Zach's the kind of guy that will eat up some regular season minutes with decent play and retire from the NBA at age 37 after playing with 5 different teams, but he won't get many minutes in crunch time or playoff games (unless you need 6 fouls). He brings a specific and limited type of value: a traditional 5 who can play 18 minutes with your second unit and help you win some games in January and February.
He is way, way too slow for the NBA. He makes Alpi look like Giannis by comparison. I don't care if we end up dropping our 2nd rounder on him (#44 IIRC). Nobody we get with that pick is likely to play much anyway. But this dude is not a first rounder, not even in a bad draft class. At best he takes Boban's spot at the end of the bench and comes out occasionally during garbage time. Also, no reason whatsoever to take him if we end up with Sarr, Clingan, or Filipowski, just FYI.
European Big Man needed that is Laterally Quick. Croatian Ivica Zubac of the Clippers is Impressive with Length, Set Strong Picks for James Harden.
One things for sure.. He'll have us on Spotrcenter top 10 highlights alot but he'd be the unfortunate recipient.. Any publicity is good publicity I hear..
Was Yao fast? Is Jokic fast? Are Adams & Sengun fast? This kid doesn’t get 40-20 and 37-10 and back to back player of the years by being an immobile block. The risk is worth the reward and if we screw up by taking a 7’4” player….I can live with the extra height and rebounds when we play teams like the T-Wolves.
All three of them are/were much faster than Edey, yes. Also, Yao played in a different era of basketball. Edey is your typical college star who can beat up on mostly-smaller, less-athletic college players with no defensive three second rule and less space. I doubt he will even be able to play in an NBA rotation.
I respect your view, but how many times this year did we watch games where Ackerman or Hollins was saying we just couldn’t handle the taller bigs. Get Edey and that won’t ever be a problem again. I agree it’s a risk, but I do think that a guy like Yao would still be an above average player in today’s NBA. Ask yourself how many times Jabrari’s toothpick frame got manhandled down low against bulkier players….spoiler alert….answer was on a nightly basis. Add Edey as a backup big and he can be strategically used to make an impact defensively.
If Edey were good, he wouldn't be a 4-year senior in college. Use 44 on him if you want, using 9 should get you deported to North Korea.
Nobody is making him the 1st Option like Purdue would do in the NBA........merely a Backup off the pine. A lot of the rebounding is stat stuffing but his strength is boxing out and rebounding so it seems. Hats off to the Boilermakers.