Knicks: 3 Players Julius Randle is helping to get better

Knicks: Randle’s Impact on Obi Toppin

Obi Toppin, All-American, recipient of the Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year award, and the New York Knicks number eight overall draft pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Toppin certainly had a whole lot of buzz around his name leading up to the draft and had the resume to back it up, all signs were leading to a day one NBA starter.

So when Knick fans heard his name get called we all rejoiced, I was the first one ready to pack up Julius Randle’s bags and ship him out. The thought of Julius Randle being Obi Toppin’s mentor made me sick, surely they cannot play together on the same team. Well, I, along with every Knick fan was wrong about Randle and was wrong about Obi Toppin.

Randle is playing like an All-Star and Toppin is not getting the playtime everyone predicted. However, I truly believe this is a great situation for Toppin — There have been plenty of NBA prospects who never pan out and end up getting bounced out of the league, many of them being the Knicks, sigh. So having Toppin sitting behind an All-Star like Randle is not the worst thing. It will allow Toppin to get adjusted to NBA life and have a mentor to guide him through it.

As long as Julius Randle continues this type of play and the Knicks are winning games, I am all for keeping Toppin as a bench player. If you watch game after game you can slowly start to see Toppin becoming more comfortable and more confident and we can thank Julius Randle for that. I think the most impressive thing about Toppin is his maturity in his situation, you never hear him complain about his minutes and he only has praise for Randle when talking to the media which is a great sign for New York. I think we got a good one here.