Obi Toppin’s frustration with what mostly has been a minor role with the Knicks reportedly boiled over into a heated exchange with head coach Tom Thibodeau during the team’s second-round playoff loss to the Heat.
But did it stamp his ticket out of New York?
The former lottery pick is being dangled as a trade chip by the Knicks as a possible way to obtain a selection in the NBA draft on Thursday night.
Toppin is eligible for a contract extension this summer, but he could be traded away for a late first-round pick or as part of a package to obtain an established star later this summer.
Toppin had complained about not playing in the second half of Game 4 in Miami, prompting an “intense verbal altercation” between him and Thibodeau immediately after the game that “spilled into the [team’s] postgame meeting” in the visiting locker room at Kaseya Center, according to The Athletic.
The Post had witnessed an angry Toppin yelling at someone and being calmed down by teammates Julius Randle and Josh Hart, with Evan Fournier also nearby, in the hallway after the game, though it was unclear with whom he was upset at the time.
Randle and Hart declined to comment on the incident after the game, and Toppin did not speak with the media for the remainder of the series.
Toppin had started Game 1 against the Heat, scoring 18 points with eight rebounds in 31 minutes with Randle sidelined with an ankle injury.
But the Brooklyn native played just six minutes in the Game 4 defeat — and not at all after halftime.
Toppin and Thibodeau met the next day to clear the air, according to the report, and the third-year forward logged 12 minutes in each of the final two games of the series.
The 25-year-old Toppin was the eighth-overall selection in the 2020 draft out of Dayton, but he has averaged just 14.7 minutes per game over 201 appearances in his first three seasons with the Knicks.
He mostly has served as the backup power forward behind Julius Randle, who was named to the All-NBA second team in 2021 and to the third team in 2023.
The Knicks own 10 first-round picks through 2029, but they currently have no selections in either of the two rounds Thursday, having dealt their first-round choice to the Trail Blazers in the Josh Hart deadline deal in February.
The Mavericks also tanked to miss the playoffs and the play-in tournament at the end of the regular season, thereby retaining a top-10 protected first-round pick that otherwise would have conveyed to the Knicks from the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade.
If the Knicks are planning to buy into the first round this year, however, they have kept their plans very close to the vest.
They aren’t known to have worked out any players expected to hear their name called until late in the draft.
Among their known workouts have been Xavier guard Adam Kunkel, Connecticut forward Adama Sanogo, Fordham wing Khalid Moore and Arizona guard Courtney Ramey.
Additional reporting by Zach Braziller.
