Zach Edey is still very much in the air on his future. Will he go to the NBA or return for his fourth season at Purdue? The landscape of Purdue and all of college basketball will likely rest on what Edey hears from the NBA in the next few days.
While Edey’s agent has been gathering information all off-season, it is finally time for the NBA Combine and that means NBA personnel and GM’s will get to see Edey in person, working out at the combine, recording measurements, and getting in one on one. work outs with teams. Edey will have through May 31st to make a decision and he plans on using every minute to decide his immediate future.
After one day, many questions remain, but Edey has started to do his part in getting answers. He recorded the first of his physical measurements. No surprise to anyone, his early returns show him as the biggest prospect at the Combine. He’s an outlier with his size, and the question of where his game fits in the NBA still remains after a surprisingly athletic first showing at the combine.
Zach Edey is bigger than anyone this year, or last, at the combine.
Edey’s initial measurements show an impressive height, at nearly 7-4 with no shoes. His standing reach was just under 10 feet, and his wing span was a devastating 7 feet and 10 and a half inches long.
Edey comes in as the tallest player at this year’s combine. He would have been last year’s tallest player as well where Walker Kessler was the tallest player at 7′.25″ and Mark Williams had the longest wingspan at 7’6.5″. Edey eclipses both of those marks easily. Williams was taken 15th by the Charlotte Hornets last year while Walker Kessler was drafted by the Utah Jazz at 22nd overall last year.
Zach Edey’s range in mock drafts ranges from second round to undrafted at this point. There just aren’t players like Zach Edey to draw parallels from in the modern NBA as we know it.
Athletic enough?
Of course, height was never really a question or concern with Edey and his NBA profile. Instead, the NBA will have to figure out if Edey can survive on the move in the NBA.
Edey’s initial athletic testing showed that despite the near 300 lbs, the Canadian big man was able to move in the 3/4 court sprint at an encouraging pace. While not breaking any speed records, his 3.53 speed puts him in the middle of a pack of successful big men. Brook Lopez has made a career out of being tall and deterring players at the rim, but also has a three-point shot. Same for Kelly Olynyk and Demarcus Cousins, who have both shown the ability to stretch the floor. (Cousins career has been eroded by injuries after being a top NBA pick and was out of the league this year.)
Rudy Gobert has won the Defensive Player of the Year Award in the NBA and is regarded as one of the best rim protectors in the NBA, but has also struggled to have real success in the playoffs. Edey’s measurables are encouraging that he at least keeps up with the bigs of the past, but it is not a number that redefines his game as the NBA moves away from bigs who need elite skills elsewhere to offset a lack of quickness on the court. Gobert was traded last year by the Minnesota Timberwolves for one of the biggest draft hauls in NBA history.
A trade that currently looks lopsided in favor of the Utah Jazz.
An impressive showing by Edey in the maximum vertical jump might not change a bunch of minds in the NBA, but it won’t hurt. For comparison, Tacko Fall, a 7-5 center that was drafted in 2019 had just a 26.5″ max vertical at his NBA combine. Fall who played in the NBA off and on for the better part of four seasons, never had anywhere near the college career of Zach Edey Edey is coming off a National Player of the Year campaign and is trying to match his production to physical output at the combine.
Tuesday will be mostly one on one work outs with players and teams. Edey has already been involved with some work outs with teams and has been causing some issues for opposing players. Edey’s ability to set effective screens with his wide body and surprising agility could give him a boost in fitting in with a more NBA style offense that won’t look to live in the post with the big man.
Edey talked to me during the season how this part of his game really developed during his work with Team Canada and the U19 team where he played with NBA players and in a system that revolved around him playing as the big in the high pick and roll. He’s been working at Purdue since the season ended to add to his game and his body.
After day one of the combine, nothing seems to have changed for Edey who will go into work outs tomorrow before public combine drills and scrimmages continue on Wednesday.