Bulls' Billy Donovan gets brutally honest on Zach Edey's NBA future after dominant season

11/04/2024 03:45

Zach Edey just finished up a dominant career with the Purdue basketball team and now he is set to take the next step in his career. He has been the most dominant player in college basketball as he is 7’4″, but his play style doesn’t translate well to the NBA. Because of this, he is not expected to be a high pick in the NBA Draft. The debate about Edey and his NBA career has been loud as of late, and Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan weighed in on it on Tuesday.

Traditional centers don’t have much of a place in the NBA these days. There are players that are Zach Edey’s size in the league, but they are more athletic and they can bring the basketball up the floor and shoot the deep ball. Edey doesn’t have that in his game.

Billy Donovan has coached at both the college and pro level in his career and he knows just about everything there is to know when it comes to basketball. He was asked about Zach Edey on Tuesday before the Bulls played the New York Knicks, and he thinks that there is one area that he might have trouble with in the NBA.

“I coached Jahlil Okafor with the USA team, and we actually played against Serbia in the championship game,” Donovan said to the media. “[Nikola] Jokic was on the team, and they had — [Vasilije] Micic on the team. Micic was a really, really good guard and Okafor had a really hard time defending in pick and roll. I think that he [Zach Edey] would be — I haven’t seen enough of him, obviously I saw a little bit of a game last night – he offensively would be fine. The biggest issue is going to be in pick and roll situations. It’s more of an issue on the defensive end, in my opinion, for a guy like that [traditional centers].”

Zach Edey’s dominant season

Edey was as dominant as ever this past season for the Purdue basketball team. He finished the season averaging 25.2 PPG, 12.2 RPG and 2.0 APG. His size made him nearly impossible to guard, but things are certainly going to change at the next level. The talent in the NBA is different. Still, Edey had an incredible college career, and he led the Boilermakers on a special NCAA Tournament run this season.

After losing to a 16 seed in the first round the year prior, Edey and Purdue made it all the way to the national title game this season. They came up short against mighty UConn, but it was still a great run.

It’s going to be interesting to see where Zach Edey ends up next year and if he can find success in the NBA.

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