Cleveland Cavaliers: Mocks have the team taking Obi Toppin but should they?

The Cleveland Cavaliers will have a top pick in August’s 2020 NBA Draft, and more and more mocks have them going Obi Toppin but should they?

The NBA Draft may now take place in August as it adjusts their off-season due to the COVID-19 pandemic but that won’t stop mock drafts from popping up from now until then about who teams at the of the draft should take. Of the big names in this draft, none may appeal more to Cleveland fans than Dayton’s Obi Toppin, the 22-year-old from Brooklyn, NY.

A few recent NBA mocks have the Cavs picking up the power forward no later than the sixth pick. The Cavs, who are tied for the best odds to land the first overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, will pick no lower than No.6 in the Draft due to their record (as it stands during the hiatus).

That means the Cavs should have a good shot at getting Toppin if that’s there guy but some draft “experts” are calling the 2020 NBA Draft a repeat of the 2013 NBA Draft, where the Cavs got the first overall pick and took another power forward; Anthony Bennett.

From Cleveland.com;

“This reminds me of 2013,” ESPN Analyst Fran Fraschilla told cleveland.com.

Is Toppin the next Anthony Bennett? Unlikely, Bennett was overweight, slow, and had no athletism to speak of. If anything, and it’s not a lot better, but this draft could be more along the lines of the 2000 NBA Draft. Especially with the comparison for Toppin, who plays so much like that year’s top overall pick, Kenyon Martin.

Martin didn’t have a bad career by any means, especially with the Jason Kidd-lead New Jersey Nets, but would a career like Martin’s be enough to justify the Cavs taking Toppin? He’s easily the most athletic player in the draft, at least as far as big men go, and he’s shown to be nearly unstoppable in transition. The only question is can he score if he loses his legs? Does he have a jumper he can fall back on when he can’t outrun, or bully down other bigs?

That might be his biggest weakness offensively. His defense is suspect but who’s isn’t in the modern NBA? You rarely have anyone play two-ways anymore. Unless the Cavs opt to move on from one of their three young guards, and with the addition and likelihood that Andre Drummond ops back in, then Toppin makes the most sense.