What Led To Obi Toppin Getting Traded From The New York Knicks

The thunderous ovations and chants were almost awkward. Yes, the backup can sometimes be the most beloved player on a team, but it always felt as if Julius Randle was getting the short end of the stick from the MSG crowd.

Obi Toppin was a fixture for the Knicks over the past few seasons for his bubbly personality, infectious attitude, athletic finishes, and his hometown roots. The young power forward was shipped to the Indiana Pacers on July 1st and it generated one of the oddest reactions you’ll see from a rabid fan base. In seeing a favorite player moved in the prime of his career fans generally shriek that the front office is foolish and unwise. Yet, the common sentiment among most were they were happy that Toppin would get an opportunity to excel in a different environment.

This flies in the face of typical reactions, and especially fans in a NY market. It makes sense when you look back at how it got to this point and how the Knicks now want to operate.

2020-2021

Obviously things were a little thrown off kilter with the draft getting moved back, having a condensed season and starting out a career during the first year of COVID-19. Toppin was projected to be a top-10 pick and ultimately was picked by the Knicks in the 8th spot. Randle had a pretty subpar first year with the team during the 2019-20 season and it was certainly no lock that he was going to be a key contributor moving forward. It’s one of the many reasons why the Knicks brass ultimately decided to draft Toppin when they did.

As many know Randle would go on to have a career year in which he made the All-NBA team, captured the NBA’s “Most Improved” Award, and led the Knicks to the playoffs. Toppin had fun moments in which he was able to electrify viewers with highlight reel dunks. His slam against the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the playoffs was one of the highlights of the season.

2021-2022

Randle’s season went in the completely opposite direction during this season. The inefficiency, lack of defensive effort, and interaction with the fan base led to him being viewed as a distressed asset by many around the league.

Toppin performed admirably over the course of the season. His 9.9 efficiency differential was the third best mark on the team, and he posted over 14 points per game on a 67.5 true shooting percentage during the 18 games after the All-Star break. His play was so infectious that it seemed as if it might be in the team’s best interest to do a soft rebuild in which they collected what they could for Randle while allowing Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Quentin Grimes, and Toppin a chance to play starter’s minutes.

2022-23

The signing of Jalen Brunson and the unwillingness to trade a haul for Donovan Mitchell indicated that the Knicks were likely going to keep Randle. Part of this plan was to see if he was capable of rehabbing his value in order for the team to have a real shot at winning or to move him for draft equity/a return that better fit their roster. The hope for most was that the Knicks would consider using more lineups in which Toppin could play alongside Randle, but they would end up playing less than 150 possessions together.

The times in which Obi started gave hope that maybe he could play a more sizable role on a winning team. He averaged over 21 points in the five starts, but it had the same feeling as last year when he turned it on during the end of the season, which is a hard time to gauge production from a player.

That left the Knicks in a position where they were soon going to have to pay Toppin a market-rate contract for a player that wasn’t realistically going to play more than backup minutes. Did that really make sense for the team? Did that really make sense for Toppin?

This could have been a situation in which the Knicks determined that a return would not be worth shoving off a player that still had value to them and others — his play during the 2023 playoffs were lasting and impactful. Yet, they ultimately chose the other path.

That path didn’t garner much in draft equity, but it did allow the team to sign Donte DiVincenzo. He likely would not have signed if they still had Toppin from a playing time standpoint, but it also would have been difficult for them to stay under the first luxury tax if they tried to keep both.

It is truly impossible to have the Obi Toppin conversation without also including Julius Randle. The inability to play more than just the power forward position put these two in a competition that was inevitably going to lead to one being shipped out. It’s easy to feel as if Toppin failed to get a fair shake in New York because of the circumstances, but it made the most sense to entrust a player that has been named to the All-NBA team twice over the past three years over the guy that is questionable on defense, has trouble rebounding and hasn’t been able to consistently splash down shots from deep.

The Knicks may look a year from now like fools for getting so little in return for a starting power forward on a playoff team. In reality, it’s a minor black mark and a lesson learned for a front office that has mostly made the right choices.