{"id":14932,"date":"2022-04-10T14:17:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-10T14:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/?p=14932"},"modified":"2022-04-10T14:17:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-10T14:17:48","slug":"knicks-obi-toppin-julius-randle-discuss-playing-together-next-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/knicks-obi-toppin-julius-randle-discuss-playing-together-next-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks&#8217; Obi Toppin, Julius Randle discuss playing together next season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Obi Toppin\u2019s recent offensive surge only has accentuated the intriguing question \u2014 and the clamoring of chanting fans \u2014 whether the Knicks can find him more playing time next season, particularly when Julius Randle is healthy and available.<\/p>\n<p>If the Knicks remain committed to Randle, who will miss his fifth consecutive game in Sunday\u2019s season finale against Toronto due to a quad injury, coach Tom Thibodeau\u2019s only choice is to use the two power forwards more often together in a small-ball alignment.<\/p>\n<p>The defensively minded Thibodeau mostly has resisted going with a smaller lineup because he prefers to have a center on the court for rim protection. But Toppin admitted Friday that he and Randle have discussed playing together \u2014 and the second-year forward made the case why he believes it could work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor sure, me and Jules actually talked about it, we definitely feel in today\u2019s game that\u2019s a big thing, just because a lot of teams are playing small, a lot of teams want to play fast, shoot 3s, run the floor and just get out in transition,\u201d Toppin said after scoring a career-high 35 points in Friday\u2019s win in Washington. \u201cAnd I feel like when me and Jules are on the court, we\u2019re definitely playing a lot more faster. Either me or Jules can be in the paint or we can screen and roll.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-default\"><figcaption>Obi Toppin (left) said he and Julius Randle have discussed playing together in a small-ball lineup.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThere are so many different things we can do when we\u2019re both on the court. But we\u2019ve definitely talked about it and hopefully we\u2019re both back here next year and we can see that. I feel like we can definitely do some damage in the league if we\u2019re on the court together.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module alignright\">\n\t<\/aside>\n<p>Randle has averaged 36.4 minutes per game over the past two seasons, including leading the league last year at 37.6. Randle and Toppin were on the court together in just 20 of the team\u2019s games this season for a total of 101 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like having a component of being able to downsize,\u201d Thibodeau said after Friday\u2019s game. \u201cBut the thing is, we lose our defense, and so it\u2019s gonna be hard because once you do that, you\u2019re basically committing to outscoring somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before starting the past four games in Randle\u2019s absence, the 24-year-old Toppin had been afforded just 15.6 minutes per game over his first 67 appearances this season. The 2020 lottery pick is averaging 23.5 points while shooting 48.1 percent from 3-point range (13-for-27) over his four recent starts.<\/p>\n<p>Toppin, the 2021 Slam Dunk champion, has improved his 3-point percentage to 33.8 percent in 29 games since Jan. 23 after connecting on just 19.7 of his long-range attempts through his first 42 appearances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just feel like it\u2019s mainly confidence right now. That\u2019s one thing I\u2019m really working on when I\u2019m in the gym because it opens up a lot of things for me,\u201d Toppin said. \u201cBefore I was thinking, \u2018Don\u2019t mess up.\u2019 Now I\u2019m thinking shoot first and then go backside, dribble-handoff with guys and I\u2019m just playing with a different type of confidence now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Brooklyn native also joked that he\u2019s \u201cstill looking at the bench\u201d for a quick hook after making a mistake, but Thibodeau presently doesn\u2019t have the option of putting Randle back in the game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone loves Obi,\u201d Thibodeau said. \u201cWe were all worried when he got sick [with COVID-19 in December] that he was going to get us all sick because nobody gives out more daps than Obi.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery day, the thing that you love about him is he walks in the gym and he\u2019s got energy. He walks onto the bus; he\u2019s got energy. Your team can feed off that. He reminds me, in some ways, not in the way they play, but in the way they bounce in their attitude is Taj [Gibson]. That was a young Taj. In the middle of winter, he\u2019ll come in the gym and that\u2019s what you\u2019d feel from Obi when he walks in the building. You\u2019re like, \u2018OK, Obi\u2019s here.\u2019 You feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Obi Toppin\u2019s recent offensive surge only has accentuated the intriguing question \u2014 and the clamoring of chanting fans \u2014 whether the Knicks can find him more playing time next season, particularly when Julius Randle is healthy and available. If the Knicks remain committed to Randle, who will miss his fifth consecutive game in Sunday\u2019s season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[2055,507,215,884,409,1199,603],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14932"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14934,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14932\/revisions\/14934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nbanewsinsider.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}