. He played a lot more free and just like we were used to seeing him at Dayton. He would just stick with it. He could have quiet periods but know that he was going to get his and he definitely did.
How did he improve his 3-point shot so dramatically?
Macri: My explanation is I think he’s in rhythm shooter. I never doubted his shot because if you look last year at his free-throw percentage most of the season it was very good, and his free-throw percentage most of this season was very good. So if a guy is going to be good at the line, he’s going to figure out how to be good from long range. I’ve thought this since he was in college, when you have a guy who was essentially the highest-usage player in the nation, and then has to play 11 minutes a game and this year around 14 to 15, it’s tough for him to get into a rhythm. I just think he got into a rhythm, and he was learning to fly over the last few games. I think that’s all it was.
What will the Knicks do next season with Toppin and Randle?
Durbin: I would I would be pretty surprised if the Knicks ran it back next year as if everything was kind of status quo. I think they’re going to make a move. Who that involves probably depends on who’s available and who they’re going after and who they’re trying to bring in. I could see Obi or Randle involved in a trade. I know that that they they like both those guys. I think that Thibs is more in the Randle camp, and I think the front office is more in the Obi camp. But if there’s a move to be made, I would expect that one of those two would probably be involved.
Macri: I think (Thibodeau) said all the right things in his last press conference. He said, “Obi’s done everything that’s asked of him.” He compared him a week or so ago to Taj Gibson, not in play style but in terms of his impact on the team and he’s a gym rat and just the positivity he brings. If you know anything about Tom Thibodeau, that’s the highest compliment that he’s capable of giving. So he ended the season (by saying) more kind things and kind of vaguely left the door open to finding ways to get Obi on the floor more. The reality of the situation is this is a coach who does not believe in having a lineup on the floor without a traditional rim protector, and Julius Randle is still on the team. So I don’t think it has much to do with Obi as it has to do with whether or not Randle’s still on the team, and that’s kind of where the attention has been focused.
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