Why Knicks Should Deal Obi Toppin Ahead of NBA Trade Deadline Amid Latest Rumors
The NBA trade deadline is set for Thursday at 3 p.m. ET, and the New York Knicks are in an intriguing position. Despite losing seven of their past 11 games, the Knicks are 29-26 and sitting in seventh in the Eastern Conference.
Is now the time for New York to make a big splash to try to reach the next level? Which players on its roster should the team be willing to part with? How can the Knicks best position themselves to have success in both the short and long term?
It will be interesting to see how New York handles the deadline and what moves (if any) it makes. Until then, rumors will surely continue to swirl, as Knicks players have been featured in plenty of that buzz in recent days.
There's even a rumored move that New York could be considering that would involve making a fairly substantial trade with the Utah Jazz.
According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, the Knicks and Jazz have had "exploratory conversations" about a potential trade that would send Obi Toppin, Evan Fournier and draft picks to Utah, while Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt would come to New York. That move would have quite a significant impact on the rotations for both teams.
The most interesting name featured in that nugget may be Toppin, the former first-round draft pick who was selected by the Knicks at No. 8 overall in 2020. The 24-year-old forward is now in his third NBA season, but he has yet to live up to the potential he showed during his college career at Dayton.
Toppin has made only 10 starts for New York in 174 career games, and all of those came during the 2021-22 campaign. This season, he's averaging only 6.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and 15.2 minutes in 40 games.
It's been tough for Toppin to get more time on the court because he's been blocked by Julius Randle in the Knicks' rotation. Toppin hasn't played more than 17 minutes in a game since Dec. 3, when he logged 22 in a loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
If New York isn't going to use Toppin, it makes sense to trade him. He's still young enough that there should be teams (such as Utah potentially) that feel he could develop into a productive player if given the opportunity to do so.
That's why the rumored Knicks-Jazz deal could make a lot of sense for both sides. New York would be getting a solid scorer in Beasley and a great defender in Vanderbilt while parting with a pair of players (Toppin and Fournier) who haven't been too involved in the team's plans.
Even if that trade doesn't come to fruition, the Knicks should continue to shop Toppin. They may be able to swap him for players who they could be more likely to utilize moving forward.
