Oh My, Obi
Guest columnist Tom Piccolo puts Obi's big Friday night into perspective, plus a six-pack of of thoughts on the season ahead.
Good morning (especially to all fans of New York football out there. Not so much to those of the Metropolitans. You’ll get ‘em next year, I’m sure).
As I mentioned last week, I’m getting back from a short vacation today, so special guest columnist Tom Piccolo picks up most of the slack for me, starting with his thoughts on Obi Toppin’s Friday night performance in Stars of the Game below. I did, however, watch the game, even being away with the family (you know I wasn’t about to miss that show, now was I?). So we start today with my brief recap of Friday’s preseason win over Indiana. More thoughts on that game coming tomorrow.
Game Recap: Knicks 131, Pacers 114
⌚️30 Seconds or Less: There was the game, and the Tony Award winning Broadway performance within the game. The game itself: Indiana kept things tight initially and actually led New York 37-34 early in the second, but the Knicks closed the first half with a 38-17 run in just over nine minutes of game time. The fireworks were just getting started though, as Obi Toppin filmed his own personal highlight reel in the second half when he converted two of his four 3-pointers and had four breakaway dunks, including the early favorite for NBA highlight of the year.
📸 Camera Worthy: There aren’t many things better in sports that an amazing play captured by an even more amazing photograph, but that’s what we were lucky enough to get with one minute and thirty two seconds remaining in the third quarter, courtesy of photographer Nathaniel S. Butler:
(Coming in a close second: the reaction shot of Immanuel Quickley, who nabbed an assist on the masterpiece.)
🗣 Quote of the Night: From the lack of minutes he’s given him over the last two years, you’d think there’s no harsher critic of Obi Toppin than Tom Thibodeau, but you sure couldn’t tell from the way the coach spoke about his backup power forward after the game:
“He brings life into everything he does. He walks into the building and there is a bounce to him. He energizes the team, and you can feed off that but when he is playing defense and getting out and we can play fast…. everything is fast with him.”
Thibs added that the guys like playing with Toppin because he doesn’t “over-handle” and that he’s worked hard on his defense although “there is still a way to go.” RJ Barrett also chimed in with a nice compliment, noting that year-three Obi “looks so much more poised.” Through two preseason games, it’s hard to disagree.
🤕 Injury Front: Quentin Grimes (sore foot) and Evan Fournier (rest) both missed the game, which gave Cam Reddish the chance at a starting nod. On that note…
😒 Picking Nits: Yeesh.
I actually felt a little bad for Cam by the end of the night. He started off the game bricking a bad three before briefly losing his defensive assignment and giving up an open triple to one of the league’s premier shooters. Shortly thereafter, he missed a switch and fell down trying to recover. He ended up going 1-for-7 in 22 minutes.
You could tell the kid probably put all the pressure in the world on his own shoulders before this game, feeling like it was he best chance to prove himself right and all the critics wrong. It didn’t quite work out that way, but he shouldn’t get too down. As he showed in his lone highlight - a nice steal with an up-and-under transition finish - he remains oozing with potential. This won’t be his last chance to show his stuff (although when and where the next opportunity presents itself is anyone’s guess).
🤔Rotation Observations: Once again, it seemed like Thibs didn’t want to push certain guys too hard. Derrick Rose only played 13 minutes while Mitchell Robinson only saw 19. Those totals seemed to be partially motivated by wanting to give time to two impressive second-year players, Deuce McBride and Jericho Sims, both of whom had some nice moments.
💫 Stars of the Game 💫
⭐️ Jalen Brunson: How do you have an efficient night while only making 33 percent of your shots from the field? Get to the line nine times and make every single attempt. Brunson practiced what Thibodeau preaches, which is that you don’t have to shoot it well to play well. By contrast, RJ Barrett’s 3-pointer was as silky smooth as we’ve ever seen (a massively big deal for the long term outlook of this franchise) but his overall game wasn’t quite as impressive, so Brunson edges him and Mitch (looking very primed for a big year) for this spot.
⭐️⭐️ Immanuel Quickley: quite simply, he looks the part. There is a verve to year-three IQ that feels slightly more confident and in control than during his first two years. In short, there’s nothing I’ve seen to make me back off my top-three 6th Man prediction from a few weeks ago.
And for our third star of the game, just like Quickley would, I’m dishing it off to my partner for today’s festivities. Take it from here Tom!
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Obi Toppin: If you watched any highlights at all from Friday night’s preseason win over the Indiana Pacers, then you undoubtedly saw Obi Toppin’s Eastbay dunk, which was jaw-dropping even by his own sky-high standards. For an encore, he followed that up with three fourth quarter dunks that were similarly electrifying.
But, it was Obi’s performance in the game-deciding second quarter that caught my eye. NYK outscored IND 46-23 during that stretch on the back of some tremendous shotmaking and free throw shooting across the board, but it was Obi who set the tone with 10 points in the period’s first five minutes.
And I don’t mean to downplay the spectacle of Obi’s dunks either. Quite the opposite. I want to see as many Toppin slams as possible. I want to pull a muscle from jumping out of my seat. I want bedlam in the Garden. I want that place to feel like it’s levitating. But, for that to happen, Toppin needs to stay on the floor. And for that to happen, he needs to prove (at least to his coach) that he can impact the game even when he’s not blowing our minds with gravity-defying highlights.
In Friday’s second period, Obi scored in a variety of ways including off a smart cut and a supremely smooth take in transition. But, as we know, so much of Obi’s value (at least in the eyes of Thibs) is going to hinge on his ability to knock down threes and spread the floor. On Friday night, Toppin hit 4-of-7 from downtown including two in that second quarter (fun fact: Toppin has hit four or more threes in a game only three times in his career, each happening in the final week of last season). One of those triples was a standard pick-and-pop three, which is an important shot for Obi to knock down, if not a particularly exciting one. But the other one…sheesh. It was nearly as spectacular as his between-the-legs dunk:
Just so I know I’m not hallucinating, I’m going to describe what happened here in detail. That was a designed out-of-bounds play to get Obi coming off a screen into a movement corner three, which he canned despite it being fairly well-defended. That shot’s degree of difficulty goes so far beyond the standard spot-up attempt we typically see from Obi.
That is a play you run for a three-point specialist like Evan Fournier, not your skywalking dunk champion of a power forward. I’m not usually one to overreact to a single play, especially in preseason, but the fact that Thibs was comfortable even calling this play makes me feel a little better about Obi’s prospects for playing time this season. It’s a play you draw up for someone who you know has put in the work. And, despite a bad miss or two this preseason, I’ve seen enough to buy Obi’s long-ball going forward, which should be a harbinger of more minutes this season and beyond.
Picc’s Six
by Tom Piccolo
This offseason, I went into a Knicks content hibernation. I didn’t write. I didn’t produce videos. Even the podcast I cohost, Talkin’ Knicks, went dormant. The respite proved to be much-needed as my wife and I welcomed our first child, Miles, into the world on Father’s Day. Instead of sifting through every rumor, report and anonymous source detailing Donovan Mitchell’s whereabouts and social media activity, I was busy being bombarded with excrement of a more literal kind.
Then, summer gave way to fall, and like a seasonal allergy, I felt the itch again. In the immortal words of Amar’e Stoudemire, "the Knicks…the Knicks are back," and I couldn’t be more excited to watch what is most likely going to be a middling team contend for the back-half of the playoffs.
The beauty, as always, will be in the details. Witnessing the young core develop, coalesce and translate to winning basketball games remains the most invigorating part of being a Knicks fan.
To make it even sweeter, 2022-23 will be the first season I get to share my fandom and my love for basketball with Miles. As of today, he is only just beginning to become aware of the world around him. He is basically immobile, unable to crawl or even rollover, and I cannot wait to see how he grows and changes in the months to come. By season’s end, he will likely be able to stand on his own and may even start to walk.
And, though the Knicks are a long way away from contending for a championship, here’s hoping they’re also ready to take some baby steps in that direction this year.
Below are six things I’ll be specifically watching as we kick off the new season. I don’t have a gimmick here. These selections are not the six “most important” nor “most underrated” nor “most” anything. These are just six areas that will hold my interest, in a season that will be full of interesting trends and storylines if you know where to look.
Push It
Everyone is focusing on pace this time of year, and I know Macri used this space to write about it last week. But, it’s worth harping on.
You know when you’re watching a scary movie and some side character is dawdling around, walking headfirst into disaster and you want to shout RUN! MOVE! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO! That’s how it felt watching the Knicks offense last season, which moved with the urgency of a character who was not going to make it out alive. And, like a horror flick, it was similarly hard to watch.
Too often, this team was content to saunter up the floor, initiating the offense late in the clock, and having no pace or flow to their offensive attack. They treated eight-second violations like they were a dare.
In terms of the shot clock, NYK were top-10 in both “Late” and “Very Late” shots, while being bottom-three in efficiency in both categories. The lack of pace infected everything they did from bringing the ball over half-court to their off-ball cuts:
On the flip side, when they did decide to push, the Knicks offense had success. When they attempted shots “Early” in the shot clock, they ranked 15th in efficiency. Not world-beating but definitely solid. The issue, unsurprisingly, was the Knicks ranked dead-last in “Early” shot clock field goal attempts.
So far, in the preseason Thibs’ message about pace is being heard loud and clear, particularly by Derrick Rose and the second unit. Take Friday’s preseason game: shortly after Rose was seen urging his teammates to “Get it and go,” he led by example, throwing a full-court outlet pass to a leaking Obi Toppin, and inspiring Quickley to do the same on the subsequent possession.
Pushing off of defensive rebounds is a no-brainer. The Knicks have the personnel, particularly on the second unit; they need to push off misses. That’s the bare minimum.
What I’m more interested in is whether the Knicks are able to push the pace off of makes. Per Inpredictable, NYK ranked 28th last season in average time elapsed to take a shot after a make, and 25th in efficiency on those shots.
Ostensibly, having an actual point guard in Jalen Brunson should help the Knicks get organized and into their sets more quickly, even in the half-court. That is, until you remember that Dallas was one of the few teams actually slower than New York last season. Much of that had to do with Luka Doncic’s ball dominance, but even when Luka sat on the bench and Brunson was running the show, the team played only marginally faster.
This tension between speed and deliberateness will be a storyline all season, particularly among the first unit. From the starters, I’ll be looking for Brunson and RJ to lead the charge, pushing the pace and hopefully avoiding the stagnation that bedeviled the team last year.
Home Sweet Home?
The Knicks are fortunate to play in the world’s greatest arena in front of arguably the league’s best fans. So, when the team routinely underperformed at home last season, it felt like the squad was coming into the Garden and kicking dirt in our collective faces. Last season, on the road, the Knicks sported the 11th-best net rating (+0.8 points per 100 possessions), a very respectable figure. At home? That net rating plummeted to -2 points per 100 possessions, good for 23rd in the league.
The drop-off came on both sides of the floor, but it was offensive futility that was most responsible for the home/away discrepancy. The Knicks just couldn’t find a way to score at home. I know, I know – opponents get hyped to play at MSG. Maybe away teams amp up their defensive effort under the city’s bright lights. I just don’t care. I really don’t have any sympathy for that excuse. Knicks fans deserve better at home. Better effort. Better game plans. Better execution. Better basketball.
Obviously, last season brought about all the Julius Randle-induced thumbs-down unpleasantness which deepened the rift between the fanbase and the team’s highest-profile player. Some players feed off of that antagonistic relationship with fans; Julius is not one of them. He became a shell of himself and the team suffered as a result. For this year to be a success, we’ll need to leave that fraught relationship in 2021-22 and enter this new season with something akin to a clean slate. I’m not saying fans need to coddle players. The onus is on the athletes; the Knicks need to play with a level of effort and professionalism at home to justify fans leaving their homes in the first place. The fan support will match the team’s performance.
Float On
Last season, the Knicks ranked dead-last in points-in-the-paint. Part of the reason was the team’s ineptitude from floater range (defined as inside the paint and outside the restricted area). Per NBA.com, NYK shot 38.3% from floater range, ranking 29th just ahead of the 20-win Houston Rockets.
That’s why it was notable to see the team’s top-two highest-usage guys from last season – RJ Barrett and Julius Randle, both of whom shot atrociously from short mid-range – specifically targeting their float game with trainers this offseason:
I anticipate both guys will get better from floater range (there’s pretty much nowhere to go but up), but the biggest improvement should come from swapping Alec Burks (who shot just 32% on floaters) for short mid-range maestro Jalen Brunson who connected on a ridiculous 51% (!!!) of floaters, better than 91% of players at his position. Adding to the impressiveness, Brunson took a whopping 36% of his total shots from floater range (more than 95% of combo guards per Cleaning The Glass). The dude is exceptional at using strength and change of pace to get to his spots and rain floaters from all angles.
The addition of Brunson coupled with improvements from RJ and Randle on floaters will give this team more of a varied shot diet and will force opponents to defend the entire floor.
Bigs, hit somebody please
With Taj Gibson no longer with the team, the title of “Best Screen Setter” in the rotation is precariously up in the air. Now, Knicks Nation turns our lonely eyes to Mitchell Robinson to fill the void, but we must do so with caution. Nearly three years ago, the great Spencer Pearlman, being the prophet that he is, tweeted this:
In the years since, Mitch has improved in some areas. He can now remain on the floor for starter minutes thanks to an improved wind and a lower foul rate. But, consistently setting solid screens remains a struggle for him:
He slips screens and runs to the rim like a child excited on Christmas morning. I get it; he has a gift, and that gift is hammering home lobs. He just can’t wait to get to the tin. But, getting into the right position and making real contact with defenders will go a long way towards getting his teammates open and in turn setting himself up for success, as well.
Mitch is not the only culprit, but his improvement as a screener will make the biggest difference on this team. Robinson ranked 22nd in screen assists last season, and I think it’s a realistic goal for him to be top-10 this year.
Make your Freebies
“Make your free throws.” Insightful nuggets like that keep me in high demand as a basketball writer.
Last season, the Knicks ranked second in the league in free throw attempt rate per Cleaning The Glass. Guys like Randle, Barrett, and even Quickley in the back-half of the season got to the line seemingly at will. This, in theory, is a building block of an elite (or at least good) offense. However, the Knicks shot just 74.4% from the line as a team, which ranked 25th league-wide.
This is a bit perplexing seeing as the only truly bad free throw shooter in the rotation is Mitchell Robinson. This offense is simply not good enough to leave points on the table like this. In terms of what may change going into this season, Jalen Brunson should help given that he hits at an 84% clip, but he’s never even managed to get to the line three times per game in his career. Though he frequently knifes into the paint with abandon, he is an expert at both pulling up and using angles to deftly avoid contact.
The obvious guy who needs to improve is RJ who has enlisted Allan Houston to be his free throw mentor, per Marc Berman (formerly of The Post). I’ll be looking for RJ to improve from 71.4% to around 77-78% on the season. For those tracking such things, he is a perfect 4-for-4 through two preseason games.
Speaking of preseason, the Knicks shot an absurd 26-of-27 (96.3%) from the free throw line on Friday. Outside of a 5-for-5 game last year, the Knicks never reached that level of accuracy from the line.
Make Crunch Time Less Soggy
The Knicks had the worst crunch time net rating last season per NBA.com having been outscored by an unthinkable 24.1 points per 100 possessions during the games’ most crucial moments.
Statistically, it’s hard to pinpoint specific reasons for this futility. I mean, their team defense ranked 27th and team offense ranked 29th during the clutch. Everything seemed to fall apart. They stopped getting to the line. They forced hardly any turnovers. Defensive communication broke down. And, most glaringly, no one could just step up and hit shots.
Jalen Brunson is someone who I’ve mentioned a lot, and I know he is not some panacea who will cure all the ills of this team; he acknowledged that himself. But, considering he will be replacing non-point guard Alec Burks, he will be able to get this team into the right spots and orchestrate some level of offense that should generate decent looks.
Also, a heavier dose of RJ during crunch time should be a priority, as he proved throughout the season that no moment is too big for him.
Tom Piccolo is a contributing writer and frequent podcast guest for Knicks Film School and the co-host of Talkin’ Knicks. When he’s not sharing his insight on the Knicks, he’s doing PR and communications for Jomboy Media.
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That’s it for today! If you enjoy this newsletter and like the Mets, don’t forget to subscribe to JB’s Metropolitan, or his hockey newsletter, Isles Fix. See y’all soon! #BlackLivesMatter
How do we think the conversation would have went if Obi missed that dunk ?