New York Knicks: Obi Toppin can make a leap in these 3 areas

New York Knicks: Obi Toppin’s defense

We’ve talked about all of these skills that Obi Toppin has already flashed in. Areas of his game that were talking points in his draft profile: Shooting, passing, transition scoring, high-flying dunks.

The elephant in the room for Obi Toppin has always been defense. He has all of these dynamic tools on offense, but is he going to always be a liability on defense?

One of the most frequent debates that New York Knicks fans have about Obi Toppin is where does his versatility lie?

Obi Toppin is mostly locked into playing power forward, but if he is going to expand his role on the team, will be it be as a “big man” or a wing player? It’s a difficult question to answer. Is he a small center or an oversized wing?

Toppin doesn’t exactly have great lateral quickness or hip fluidity on the perimeter. He also doesn’t have anywhere near the strength and build to compete with NBA centers. I tend to believe that he can be more of a wing than a center and here’s why.

I don’t believe we want Obi Toppin just parked in the paint as a center. He’s going to get banged around by not just dominant centers but just backup centers who have a big size/strength advantage over him.

Almost all of the successful undersized NBA centers have wide bases and are box-out experts — Obi Toppin doesn’t fit that mold.

We actually saw Toppin make some strides on defense last season and they were primarily on the perimeter. Toppin can actually use his length to recover on defense when guarding someone on the perimeter.

This isn’t to say Toppin can grow into someone you want defending guards, but should he get switched onto wing players, I actually think he has the wingspan and athleticism to keep up with them.

Toppin wants to shed the label of being a bad defender and he has the physical tools to do so. Just because I think he can be more effective on the perimeter doesn’t mean he can’t have an emphatic block in the paint every now and then. This is just year-2 of his development under coach Thibodeau.

We saw just how much Toppin can light it up in the NBA Summer League this past August.

Expect a more well-rounded player in his sophomore season and expect him to grow into a player Thibs can trust to show up when called upon.