In their last 2024 NBA Mock Draft, The Ringer has the Milwaukee Bucks selecting Zach Edey with the 25th overall pick. I think it would be a mistake for the Bucks to use their first round pick on a player with limited potential at an important position.
The article’s author, Kevin O’Connor, cites Brook Lopez’s age and the fact that his contract expires after the 2024-25 season as reasons for selecting a new big man.
While having a big man is useful in today’s NBA, especially on defensive and rebounding ends, two areas where Zach Edey can help on the surface, I have strong concerns about what it would be like training. see Edey in a Bucks uniform.
While Edey is averaging a career-high 2.2 blocks per game this season, it’s at the college level where floor spacing falls far short of that of the NBA. In the Big 10 (14 teams), there are only three teams that shoot on average above 36 percent from the 3-point line, and one of them is Edey’s Purdue Boilermakers. In the NBA, there are 19 teams that shoot 36% or better as a team.
For Edey to be a worthy selection, he would at least need to be useful on defense away from the basket. Although the Milwaukee Bucks currently operate a drop defense with Brook Lopez, there is a lot to be said for how Lopez defends this way and one would have to hope that Edey can learn that from Lopez a year before his tenure ends. CONTRACT. up.
O’Connor himself admits in his report on Edey that he is a “limited defender when he gets away from the basket. He struggles to recover on pick-and-pops and often gets blown out on closeouts “.
This is a major red flag in the Eastern Conference that has players like Joel Embiid, who would feast on Edey away from the basket or dribbling towards him, or a player like Kristaps Porzingis, who has size and an athleticism that Edey could not match. . Even Bam Adebayo, who is not a great 3-point shooter but has a very reliable mid-range jumper, could give him problems. Not to mention Julius Randle and Myles Turner, both of whom can stretch the field as big men.
