The NBA regular season ended on Sunday night. As usual, a lot of teams had their seedings and rankings set before the season finale. This meant a lot of players were resting, which gives other players on the roster chances to shine. While these players are not given a chance during the year as much, they can have breakout performances in these final games when given a shot.
For the Knicks, Sunday was the last game of the year as they failed to make the play-in and playoffs. Two young players who played sparingly this year were up for the task of showing what they could do though.
Obi Toppin
Obi Toppin had a massive game to end his second year in the league. He wasn’t given much of a chance at all in his rookie or sophomore campaign until this final week of the season. He averaged just 16 minutes and eight points per game this year.
The four games leading up to Sunday Toppin was given 30+ minutes in all of them and had 20, 20, 19, and 35 points. Then on Sunday, he erupted for a career high 42 points. It brings the question up of how expendable Julius Randle is with Toppin playing limited minutes behind him.
Immanuel Quickley
Immanuel Quickley was another second-year player on the Knicks who played a small role this year as he got just 23 minutes per night. Before Sunday night, Quickley had one of his best performances of the season going for 23 points with 10 assists.
On Sunday though, he had a triple-double with 34 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds.
Unfortunately, the season is over and these two young Knicks will likely have a struggle for minutes again next year unless some major roster moves happen in New York.
Photo Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Knicks_playing_at_Madison_Square_Garden.jpg
