Charlotte Hornets Best and Worst Case Scenarios for the Draft

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Dayton Flyers Obi Toppin. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Worst Case Scenario #1: Drafting Obi Toppin

This might be shocking but hold on. Obi Toppin is a very talented player, and was arguably the best player in all of college basketball last year. But that was college, and this is the pros, that does not always translate. I’m not here to say Toppin will be a bust, I think he has a lot of potential and could be very good one day, but he also could, well, just bust.

Now besides this, let’s look at this from the Hornets point of view. Yes, Toppin is talented, but is he better than any of the consensus “Big 3” in this draft? Is he even the best of the rest of the prospects? Is the reward of his upside worth the risk of his traits (mainly defensively) that may lead him to potentially being a bust?

Those are the questions Mitch Kupchak and the rest of the Front Office will have to answer. Toppin is a college star whose playing style would be redundant for the Hornets, and has severe defensive efficiencies. We’ve been down this road before (See: Frank Kaminsky).

And yeah, Toppin and Frank are COMPLETELY different players, but is drafting a 22-year old who is likely one of the worst defenders, if not THE worst, in the whole draft really that smart from a young team lacking defense already? Especially when there are better, younger players available to pick?

It would not seem like it to me. I get the whole the Hornets are lacking a superstar argument to take him, but even if the superstar potential is there, WILL he reach it?

I think the Top 3 prospects all have near equal, if not better, upside than Toppin has. Frankly, I don’t know if I’d touch Toppin with a Top 6 pick, much less Top 3 selection.

Toppin is gunning for a home run, and while that’s nice, you strike out and that ends the game. Why go for the Home Run when you can just keep hitting singles and playing small ball? Like jeez, there’s still teams successful playing that style of baseball while slugging teams (Looking at you Twins) are struggling to win a Wild Card series.

Now that my baseball rant is over, is Toppin REALLY the best selection for this team? I’d say far from it based off redundancy and all of those other factors that I mentioned before. Avoid drafting Toppin, there’s better prospects out there to be selected.