Washington Wizards draft prospect highlight: Obadiah Toppin

Defense

Obi Toppin has elite shot blocking ability at the collegiate level with a 4.1 block percentage, fueled mostly by his vertical ability. Remember, Toppin doesn’t play center.

While that ability to block shots won’t exactly be game changing when he inevitably plays on the next level, it does certainly come in handy. To compare to current Washington Wizards players, Ian Mahinmi has a 4.7 percent block rate and leads the team, then the next highest active player is Thomas Bryant with a 3.2 percent block rate.

And of course, both of those guys are centers and are in a position to block the basketball much better than Obi Toppin.

But aside from his leaping ability, defense is perhaps the biggest question on the next level for Obi Toppin. He doesn’t really have the lateral movement on defense to keep up with small forwards, but that would be the spot the Wizards would want to play him.

It remains to be seen if he has the ability to defend a guard in a screen-and-roll situation or contest jumpers in a meaningful way on quicker guards, but Toppin has the athletic ability and game sense to make it happen. He just needs a little work in my opinion.

His total rebounding percentage is solid at 14.5 percent. That would put him ahead of everyone on the current Washington Wizards team that isn’t a center, and a good deal ahead of Isaac Bonga or Troy Brown in that category, guys he would be replacing in the lineup.