Zach Edey was the most dominant player in college hoops this past season. He controlled the paint with his 8-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 be talking about Edey as the runaway favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick. But the game has changed significantly.
Traditional back-to-the-basket centers have been replaced by floor spacers who can handle the ball and knock down shots on the perimeter. So the biggest question many teams will face on draft night is: Where does Zach Edey fit in this modern NBA game?
“If a team wants to draft Edey, they have to change the way they play,” an NBA scout told Yahoo Sports. “Not necessarily to play around him, but he would become a secondary center off the bench to provide rim protection and size. Is that worth a look in the first round? In this draft? Probably.”
Edey is confident he can break the mold and become a productive major player in the NBA. He is a smart player who can anchor a team’s defense with his 7-foot wingspan and 9-foot-7 standing reach.
“Every team needs someone to hold the paint,” Edey told reporters at the combine. “You need someone to grab rebounds, someone to block shots and finish lobs. It doesn’t all have to mean that I have the ball in my hands and in the post-up.”
Edey has only made one three-pointer in his entire college career, and that is certainly an area for development. But at the combine, he shot pretty high in the spot-up drills and showed NBA scouts that he can expand his game.
“Obviously at Purdue there were a lot of post-ups, but if you really watch the game there’s plenty of ball screens, seals, indirect hitting and going back in, and that’s what they do in the NBA and that’s what I can bring to any team,” said Edey.
Defensively, however, he will be targeted. He won’t be able to camp in the paint and defend the rim like he did in college with the defensive 3-second rule. Opponents will try to extend him in ball screens and transitions throughout the game. With his limited foot speed, this is the most glaring weakness in his game. It will only be a short time to see if his game can translate defensively with the speed and movement of the NBA. There’s also the concern of how a grueling 82-game schedule will wear on his 300-pound frame with limited recovery time.
Edey likely won’t be drafted as a player that teams can build around, but rather as a player who can come off the bench and provide some size for 15 to 20 minutes every night. He understands that he will never be like the 7-foot playmakers who have come out of the draft in recent years, such as Chet Holmgren, Victor Wembanyama and Alex Sarr this year.
“I’m built to be in the paint, to create space, to protect my area. And that’s what I’m going to continue to do. I think there’s a lot of people in the NBA that do that kind of thing. [Jonas] Valanciūnas, [Ivica] Zubac, Steven Adams; guys who had a lot of success in the NBA were those paint presences. I stick to who I am and I know a little bit who I am.”
Edey received a green room invitation to the NBA Draft on June 26-27 in New York, but has opted to watch Purdue with friends and family. His realistic draft range is somewhere between 14 and 25, with multiple sources telling Yahoo Sports that he will likely come off the board at pick No. 20.
Edey has trained for the Trail Blazers, Lakers, Raptors and a few other teams with a realistic landing spot being Toronto, where he grew up and has family there. He will also be part of the Canadian men’s national team this summer heading to the Olympic Games in Paris.
This is the perfect design for Edey, with all the uncertainty and no real star power at the top. For teams looking for something where you know exactly what kind of player you’re getting, Edey is the man. Dominant frontcourt players like Edey haven’t delivered in the NBA in recent years, but he could be the standout player who breaks through and has a long NBA career.
