Rookie Obi Toppin shines in Knicks preseason debut: 'It still feels unreal'

There’s only so much stock that can be put into a team’s first preseason game of a new season, but Obi Toppin’s pro debut for the Knicks in Friday’s 90-84 win over the Detroit Pistons was impressive, nonetheless.

The eighth overall pick finished with 11 points (4-of-9 shooting) and seven rebounds in 20 minutes played. He shined brightest in the first half, scoring nine points to go along with five rebounds in just 10 and a half minutes off the bench. 

“I felt great,” Toppin said after the game. “It was amazing. It still feels unreal, but our guys did what he had to do today to pull the W. [Julius Randle] helped me every step of the way with personnel, and I felt like with the guys on the court, everybody did a great job.” 

“I wouldn't say (nerves) hit me, but it was kind of a shock as soon as coach called my name and told me to go to scorer’s table. I was like, "Uh oh, it's my time.” … I wasn't really nervous or scared just because I knew everybody else would pick me up. I just went out there and did what I do best, and that’s play basketball.”

Toppin brought the exact spark the Knicks were hopping for when they landed him in November’s draft, as he crashed the glass, posted up down low, pushed the tempo, went up for a couple of alley-oop attempts, and even threw down a nice one-handed dunk in the second quarter.

His scoring dipped in the second half, as the Pistons started paying extra attention to him when he had the ball. But according to head coach Tom Thibodeau, that’s when it will be up to Toppin to be able to read the game and find open teammates, a skill he’ll learn as he gets more experience under his belt.

“First game, I thought [he was] very aggressive to start the game. Scored the ball. Then there was more attention on him,” Thibodeau said. “That’s the thing about the pro game, is to read the game. The game will tell you the play to make. So when the help comes, if there’s two (guys) on you, that’s what you want. You want two on the ball to force the defense to collapse, and then once that happens, if we have the right spacing, we should be able to get high-percentage shots off of that. So sometimes you beat them with your scoring and sometimes you beat them with the pass. You have to understand that.

“I think, obviously for his first game, I thought he did a lot of good things and he saw like when things work a certain way in the first half, sometimes it’s different in the second and you have to read that as well. But overall, very good. I loved his aggressiveness.”

Toppin impressed his teammates as well, including fellow former lottery pick RJ Barrett.

"Obi was great. I’m really happy for him," Barrett said. "He’s been really putting in the work, he’s been really going hard, and really learning. Really proud of him and really happy to see him thrive."

Again, the first preseason game doesn’t make or break a team’s entire season, just like it doesn’t make or break an individual player’s season, or in this case, career.

But there’s no denying that Toppin showed flashes of exactly the things Knicks fans wanted to see when he was drafted, and the former Dayton Flyer intends to bring that same level of intensity every time he steps on an NBA court.

“I’m going to bring the same energy to every single game,” Toppin said. “And everybody on our team is going to do the same.”