The two Knicks first-round picks received major validations before and during Friday’s preseason finale.
Rookie striker Obi Toppin ranked third in the league’s Rookie of the Year 2020-21 award votes in the annual NBA.com-led poll.
Scorer Immanuel Quickley also looks set to force himself into that conversation, moving on to starting lineup and scoring 22 points with five assists and five steals as the Knicks closed out a 3-1 preseason with a 119-83 run away victory. . about the Knights in the Garden.
“I’ve loved his approach from the moment we incorporated him,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of Quickley before the game. “He is a hard worker, he is an intelligent child. A fantastic shooter. We haven’t seen him do what he does best, which is to throw the ball. Just a safe guy.
“A lot of people felt they couldn’t play ball and showed that they have a lot of confidence in the ball. And so it grew. He played the growing point. He didn’t play as much point in Kentucky, but they played a three-guard system. So I think with the way you approach things, the challenge will be fantastic every night. I think the Summer League and fall practices are missing and all of that has responded very well. It prepares well. He is a student of the game. It’s been fantastic. “
Kevin Knox nailed 6 of 7 triples and scored 20 points, RJ Barrett finished with 15 and Mitchell Robinson contributed eight points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots for the Knicks, who open their regular season Wednesday in Indiana. Reggie Bullock added 17 points and Julius Randle scored 11 with a maximum of eight assists.
Toppin, the eighth overall pick in the draft outside of Dayton, was relatively quiet, with six points and six rebounds in 27 minutes.
Earlier in the day, however, 22-year-old Toppin ranked third in the general managers ’rookie predictions of the year with 18% of the vote, mostly ahead of No. 1 overall team Anthony Edwards of the Timberwolves (7). per cent). Wasp LaMelo Ball topped the list with 39 percent, followed by Warriors center James Wiseman (29 percent).
“These surveys and predictions don’t make much sense. I just want him to keep focusing on how he’s come every day, to work as hard as he can, to try to improve every day, ”Thibodeau said. “It’s often small incremental steps that a player takes and that’s how I want him to approach it. Then he looks back and sees that he has made a quantum leap ”.
Toppin also received votes in the category in which the debutant will be the best player in the NBA in five years, finishing seventh, with Wiseman topping that list with 36%. And he was ranked fifth for “the biggest steal where he was selected in the draft,” behind Kings’ Tyrese Haliburton (12th), Saddiq Bey of the Pistons (19th), Pelira Kira Lewis Jr. (13th) and Tyrese Maxey of the 76ers (21st).
Toppin and Quickley were part of a youth quintet – also with Barrett, Robinson and Knox – that closed Wednesday’s comeback victory over the Cavs. Quickley, the No. 25 Kentucky general team, finished Wednesday with 24 points and seven assists in 24 minutes.
Quickley began Friday with guards Elfrid Payton (hamstrings), Dennis Smith Jr. (quad), Austin Rivers (English) and Frank Ntilikina (Achilles) who resisted so Thibodeau said they were grounds for caution.
The rookie started quickly, burying two first triples and scoring 15 points as the Knicks advanced to the half of 72-35 and never looked back.