Zach Edey is going to be a guy that NBA teams can trust to contribute in a big way on offense, it'll just be extremely matchup dependent whether he can stay on the floor on defense.
Zach Edey is one of the most polarizing prospects in recent memory, making it hard to peg where he’ll go in the 2024 NBA Draft. The 7-foot-4, 300-pound big man left Purdue as the leading scorer and rebounder in program history. And he was the consensus National Player of the Year in 2024, marking the second consecutive year that he took down those honors. Realistically, an argument can be made that Edey was one of the most dominant big men in the history of college basketball.
There was absolutely no shame in Edey being unable to lead Purdue to a championship. If anything, Edey showed that he can score with his back to the basket against, who is one of the better interior defenders in this year’s draft and has legitimate NBA size. With that in mind, that performance probably helped Edey’s stock.
Edey did work hard to improve his defensive footwork between his junior and senior years, and he deserves a lot of credit for the incremental changes he made. But guarding away from the basket, whether it’s defending guards on switches or just closing out on pick-and-pop bigs, will be a challenge for him. However, Purdue gave up only 0.779 points per possession with Edey on the floor in the half court, which is considered “very good.” And opponents only scored 0.
The other end of the floor is where Edey will make his bread, though. There’s nothing pretty about the way Edey plays basketball, but his size completely changes the game. Not only is Edey just taller and stronger than everybody else, making him an excellent pick-and-roll partner and a great overall play finisher, but he also has impressive touch for a clumsy-looking center.
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