NBA Mock Draft 5.0: How high can Obi Toppin fly?

There seems to be a fairly wide spread of opinions on Obi Toppin. The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie ranked him third on his most recent Big Board (which includes scuttlebutt from talking to teams). Dime’s Brian Schroeder has him ranked 17th and Toppin landed at No. 18 on The Step Back’s latest Big Board. Trevor Magnotti’s analysis that he “plays like a stronger Kyle Kuzma, and that is probably his NBA role, as well.” Doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Toppin is 6-foot-9 and an explosive dunker who made 32-of-82 3-pointers this season (39.0 percent). He put up 20 points a game for Dayton this season but it’s hard to see how he creates his own shot at the next level — he’ll be relying on cuts, transition dunks, spot-up attempts and finishing out of the pick-and-roll. He has been getting some Amare Stoudemire comparisons but that’s a fairly rosy take and Toppin is a similarly shaky defender.

He could absolutely put up some big numbers at the next level but doing it for a competitive team is going to put a lot of weight on the shot-creators around him. Cleveland is hoping that somewhere in the Darius Garland-Kevin Porter Jr.-Collin Sexton morass there is a backcourt of the future. Going big here seems like a no-brainer and Toppin is probably more appealing to them than the defensive upside of Okongwu.

Learn more about Obi Toppin with our full scouting report.