Knicks Sign Jacob Toppin; Has Brother Obi's NY Future Changed?

The New York Knicks just added Obi Toppin's brother after the draft. Is it an attempt to smooth things over?

For the time being, New York is the City of Brotherly Love. 

Unselected in last Thursday's NBA Draft, Kentucky forward Jacob Toppin is joining the New York Knicks' growing Las Vegas Summer League roster, a group that's set to defend the franchise's Sin City glory after a runner-up finish last year. Toppin perhaps has a better chance to make the NBA roster than most of his fellow undrafted Summer League compatriots, having inked a two-way deal.  

Despite his undrafted status, Knicks fans need little introduction to Toppin, the younger brother of regular roster prescience Obi. It's a transaction that raises eyebrows far beyond Vegas. 

Adding the younger Toppin (who faced off against his Dayton-based older brother when Jacob was at Rhode Island) turns the Knicks' lingering issues with Obi into a family affair. The signing came less than 72 hours after rumors of a noticeable rift between Obi and head coach Tom Thibodeau, as Fred Katz of The Athletic reported that the two came to verbal blows during the Knicks' penultimate loss of their postseason ousting in Miami.

Obi's future was in question long before his brother arrived from Lexington. The similarly-skilled Julius Randle is an established prescience in the starting five and just inked a nine-figure extension.

His Knicks career is perhaps the plainest proof that drafts in New York take on a muted, perhaps downright irrelevant, prescience as long as Thibodeau is in town. Three seasons into his NBA career, the eighth overall pick of the 2020 draft still can't earn consistent playing time. At 14.7 a game, Toppin's minutes are historically low among the No. 8 picks in NBA history: only five chosen since 1990 have played fewer. 

Even with his lack of a broad impact on the Knicks' roster, Toppin has shown enough promise (averaging 21.8 points when he started the final five games of the 2022-23 regular season in place of an injured Randle and later put 18 in on of the playoff games against Miami) and, at 25, has enough upside that he could've netted a first-round pick from a team believing themselves capable of "fixing" him.

So what's the deal with adding his brother? In its purest form, it's a sign of goodwill from management that potentially still believes that justify such high capital on Toppin. 

The Knicks will obviously continue to do their due diligence on any summer move, one where Toppin is one of their more valuable bargaining chips. But, even with the offseason hardly two weeks old, several transactional dominoes (i.e. Bradley Beal, Kristaps Porzingis, the draft) have already fallen. There will be ample opportunity to deal Toppin, but there's no denying some of the opportunities have passed, even if it was indeed better for the Knicks to watch the activities from afar. 

Thus, it makes sense that the Knicks would make a move like adding Jacob to appease his brother, one that's the ultimate definition of a low-risk, high-reward situation. Jacob's immediate Knicks destiny, if any, resides in Las Vegas or Westchester, if he even beats out Trevor Keels, Duane Washington Jr., or fellow Summer League participant Jaylen Martin. 

This also wouldn't be the first time that a New York Summer League contract has potentially been used as a sweetener, as J.R. Smith signed a slightly more favorable deal to extend his metropolitan stay in the same summer the team added his younger brother Chris to their Vegas affairs. 

Jacob Toppin is a decent pick-up by New York on a two-way. Coach Cal loves to play more of an old-school type of game, similar to Thibs.

On defense, Toppin stood out with his footwork and timely rotations. Will be a positive as a weakside rim protector en help defender. pic.twitter.com/c7R3INR97O

— Ersin Demir (@EDemirNBA) June 26, 2023

There also lies something more groundbreaking, if not unlikely: what if the Knicks are planning for an Obi replacement ... because Obi's going to take on a larger role?

Randle is coming off a resurgent All-Star season but recency bias has been downright cruel to him: his sour playoff performance (one partly hampered by the aforementioned injury) has caused many to put their general manager caps on and place Randle in hypothetical deals. 

Pulling the trigger on a deal like that, while still a bit of a longshot (thanks to the nine-figure attached to a recently-bestowed extension), would be the primary method of getting Obi his long-sought consistent floor prescience. Should it happen, the depth behind him would be part-time assistance from a presumably re-signed Josh Hart and perhaps late-season signing Isaiah Roby (whom the Knicks must have plans for, considering they gave him a full-season contract at the end of the year). 

In the meantime, Jacob's professional career would have an immediate purpose and a long-term goal could be set while veteran free agents  (i.e. Torrey Craig, Trey Lyles) could immediately take over the backup roles no matter what happens to Randle.

As it stands, the signing of Jacob frankly creates more questions about his older brother's future than answers. It's undoubtedly an act that smooths things over with Obi for the time being after some avenues to move him closed. Time will exactly how many Toppins ... both, one, or none ... wind up suiting up for the Knicks during the 2023-24 proceedings.

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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