Former Knick Obi Toppin’s younger brother has started impressing in the G-League.
After going undrafted in June, Jacob Toppin signed a two-way contract with the Knicks and, over the last three games with Westchester, averaged a gaudy 26.3 points with 9.7 rebounds on 46.2 percent shooting — including 38.5 percent from beyond the arc.
It’s a pleasant surprise for a player who, despite his athletic lineage, was only considered a fringe NBA prospect out of Kentucky.
“I like him a lot,” Tom Thibodeau said. “I like the way he works. He’s done a good job. I think just for him, the challenge will be developing consistency with his shot. But he’s a very good all-around player.”
Toppin, 23, likely won’t get a meaningful chance this season with the senior Knicks, if only because the forward minutes are accounted for even with an injury or two.
He didn’t make the 15-man roster Sunday and hasn’t played a minute yet in the NBA.
But as a decent rebounder and strong defensive presence around the rim, he might be a better fit for Thibodeau’s style than Obi, who was traded in the summer to the Pacers.
The key, as Thibodeau referenced Sunday, is a consistent jumper.
Toppin wanted to make it clear he’s a different player than his brother.
“We’re two different people,” he said during training camp. “Obviously, we’re gonna be different players.”
In seven games overall with league-leading Westchester (5-2), Toppin is averaging 16.4 points and 8.1 rebounds while shooting just 39.3 percent.
David Fizdale, a disaster of a head coach in New York, has resurfaced — again — as an assistant under Frank Vogel.
Vogel, the Suns coach who also hired Fizdale as an assistant at his previous stop with the Lakers, defended the bespectacled assistant’s record with the Knicks.
“Fiz is one of the best coaches in the league,” Vogel said. “You know, tough deal [with the Knicks]. He didn’t have the roster to succeed and you hope that coaches get more of an opportunity than he got here.
“But he’s one of the best coaches in the league. He’s done it with Miami — he won a championship as a top assistant. He did a great job for me in L.A. even though we had a difficult season there together. And he’s doing a great job with us. The great thing about him is he can [coach] both sides of the ball. He ran my offense in L.A. and I’m asking him to oversee my defense here in Phoenix. So I trust him that much.”
Fizdale was fired just 22 games into his second season with the Knicks and a 21-83 record, the worst winning percentage in franchise history by far (even worse than Larry Brown). His Suns defense entered Sunday ranked 16th in defensive rating.
Last season, Fizdale, 49, was the assistant GM with the Utah Jazz and Vogel said bringing him back to the bench required some prodding.
“The front office is compelling to him,” Vogel said. “ He sees a future in that at some point. He was in a great spot, you know, with [Jazz president] Danny Ainge — he’s one of the best executives in the game and learning from one of the best. There was an opportunity. For us, we always talked about having unfinished business together because we had such a short time in L.A. So the opportunity came up and we went out and got him.”