TORONTO — Is Zach Edey an NBA player hiding in plain sight?
It’s implausible, of course — the hiding part, anyway.
Edey is on the short list of the most decorated players in college basketball history. He swept every major player-of-the-year award for the second year running in his senior season at Purdue, following up his breakout junior season convincingly.
The Toronto native led the Boilermakers to the NCAA final and put up 37 points and 10 rebounds in the loss to the favoured UConn Huskies, even more impressive considering he was going up against UConn centre Donovan Clingan, who is projected as a high lottery pick in the June 26-27 NBA Draft. Edey ended up tied for second in all-time tournament scoring and put an exclamation point on a season in which he led the nation in scoring and was third in rebounding helping Purdue to a 34-5 record.
And yes, he measured seven-foot-three ¾ at the NBA draft combine, with a nine-foot-seven standing reach and a rock-solid 299 pounds.
So Edey isn’t hiding anywhere, ever.
But the NBA player part is what is yet to be determined.
So what’s not to like?
Not all that much, apparently, as Edey routinely been projected to be taken somewhere in the middle of the first round, which is as good a reason as any that the Raptors hosted the Canadian at the OVO Athletic Centre for a pre-draft workout on Tuesday.
He knows what he’s good at – being a big man who plays big – and has no plans to go away from what got him to this stage.
“I think the NBA is a league for elite basketball players and some people like to think that something that it’s not,” he says. “I fit in [in the NBA] by doing what I do. I’ll always focus on impacting winning. Like, whatever a coach wants me to do. If a coach wants me to bang inside, get a rebound, catch a lob, that’s what I’ll do. If a coach wants me to work on other parts of my game. I’ll do that. I’m a flexible guy and I think I just want to win.”
And his timing could be good, too. For much of the past decade, the NBA has been trending towards a faster pace of place and a more widely spaced floor, which has at times made it difficult for traditional centres to find their niche.
But reports of the big man’s demise have been exaggerated. The best players in the NBA the past two seasons have been centres Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid. The Boston Celtics had one of the best seasons in their history after adding 7-foot-3 Kristaps Porzingis and the Minnesota Timberwolves reached new heights playing a pair of seven footers in Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns. Having quality size isn’t the only thing you need, but it’s hard to have a competitive roster without that element as the Raptors demonstrated this past season by going 4-28 in games Jakob Poeltl missed with injury.
“[Size] is still such an important part of how the NBA is played from as little [a thing] like setting great screens,” said Raptors vice-president of player personal Dan Tolzman, who is running the team’s draft process. “It changes the face of the game and yeah, there’s always a need for those guys and rebounding is so important. Protecting the paint is so important with how the best teams play.”
From Edey’s point of view, being drafted is only the start of an NBA career and guarantees not much other than two years of salary.
Going forward, Edey’s challenge is two-fold: he has to prove that the things he did well at the college level — scoring in the paint, rebounding and otherwise using his size to be a presence that opponents have to account for — can translate and he must expand his game beyond being a rim-protecting paint clogger. Shooting is one part of it and showing he can hold his own defensively at the hyper speed the NBA game is played at will be another.
His progress could also be a game changer for Canada Basketball, which has plenty of depth and talent at guard and wing but can only look to Edey at the moment as a paint-owning big man, a crucial element in the international game.
Will he be ready to contribute to the national team at the Paris Olympics this summer, given that rookies are usually streamed into the development programs of whatever team ends up drafting them?
“I’ll be there,” said Edey of the national team.
Starting his path to draft night with his hometown team, was a thrill in itself. Being taken by the Raptors, who hold the 19th and 31st picks, would be that much better.
“I mean, just when you grow up, [that’s who] I was watching. I remember — it’s not that long ago — but I remember driving around downtown after they won the championship (in 2019) — like downtown was going crazy,” said Edey, 22. “Now I’m in here working out, like it is really cool.
“[And] obviously getting drafted anywhere would be a blessing, but drafted by Toronto, it’s the team you grew up watching. It’s a team all my buddies are watching, my family watch. It’d be really cool.”
As a four-year college player who tested the waters of the draft process a year ago before electing to return to Purdue in pursuit of a national championship, Edey’s strengths, weaknesses and areas for development have been on display for all to see. He’s been playing basketball full-time for only six seasons, which gives added hope that he still has plenty of development runway to go.
The biggest immediate question mark is will he grow enough as a shooter that he can fulfil the duties of a modern big: being enough of a perimeter spacing threat that teams can’t afford to sag off him and fill the paint, making it difficult for his teammates to attack the rim and open the three-point line. It would also help Edey be more dangerous as a screener-and-roll player.
Can Edey shoot from three?
“Fifty per cent for my career,” he jokes, nodding to the fact he took only two threes in four seasons at Purdue, making one.
But he’s shown promise, shooting well in the NBA draft combine in Chicago last month, albeit in drills rather than in live game action. He showed more of that development in his workout Tuesday.
“That’s something that you work on,” Edey said. “You do drills, you spend your own time on it, but this off-season, I really attacked it. At Purdue I was a post-up player, it’s not a secret. I like to play in the post, I like to get rebounds. But now that I’m preparing for the draft, I’m really working on extending my range. I’m feeling comfortable out there and comfortable in doing different things.”
It’s been noted.
“I think probably more than anything … he seems to be playing with a lot more confidence,” said Tolzman after Edey worked out in front of the entire Raptors front office, scouting staff and head coach Darko Rajakovic. “And I think that’s from years of success in college and I mean, having one of the greatest careers in college history, like it’s hard to not step on the floor with confidence [and] … he’s definitely improved his body more than last year, which then overall probably improves him as a prospect just for where he’s at now versus a year ago. But skill wise, game wise, … the progression of him as a player, I would say, has been somewhat as expected, just with the amount of work that he’s put into it.”
But Edey’s main strength is what can’t be taught. Regardless of what parts of basketball have been emphasized at different times as on-court trends come and go, being huge has always been a positive attribute.
Edey was one of three Canadians in the six-player workout the Raptors hosted, Tyrese Samuel and Emanuel Miller were the others. Even among big, athletic young men with hopes of cracking the NBA, Edey’s inherent advantage could not be ignored.
“Today was something a little different,” said Samuel, a six-foot-10, 240 pound forward from Montreal who played for the University of Florida this past season. “When he [Edey] gets in that paint and opens up those arms, there’s just not much you can but foul him.”
Edey has the better part of a month to convince an NBA team that his size and developing skill will be worth a first-round pick. He has shown he’s willing to work on his weaknesses.
And his strengths?
You can’t miss them.