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Saturday was supposed to be different. There was no Knicks game scheduled, which meant the Knicks couldn’t hurt us, right? Right???
And then we checked Twitter:
Obi Toppin (health and safety protocols) is out for tomorrow’s game against Milwaukee.
— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) December 11, 2021
Good gravy! This sucks. We know that Obi Toppin is vaccinated, but what does this mean? Newsday’s Steve Popper clarifies things a bit.
Toppin is vaxxed. A vaxxed player can be in protocols for either a positive test or inconclusive test. If positive a player can discontinue isolation and rejoin his team after EITHER 10 days from date of 1st positive test OR after he returns 2 negative tests taken 24 hours apart.
— Steve Popper (@StevePopper) December 11, 2021
So Obi is out for an indefinite period. This is horrible for a number of reasons. He finally got the playing time he so righteously earned this season in Friday’s loss to the Raptors, scoring a career-high 19 points and grabbing a career-high 10 rebounds. The ever-stubborn Tom Thibodeau finally relented and played Obi alongside Julius Randle after months of crying “rim protection” and throwing a trio of hobbled, ineffective centers to the wolves. Perhaps Obi finally received a promotion in the rotation moving forward! Now we won’t know for a little while.
So who will soak up the backup PF minutes? Two-way contractee Luka Samanic? Intriguing, but I doubt it. Kevin Knox? Ew. It’s probably gonna be Knox, isn’t it.
Oh yeah, and the Knicks are facing the world champion Milwaukee Bucks Sunday, followed by the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday. This is bad stuff.
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