Zach Edey has been the most dominant player in college basketball this season. He controlled the paint with his 7-foot frame. He averaged 25.2 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 32 minutes. And he helped lead Purdue to the national championship game, where he scored 37 of the team’s 60 points in a loss to the UConn Huskies, who won back-to-back titles. Twenty years ago, the NBA world would have been talking about Edey as the overwhelming favorite for the No. 1 overall pick. But the game has changed significantly.
Traditional centers with their backs to the basket have been replaced by floor spacers who can hold the ball and knock down shots along the perimeter. So the biggest question many teams will face on draft night is: Where does Zach Edey fit in this modern-day NBA game?
“For any team to draft Edey, he would have to change the way he plays,” an NBA scout told Yahoo Sports. “Not necessarily to play with him, but he would become a secondary center off the bench to bring rim protection and size. Is he worth a look in the first round? This draft? Probably.”
Edey is confident he can break the mold and be a productive big-time player in the NBA. He is a smart player who can anchor a team’s defense with his 7-foot wingspan and 9-foot reach.
“Every team needs someone to hold the paint,” Edey told reporters at the combine. “You need someone to get rebounds, someone to block shots and finish lobs. It doesn’t all have to be about me having the ball in my hands and being on defense.”
Edey has only made one 3-pointer in his entire college career, and that is definitely an area of development. But at the combine he actually shot at a pretty high rate in spot-up drills and showed NBA scouts that he can extend his game.
“Obviously at Purdue there were a lot of post-ups, but if you actually watch the game, there’s a lot of ball screens, seals, hitting the indirect and coming back and that’s what they do in the NBA and that’s what I can bring to any team.” , said Edey.
Defensively, however, is where he will be targeted. He won’t be able to camp out in the paint and defend the rim like he did in college with the 3-second defensive rule. Opponents will try to extend it on ball screens and switches throughout the game. With his limited speed, this is the most glaring weakness in his game. It will only take a short period of time to see if his game can translate defensively to the speed and movement of the NBA. There is also concern about how a grueling 82-game schedule will affect his 300-pound frame with limited recovery time.
Edey likely won’t be drafted as a player for teams to build around, but rather as a player who can come off the bench and add some size in the paint for 15-20 minutes every night. He understands he will never be like the 7-foot-1 playmakers who have come out of the draft in recent years, like Chet Holmgren, Victor Wembanyama and Alex Sarr this year.
“I was made to be in the paint, to open up space to protect my zone. And that’s what I’m going to keep doing. I think there are a lot of people in the NBA who do things like that. (Jonas) Valančiūnas, (Ivica) Zubac, Steven Adams; guys who have had a lot of success in the NBA being those presences, I’m going to continue being who I am and I kind of know who I am.
Edey received an invite to the green room for the June 26-27 NBA Draft in New York, but chose to watch with friends and family at Purdue. His realistic draft range is 14 to 25, with multiple sources telling Yahoo Sports he will likely come off the board at pick No. 20.
Edey has worked for the Trail Blazers, Lakers, Raptors and a few other teams with a realistic landing spot in Toronto, where he grew up and has family there. He will also join the Canadian men’s national team this summer as they head to the Paris Olympics.
This is the perfect draft for Edey with all the uncertainty and no real star power projected at the top. For teams looking for something surefire where you know exactly what kind of player you’re getting, Edey is the guy. Dominant frontcourt players like Edey haven’t had success in the NBA in recent years, but he might just be the outlier to break out and carve out a long NBA career.
