Obi Toppin's improved defense leads to acrobatics show
New York Knicks forward Obi Toppin leaps to dunk against the Indiana Pacers in a preseason game Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. Credit: AP/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez
Late in the third quarter Friday night, Obi Toppin went airborne ahead of the pack, slipping the ball between his legs and windmilling in a dunk.
As eye-opening as that was, it has become almost old hat for Toppin. The part of the play that might actually earn him more time on the court came if you rewind and look at how he got out ahead of the crowd.
Indiana’s Kendall Brown launched what seemed like an open three-pointer, but Toppin closed out from the lane and leaped to block the shot. Immanuel Quickley grabbed the ball as it floated short and fired ahead to Toppin, who soared for the dunk — the only risk being that as he put the ball between his legs, it was nearly at shoulder level for Pacers guard TJ McConnell, who nearly stripped the ball.
Toppin took over the preseason game in the second half with four dunks and 14 of his 24 points. But converting two of the dunks off a blocked shot and a steal displayed some of the defensive improvement he needs to show to coach Tom Thibodeau.
“His defense, he’s worked hard at it,” Thibodeau said. “There’s still a ways to go. But he’s made great strides. I think he and Quick have great chemistry together. I think that’s a big plus. So there’s a lot of positives.
“It’s also his personality. He brings life in everything he does. He walks in the building and there’s a bounce to him. He energizes the team and you can feed off of that. But I think when he’s playing defense and getting out, we play fast. Everything is fast with him.”
“It definitely feels good,” Toppin said. “Quick, Derrick [Rose], Deuce [McBride], we have great guards who are going to find me in the open court. I’ve worked really hard on my defense this year, guarding different positions — not only fours and fives, being able to guard guards, too. I’m going to continue working on that and getting better throughout the season.”
Figuring out how to get Toppin more playing time remains a challenge for Thibodeau and the Knicks. Julius Randle remains the starter in front of him, but the Knicks' second unit, with the return of Rose and the addition of Isaiah Hartenstein, is a dangerous grouping that can do damage.
For Toppin to get on the court, he needs to, as Thibodeau has stressed, earn it on merit. Improved defense and an improved three-point shot (4-for-7 from beyond the arc Friday after going 0-for-4 in the first preseason game) are keys.
“I went 0-for-4 the first game, so I had to make a couple this game,” Toppin said. “I put in a lot of work, so if I miss this next shot, I’m going to have that mentality for the rest of the year. For sure, confidence is one of the biggest things. I feel like if you have confidence, you just go out there and play freely. When you’re thinking about things — I feel like I was thinking about things the past two years that I shouldn’t have been thinking about. Just go out there, play free and have fun and just do everything that we’re told to do on the court. It’s going to lead us to success, so I’m going to continue doing that as well as the teammates.
“We’ve been playing together the past three years now, other than Isaiah. Isaiah is really the only new one. He picks up on things quick. We know what we have to do when we come into the game, bring a lot of energy and play fast. I feel like we do that to the best of our abilities every day. We have a lot of hungry young guys on the team who are going to work every day to help us win.”
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.
