One week from today, the NBA will hold its draft, about four months later than normal. As we know, the Cleveland Cavaliers will have the fifth overall pick.
In the last two drafts, GM Koby Altman has taken two 19-year-old guards with his first overall pick, and last season had two other first round picks, taking a four year college player and another teenager.
Predictably, Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, and Kevin Porter Jr. have gone through a lot of growing pains since they joined the league, and as a result, the Cavs’ record has reflected that, with 19 wins (in 82 games in 2018-19 and 65 games in 2019-20) each year, among the worst in the league.
Since both Sexton and Garland were so young, Altman was banking on potential, and that’s not totally a bad thing.
This year though, it may be the time to step back from that theory. One national writer suggested the wine and gold try to hit a double in this draft instead of going for a home run, and that’s a sentiment we agree with.
That’s why we wouldn’t mind getting Obi Toppin from Dayton, which many mock drafts have the Cavaliers taking.
Saying Toppin is a “double” isn’t an insult, because after all, he was the college player of the year last season. But in recent years, the NBA draft has become an exercise in trying to project the play of young men basically a year out of high school.
Toppin is not that. He’s 22 years old.
To us, being able to put the ball in the basket is the great equalizer in hoops, and Toppin can do that, averaging 20 points a game at Dayton, shooting 68.8% from inside the three point line, and shooting 41.7% from beyond the arc.
If you can score, a lot of bad things can happen during a possession, but if you get the ball to the scorer and he puts the ball through the hoop, the result is the same as if you executed perfectly.
The scouting report on Toppin says he has good shooting fundamentals, a high release point, and can be effective in the pick and roll as well as a spot up shooter. All of those things are in the plus column.
He also has a good basketball IQ and is not a selfish player. Again, those are great traits to have on the court.
The supposed weakness for the 6’9″, 220 pound forward is defense. We don’t think this is a big deal, and here’s why.
First, the late, great John Wooden once said the same skills that make a player good offensively translate to the defensive end. And he has demonstrated that he is a good offensive player.
Second, in the NBA, there is a difference between someone who competes on the defensive end, and a player who doesn’t care or want to play on that end of the court. If Toppin has the desire to play defense, even if he isn’t quick laterally, he can do an acceptable job defensively.
Smart coaching staffs know how to hide players who don’t have the tools to be lockdown defenders, but show the “want to” when the other team has the ball.
We know the tendency is recent years for NBA teams is to take athleticism and hope they develop into basketball players. To us, Toppin is already a basketball player.
The “let’s keep tanking” people will disagree, but it’s time for the Cavaliers to start showing some progress in the win/loss column. We think drafting Obi Toppin can aid in the start of that progress.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 