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Two centers that will be discussed throughout the college basketball season and into June are Purdue's Zach Edey and UConn's Donovan Clingan. Edey, the 2022-23 consensus National Player of the Year, will be trying to carve out a niche in today's NBA as a Boban Marjanovic-style situational reserve. On the other hand, Clingan has the impact defensively to potentially be a lottery pick in the 2024 NBA draft.
In this week's notebook, NBA draft experts Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo look at the strengths and weaknesses of Edey and Clingan so far this season, what we learned from Bronny James' USC debut and if Cody Williams' wrist injury will impact his draft stock.
What are the chances an old-school center, such as Purdue's Zach Edey, can carve out a niche in the modern NBA?
One positive about being a specialized prospect is that having a shorter list of suitors can often mean you land somewhere you're wanted. At this stage in NBA history, most teams won't just default into drafting massive post-up-centric centers because they're broadly useful -- to take a player in that mold, a team has to play a certain style and have a vision for how to make them fit. That principle likely bodes well for Edey, who's having a great senior season at Purdue and will be a fascinating case study to monitor as the 2024 draft nears. There are plenty of teams that have little to no desire to invest in more traditional centers, but Edey has broken convention to the point that more open-minded front offices have to strongly consider him -- potentially toward the end of the first round and most likely as a Boban Marjanovic-style situational reserve.