Obi Toppin is super excited to have a fresh start with the Indiana Pacers.
How do I know? He must have said “super excited” at least 10 times in 12 minutes during his introductory Zoom presser with media covering both the Pacers and the Knicks today. Toppin may be more excited to be with the Pacers than my daughter was on Christmas morning when she had a Magic Mixie waiting for her under the tree.
“I’m super excited to be here,” Toppin started off his answers. “There are a lot of great guys here, great coaches—great everybody. I’m just super excited to just get out there and have fun. It’s a young group. They play fast. I feel like that fits my game.”
Toppin is a transition phenom that loves to leak out and beat the defense down the floor for spectacular dunks. He had the best effective field-goal percentage in the entire league last season (Tyrese Haliburton and Bruce Brown are second and third in this statistic per ESPN Stats and Info).
“It’s no secret; everybody knows what I do best on the court,” Toppin said about his fit with the Pacers up-tempo style. “Run the court, energy guy. This is a young group that likes to run, one of the fastest in the league. I’m super excited to get out here and get some leak out dunks. You know Tyrese is going to pass it.”
The Pacers had the 5th-highest pace in the league and that seems unlikely to slow down with all of the team’s major additions in Brown, Toppin, and even rookie Jarace Walker striving in those type of situations.
Toppin, who like Walker was picked 8th in his draft, never was able to supplant Julius Randle and find a bigger role for himself with the Knicks as he averaged only 14.7 minutes and 7 points per game over his three seasons. He improved his 3-point shooting from bad to slightly below average on decent volume this last year (34% on 3.7 attempts per game in limited minutes). Now, he’ll likely be competing with Walker for a starting position with his new team and be in line for an uptick in playing time.
“Nothing’s going to be handed to me. Everything is going to have to be worked for. That’s what I’m going to do as soon as I step foot down there in Indy,” said Toppin. “… When that opportunity comes, it’s going to be fun.”
For the Pacers, this was an extremely low-cost, low-risk bet on an athlete with a ton of talent and offers a divergent style of play compared to what Walker brings to the table as a power forward, which was on full display in his first summer league game. It’s a no-brainer move for the Pacers to give up just a pair of least favorable seconds far into the future for a player that could be a potential long-term fit with the team depending on how things go this season. As a starter with the Knicks in just 15 games, he averaged 20.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in 33.8 minutes per game including two 30+ point games against the Pacers at the end of this season.
Toppin has been around many of his new teammates in Las Vegas this week and working out but hasn’t dove into any depth on conversations with Rick Carlisle about his role and what his new coach will be wanting him to work on before the season. Instead they’ve just both expressed general excitement—there’s that word again—about the opportunity to work together.
“Nobody’s perfect so there’s always room for improvement in every aspect of the game,” Toppin said when asked how he could improve. “I want to be a sponge this year and learn from coach and all these players. There’s a lot of learning that I can do and it’s only going to help me.”
Toppin, a native New Yorker, didn’t want to go into depth about anything from the past with the Knicks including whatever happened in the playoffs with Tom Thibodeau after their game 4 loss to the Miami Heat but seemed like he was clearly ready to move on to a different situation.
“I feel like this fresh start for me is going to be great. I can’t wait to get down to Indy and get started. … I had a great time with the Knicks. It’s been a dream to have the opportunity to play in MSG and put that Knicks jersey … but definitely super excited to have this new journey and opportunity in Indiana.”
Let’s hope his super excitement translates to him causing fan excitement at home games when he throws down his first between-the-legs dunk for his new team this season.
For an in-depth look at Toppin on the Pacers, always read Caitlin Cooper. Link below.
You can watch the full interview here.
iPacers 