Knicks activate Obi Toppin for matchup against Spurs
Knicks forward Obi Toppin slaps five with guard Immanuel Quickley during a timeout against the Spurs in the first half of an NBA game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Madison Square Garden was still nearly empty, almost three hours until game time, Wednesday night and Obi Toppin was covered in sweat.
Toppin was working through an assortment of drills — driving to the basket repeatedly with assistant coach Scott King defending him and then he went to work on his three-point shot, which showed some of the rust from being sidelined since Dec. 7. He joked with reporters with phones out recording, “Don’t use that one,” after one miss.
If he wasn’t quite 100%, he was healthy enough to be activated before the Knicks hosted the San Antonio Spurs, maybe ahead of even the timeline the Knicks had figured for him when he suffered a non-displaced fracture of the right tibia head.
“He just got cleared, so he’ll be situational for a while,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We’ve got to ramp him up, let him get through some practices. He’s done a great job with his rehab, actually got back sooner - as soon as he possibly could get back. So that was an encouraging sign. Now we’ve just got to let him have some contact and that sort of thing.”
While it was little more than a week ago that Toppin was restricted to working out in a pool to keep weight off of the healing bone, he advanced quickly.
“I think you guys probably saw some of the stuff on the court before the games, and that's usually where you start,” Thibodeau said. “We had to take pressure off. He started in the pool for cardio and doing that. Then whatever he can do in the weight room, did that, then some form shooting, and then the next step was on the court no contact, and then one on one, two on two, more against coaches and that sort of thing. So token pressure, not all out pressure.
“The next phase will be the five-on-five in practice. Much like we did with Quentin [Grimes], there's a progression to it. You go through the rehab, once he's cleared medically, then you start the ramp up, and that's where it is right now.”
Even Toppin wasn’t sure last week about a timeline when he spoke.
“It’s definitely hard but at the same time I’m trying to get back as fast as I can,” he said. “But i’m just trying to do everything the medical staff is asking me to do. We’re just taking it day by day. But I’m definitely feeling a lot better.”
While Thibodeau called him “situational” it will present an interesting situation for the coach when Toppin is completely ready. He was playing about 17 minutes a game before the injury and was mostly the subject of fans' pleas for more playing time. But in his absence Julius Randle has played more minutes and thrived — playing at the level that he was two seasons ago when he was an All-Star and a second-team All-NBA selection.
And Thibodeau has had the rotation trimmed to nine players and praised the rhythm it has provided for the team. To keep it at nine and include Toppin, that likely means Isaiah Hartenstein or Jericho Sims will be dropped out of the rotation.
“We’ll see. And again, there’s gotta be flexibility there,” Thibodeau said. “So we’ll get there, but obviously we want Obi back. The team has to be put first. Everyone has to sacrifice for the team. And for some guys, it’s starting; some guys, it’s shots; some guys, they may not be in the rotation. But things can change very quickly. And right now, we have people, we have a nine-man rotation, and we could have an injury; we could have foul trouble; we could have illness. It has to be fluid. But the most important thing is the team playing well, so if the team is playing well, we can’t sacrifice that.”
While Toppin will certainly be a part of the rotation when he’s ready the Knicks have gotten productive minutes from the pairing of two bigs off the bench with Sims and Hartenstein — and most importantly, the Knicks were 9-6 (including the game he was injured and played just seven minutes) without him entering Wednesday night.
“The thing is, when you look at the numbers over the last 15 games, the numbers — that tells you something, right?” Thibodeau said. “So the offense, we’re scoring more. We’re giving up a lot less. The rebounding is through the roof. And you look at, OK, how has this impacted [Immanuel Quickley]? How has it impacted Julius? How has it impacted RJ [Barrett]? And the challenge is to bring the best out of the team. Whatever brings the best out of the team, that’s what we have to do. And often times, there’s difficult decisions that have to be made. So we have good players and some players have had to sacrifice not being in the rotation and then just stay ready. Things are always changing in this league.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
