New York Knicks: Comparing Obi Toppin and Amar’e Stoudemire

New York Knicks: Obi’s Edge

As mentioned earlier, Obi’s rookie year was a massive struggle for him. However, we’ve seen strides of improvement in his second year in the NBA. While here’ we’re comparing the two players, the same can’t be said for Amar’e Stoudemire who hit the ground running as soon as he entered the league. After averaging 13.5 games his rookie season Stoudemire shot that number up to 20.6 in year two captivating Suns fans and making his games a must watch for any big time NBA fan. While Obi’s career high in points for one game is just 19, there are some areas of the game where we could consider him more advanced when it comes to where S.T.A.T was at this point in his career.

One of which is Toppin can play on the perimeter.

When you look up Amar’e Stoudemire highlights, he’s a menace without a doubt but something very noticeable is that he’s very limited to the paint. What makes Toppin so special is that despite being 6’9, he can outrun so many people at his size giving him a major advantage trying to get open and running the baseline. The realization of this has given Obi so much more confidence which is why we’re seeing him get a surplus of more minutes in comparison to what he had last season.

Something else definitely worth noting is that Obi’s dunks are simply more flashy than Stoudemire’s. Sure Amar’e brought us more poster dunks and dominated inside. I’m definitely not trying to take anything away from him. I’m simply just saying that Obi Toppin has brought us some special dunks in recent play including his through the legs dunk against the Indiana Pacers back on December 8th.

In the end, while Obi hasn’t taken the league by storm, he’s becoming an invaluable piece on the New York Knicks.