The Knicks have announced that they’ve waived a pair of players on two-way contracts, wing Matt Ryan and forward Jacob Toppin (Twitter link).
With these moves, only swingman Kevin McCullar remains among the club’s two-way players.
As Ian Begley of SNY.tv observes (via Twitter), New York also still has an open standard roster spot. Several intriguing veteran options remain available for the contending Knicks in free agency and the G League.
Ryan, a 6’6″ swingman, appeared in 19 regular season games for New York this season but played very sparingly, logging just 68 total minutes. He had per-game averages of 1.5 points and 0.4 rebounds in 3.6 minutes.
Ryan has also logged time with Boston, the Lakers, Minnesota and New Orleans since 2021/22. Through 82 NBA games over his four-year career, he is averaging 3.7 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.5 assists per game. Valued as a floor-spacing wing, he is a career 40.2% long-range sniper on 2.4 triple tries per night.
The 6’9″ Toppin made even less of a dent at the NBA level than Ryan this season. In 16 appearances for New York, the second-year forward averaged 0.4 points and 0.7 boards across 3.1 minutes per game.
That said, Toppin did show promise with the Westchester Knicks. In 11 regular season G League games this year, the younger brother of Pacers forward Obi Toppin averaged 25.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 0.8 blocks and 0.7 steals per contest.
It’s worth noting that two-way contracts are only available to players who are in their first four years in the NBA, so several players rumored to be on the Knicks’ radar for their standard roster spot, like T.J. Warren, Chuma Okeke, Moses Brown, would not be two-way eligible.
Jacob Toppin was as useful as Thanasis Antetokuonmpo and Zoran Dragic.
Knicks needed to cut these players sooner. Moses Brown is playing great in Dallas
Did you not read what this article says? This makes zero difference on their ability to sign a guy like Moses Brown…
The waiving of the 2 way contract players isn’t necessarily driven by anything other than availability. Toppin is at or close to his “active game” limit of 50 NBA games, and Ryan would have to be at least close to that as well. At that point, a 2 way player can’t be active for an NBA game the rest of this season without being converted to a standard contract.
It would be great if guys like Begley actually understood situations like this. Who knows, they might provide some insight on where the NYK might be going with those 2 way slots the rest of the year.
Maybe sign A Bailey and ? Lewis on two way contracts so they can have two other young players developing with Dadiet
Not sure how 2way contracts help the Knicks at this point. I know they will sign TJ to a contract on parent team. Don’t know if they can add another one or two to roster. For a playoff run. I believe in a strong bench. Depth on a bench. Depth by numbers is always a good thing.
Reah that Moses Brown is available for Knicks. But I wonder why another team wouldn’t sign him. Considering Hukporti is coming back. Makes sense he wouldn’t be a priority for Knicks. And he should be for Lakers, Kings, Warriors, Nuggets, even Cavs.
TJ be ready player …….
Knicks fortunate to win in Miami tonight. OT game and a big comeback win. Wouldn’t be possible without Mitch 14 mins. More so his mins and production from Grizz win. Cause it allowed Towns, Hart, team to endure 40 plus mins tonight. In an OT game thriller.
That is the definition of how Mitch minutes helps this team ………. Mitch Knicks are 2-0.
A Team needs everyone ….
“But the Knicks recovered in the third quarter by subbing out Towns for Mitchell Robinson, who ignited a rally and awoken the pro-Knicks crowd with a steal, an offensive rebound and a putback to cut the deficit to 3.
It was just Robinson’s second game back from ankle surgery and his third-quarter minutes were momentous. But he’s also under a minutes restriction, and he was subbed out early in the fourth quarter for good.“
Jalen is Captain Clutch. And heart and soul of team. But they don’t win without contributions from everyone. So its a plus to add Mitch to everyone.