What trading Obi Toppin in a Donovan Mitchell deal would mean for the Knicks

My thoughts about trading Obi Toppin

I wanted to clarify these modes of thinking to emphasize my opinion about the rumored player being Toppin in this trade. I feel that if the Knicks are willing to move on from Toppin to acquire Donovan Mitchell, they must be fully invested and confident in Randle being their guy going forward.

Mortgaging Toppin for a chance at making another trade in the future does not leave the team much margin for error, and they must put together a winning season in 2022-23.

Today’s NBA is a player-driven league and players can create success in any market. New York being “New York” is not going to be enough to draw in a second star, as the past years have proven.

As I said earlier, this trade is beginning to feel scarily reminiscent of the Carmelo Anthony era, where the team mortgaged their future to land a star player in hopes of the move drawing interest from another superstar.

The team lacked the infrastructure and assets to create long-term success around Melo, though, and making this trade without a confident plan for Randle (that does not involve banking on trading him for a bigger name down the road) would not be a network toward success.

If the rumored deal is the one that inevitably happens, the team must be confident in their current roster winning basketball games, or they risk repeating this rebuilding process again in three years.

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