When it comes to NBA prospects, the perceived correlation between youth and upside can be quite a differentiator on various levels. General convention suggests the better a player is at a younger age relative to his peers, the more room there is to develop moving forward, from a physical, mental and skill perspective. Those specific tenets of evaluation have varied among top players year to year, but early draft picks are almost always college freshmen, with few exceptions. That said, player development and growth is sometimes aggressively non-linear. Perhaps no prospect encapsulates that variance better than Dayton’s Obi Toppin, who has become college basketball’s brightest star in a short period of time, and in the process has put himself in play as an early selection in the upcoming draft.
Dayton's Obi Toppin Is the NCAA Tournament's Hottest NBA Draft Prospect
