NY Knicks: A Way Too Early Prediction of the Power Forward Depth chart

Obi Toppin will be the backup PF for the NY Knicks

Drafted as Julius Randle’s replacement, Obi Toppin should be penciled in as the backup Power Forward but has a tall task ahead of him.

The fact remains that no one saw Julius Randle’s season coming and so the team did what they thought was best in drafting his heir apparent during the 2020 NBA Draft.

I’d have to imagine the thought process was for the team to grab guys who fit the timelines of players like RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson a bit better.

Then, once Toppin established himself as a viable option at the 4, Randle would be moved at the trade deadline.

Things couldn’t have actually worked out any more differently.

Instead, the Knicks got a version of Julius Randle the world had never seen and this left Obi Toppin scratching and clawing for minutes last year, amassing just 11 per game during the 2020-21 campaign.

It also took quite a while for Obi to get a grasp on the speed of play in the NBA, as there were times where he looked like a baby fawn out there with two left feet.

As the season progressed, we got better and better versions of Toppin and we may have seen the absolute best version of the Dayton product during the playoff series against the Hawks.

Toppin went on to become one of the best players during this season’s NBA Summer League and was named to the First Team All-Summer League roster.

That said, as much as I would love to see Obi get more burn out there and have him realize his potential while on the Knicks, I don’t see him being here much longer.

There’s a handful of names on this roster that I could see traded sooner than later and Obi Toppin’s name sits atop that list.

But for now, he’s a solid backup Power Forward for a playoff-bound Knicks team.