By now, it's old news that the New York Knicks fired their head coach, Tom Thibodeau, after leading them to their best season since 1999. Reports have since come out indicating that the Knicks had long planned for Thibodeau's dismissal, even before the Indiana Pacers sent them packing, and that they seemingly have no plan to replace him.
While the Pacers, who foiled their plans to make the Finals, can get credit for ending his five-year run with their rival, a 2023 trade helped close the coffin on his Knicks' tenure.
Under coach Thibodeau and team president Leon Rose, the Knicks dealt the then-underperforming Obi Toppin to the Pacers for two distant second-round picks.
During his second college season with the Dayton Flyers, Toppin was an All-American, the Player of the Year, and won the Wooden and Naismith Awards before being picked by the Knicks eighth overall in 2020.
Toppin never dominated the NBA like he did college, although he turned into a solid stretch-four who could shoot, rebound, and get to the paint, although he never was given much run in Thibodeau's strict rotations, averaging just 14 minutes per game in three seasons in New York.
With the Pacers, he has become a critical bench piece and pushes the pace when the starters sit, and has fully bought into both his role and the team culture. The Knicks fired Thibodeau in large part thanks to his unwillingness to give his second unit a bigger role, and had they stayed patient with Toppin, Thibs would have had a trusted player to use.
Toppin averaged nine points and 4.7 rebounds in the Conference Finals against his former team and scored 17 points off the bench on two occasions against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals.
Check out the All Pacers homepage for more news, analysis, and must-read articles.