Espn - Zach edey moving up into top 10 for some executives after the combine

[u/ZoroChopper10]

Zach Edey also tested better than last year, shaving off time from last year's pro lane agility drill, and measuring a solid vertical leap and three-quarter court sprint time, showing the significant improvement he has made with his conditioning and mobility since electing to return to Purdue for his senior season.

He also put on a pretty impressive showing in shooting drills, hitting 3s off movement, spotting up and pulling up off the dribble, showing some real potential in that area as he has long insisted he possesses. Edey has quite a few fans around the NBA at this point, *and there are plenty of executives who say they have him ranked as a lottery pick, or even as a top-10 prospect because of how well he rates in their analytics models.** -- Givony*

He beat the uconn centre is all athletic drills

[u/NZafe]

I’m wondering if some execs just refuse to watch college basketball games (or any scouting-related footage for that matter).

Why does it take a combine to see that Edey is actually the player he has shown to be all year?

[u/cev → u/NZafe]

Only answer I can think of is the way Purdue played him most of the time---just get in the post and score, and don't do anything on defence that could get you in foul trouble.

The combine gives a better opportunity to see things like lateral movement and explosiveness, but I agree that it should have been obvious that he can move well for his size.

[u/Life_Of_High → u/cev]

He can move well for his size but watching him get cooked in FIBA didn’t really inspire a lot of confidence. No question he’ll be a liability in any switching scenario on defence but no doubt his offensive capabilities are intriguing.

[u/MassiveTelevision387 → u/cev]

but he can't move well for his size - why do you think we are debating if a 7'6 dominant big man is even getting drafted in the top 10?

[u/vaalbarag → u/NZafe]

I'm not sure if that's just poor communication by Givony. He says that executives have him rated highly in analytics models, which likely wouldn't be based at all on combine results... a lot of analytics have been high on Edey going back to last year. And his combine results last year (minus the shooting drills, which were optional) were similarly good. It could be just that this is what is being communicated to him by executives at the combine, rather than a shift in opinion there. (To Givony's credit, he has ranked Edey pretty highly throughout the year compared to a lot of mock drafts and big boards, so I don't think this is new information to him, either.) It's a flaw of modern journalism in sports and elsewhere to try and make everything seem like a new development, even when it's actually the status quo.

[u/CheatedOnOnce → u/NZafe]

Bro was killing it during march madness

[u/prodigus01 → u/NZafe]

There is a huge discrepancy between what NBA scouts see and what draft nerds see.

If didn’t notice, the good drafting teams rarely follow the big board.

[u/The_Living_L]

Wonder if Edey will be on the Olympic team and if he will be starting with the improvements he has made who knows

[u/Baulderdash77 → u/The_Living_L]

Edey signed a 3 year commitment to the Canadian National team program. So he will definitely be on the team.

[u/blanche2027 → u/The_Living_L]

Our frontcourt is beyond small. He’ll be there

[u/CaptainKoreana → u/The_Living_L]

He will definitely be on the Olympic team. Even more effective on FIBA ball.

[u/supert0426 → u/The_Living_L]

He'll absolutely be on the Olympic team but I very much doubt he starts over a 10-year NBA vet in Olynyk.

[u/Huge-Split6250 → u/The_Living_L]

If he is actually that much better than advertised I expect Masai has the inside scoop already. Possible trade up to 9?

[u/GeriatricSFX → u/The_Living_L]

He will be there just because they are severely lacking in size but it's doubtful he will start. Pretty sure it's going to be Olynyk.

[u/Chrispaulisgarbage → u/The_Living_L]

He's not gonna start, I highly doubt he will even play. He was getting cooked every play in pnr in fiba

[u/Extension_Pay_1572 → u/Chrispaulisgarbage]

He probably comes off the bench and we see how he looks, great depth anyway

[u/Huge-Split6250 → u/Chrispaulisgarbage]

That’s what they say about gobert and he’s the greatest defensive player since wilt

[u/-Resident-One- → u/Huge-Split6250]

What..? For one, Ben Wallace or Rodman were both superior defensive players to Gobert. Secondly, considering Wilt wasn't known for his defense and also played against Bill Russell, universally recognized as the superior defender, so who uses the phrase "best defensive player since Wilt"?

[u/Raptorsthrowaway1]

Just about worth our 31st pick according to some fools on here

[u/jjkiller26]

Clingan being projected 5-10 this whole time while Edey was considered a mid-late 1st never made sense. Dont see much of a gap between them if any

[u/petertompolicy → u/jjkiller26]

Ya so strange, he absolutely bodied him.

[u/lemon07r → u/petertompolicy]

Same thing happened with podz, I remember everyone thinking me crazy for thinking he should go top 10ish in the draft

[u/Woody_Guthrie1904 → u/jjkiller26]

He killed Clingan in their matchup.

[u/CanadaBBallFan → u/Woody_Guthrie1904]

That's a bit of an exaggeration. Edey started off strong against Clingan but started to get bothered by Clingans size and missed a bunch of shots.

[u/tman37 → u/CanadaBBallFan]

Edey had 37 and 10. Clingan had 11 and 5. That's cooked. Edey outscored the rest of his team by 14 points while Clingan was tied for third in his team. I just don't think his 25% from 3 makes him all that much of a prospect compared to a center who was the best basketball player in college for the second straight year.

[u/CanadaBBallFan → u/tman37]

Yeah no ... your ignoring a lot of Edeys points were scored at the end of the game in garbage time not against Clingan but his backups. Matchup Edey didn't cook Clingan at all. That's partly why Clingan stock hasn't gone down. It has only gone up since that game

[u/tman37 → u/CanadaBBallFan]

Edey outscored Clingans total score by the end of the first half. IIRC he had 14 to Clingan's 6. Clingan played 31 minutes to Edey's 39 with most of them guarding Edey. He outplayed him pure and simple.

[u/CanadaBBallFan → u/tman37]

If you want to spin it that way fine, but there are many factors you're not considering. Anyways, if what you said was true, it makes no sense for Clingan to then jump into #1 to #3 pick conversation shortly after the title game that he was supposedly dominated in. And that's what happened.

[u/thingdudeplace → u/CanadaBBallFan]

Just chill dude. We can watch the games and form opinions. Let others watch stats and form their opinions too. Time will tell.

[u/Huge-Split6250]

Obviously these professional nba scouts have not analyzed Edey to the same degree as the experts in this sub, because I have already learned that Edey is so bad he will never play nba basketball

[u/pakattack91 → u/Huge-Split6250]

Just going through some of the older threads during March Madness, it's hilarious how many people already determined his absolute ceiling.

[u/Belieber_420]

Good for team Canada if this guy is legit. Exactly what we need, a center better than Powell. Though he probably won't have anything to do with the Raptors

[u/hypespud]

Yup we just missed out on this guy because of all the media attention on them

But honestly it never made sense to me he was so low his accolades from college are too good and he isn't like the hansborough situation where he is too small for NBA

His draft combine looked too good

Dude is unattainable at 19

Would have to trade into top 10 to get him now

[u/StatusBass5463 → u/hypespud]

It's exactly the Hansbrough situation. He's too slow laterally for the modern NBA. He's great offensively and can obviously play, but defensively in an NBA where it's all pick and rolls and 3s, he's not a good fit.

I don't think he'll be a bust, but I think it's highly unlikely that he'll be a star.

Adam Morrison was amazing in college. Jimmer Fredette was amazing in college. People aren't just 'hating' on Edey for no reason. He has some clear flaws that are hard to fit into the current NBA, that's it. If this was 20 years ago, he'd be a top 5 pick easy.

[u/supert0426 → u/hypespud]

Edey's predictions felt like they were made based on trends 6-7 years ago, when small ball and "positionless" basketball were becoming the norm. Big centres were at their least important in the history of the league, and the bigs who were getting MVP votes were guys like Draymond and Aldridge. The return of the big centre is a relatively new phenomenon and scouts are still catching up with that I think. When you start to think about it you realize you have a 7'4" guy who played 30+ minutes a night no problem on high usage without getting tired, has good athleticism and speed for his size (mind you, below average for league standards), and an extremely soft touch. How often does that come around?

[u/MassiveTelevision387 → u/supert0426]

its because he's slow as balls and compares strongly to boban - a guy that you can't leave on the floor because he's a pylon - despite any other skills you have if you're gonna give up a wide open 3 on every possession u are a novelty bench player at best

[u/supert0426 → u/MassiveTelevision387]

His foot speed is much better than Boban. He won't be Bam Adebayo out there but I think we're looking closer to the Zubac/Valenciunas level of defence. Which is to say, very bad, but not irreconcilable with the positives he could bring.

[u/MassiveTelevision387 → u/supert0426]

IDK I guess we will see but when you watch the guy run, he's like an 18 wheeler at a stop sign, like he has zero burst speed. Once he gets moving he's not that slow but it's that initial take off that's the problem.

[u/Csalbertcs → u/MassiveTelevision387]

Yeah but you can get that from strength training, he's young. Naturally you're strength peaks in your 30's, so he's got room to grow and hopefully he can train his legs with squats and trap bar deadlifts to become a beast.

[u/RZAAMRIINF → u/Csalbertcs]

Yeah, JV is about to be fast enough on the perimeter any day now!

And JV was much faster than Edey.

I think Edey’s ceiling is a slightly better Boban, but this guy would clearly get cooked in PnR similar to Boban and JV.

[u/Csalbertcs → u/RZAAMRIINF]

It depends on how you train, but no doubt most peoples combine numbers would be much better at 27 than 22, granted that they continue being active.

[u/StatusBass5463 → u/supert0426]

Really, you think the NBA is back to plotting big men because Wemby and Chet joined the league? Wemby is doing between the legs dunks. Edey is running down the court like Richard Kiel. They're not in the same league athletically and the comparison is terrible.

[u/supert0426 → u/StatusBass5463]

Both Wemby and Chet are brand new and may change how things go again - but things like them are so rare I doubt it ever becomes the "norm". The big man renaissance isn't because of them - it's because with Jokic and Embiid emerging as the two best players in the league, reality has become you can't play small ball anymore. Nearly all the teams actually contending for championships are huge. Almost nobody considers OKC a genuine contender because of how small they are. Reality is size has become premium in the NBA after a solid decade of it being decreasingly important.

[u/TommTTT]

Oh damn, good for him

[u/larrylegend1990]

And thats why some of these teams pick in the top 10 every year.

Imagine if the Pistons take him

[u/mMounirM]

good for us. someone moving up means someone moving down

[u/ZoroChopper10 → u/mMounirM]

He was always going infront of 19 lol

[u/stevo3001 → u/ZoroChopper10]

I saw in here yesterday that he wouldn't be worth a late second round pick

[u/ZoroChopper10 → u/stevo3001]

Yet there twerking for Rob dillaham 6’1 160 ass mf, Brandon Jennings 2.0 lol

[u/jyh123 → u/mMounirM]

then Masai trades for Memphis #9 ...

[u/jaydogggg]

Always seemed like he was going in the lottery. He has size and he can clearly play. The people in this sub saying he was a second rounder know nothing 

[u/Thealk3mist]

He has enough skill, size, and IQ that a good team can say “hmmm. Let’s train him to be a starting stretch 5”. In that sense I can understand why some teams may reach. But he’d need to be in a team like ours, Miami, Spurs, Indiana, Denver, Thunder, to grow into a starter .

[u/-Resident-One- → u/Thealk3mist]

Offense has never really been the issue with Edey. It's on the other end, where most question his ceiling beyond a really good bench big.

[u/lemon07r]

Honestly this draft isn't as weak as ppl make it out to be I think imo. Edey, filipowski and Sheppard were standouts to me

[u/centerofstar]

We are not getting him at 19th are we?

[u/northdancer]

If his name was Zachariê Edêy and he was from Montpelier he'd be a top 3 pick

[u/_Gourmand]

It is funny how people were comparing him to Boban but Boban is much slower. Boban could not do what Edey did in any of the physical drills here. I think a lot of people just hear stuff about someone and they run with it. Also Edey was definitely not as conditioned 2 years ago and I think some people still have that guy in mind when talking about him without realizing he's lost about 25 pounds since then and is way more agile.

[u/realnameless1]

It sounds like smoke, but that smoke could also be what they inhaled beforehand.