Zach Edey knows the current NBA is all about centers who can step out and shoot. Edey thinks he can do that too, but he's more focused on staying true to his game.
“I think it just comes with kind of realizing who I am,” Edey said. “I’m never going to be the wiry seven-foot guy who can — like Kevin Durant, that is never going to be me, guys like that. I’m a 7-foot-4, 300-pound guy. I’m built to be in the paint, to carve out space to protect my area. And that’s what I’m gonna keep doing. I think there’s a lot of people in the NBA that do stuff like that. (Jonas) Valanciunas, (Ivica) Zubac, Steven Adams; guys who had a lot of success in the NBA being those paint presences. I’m going to stick to who I am and I kind of know who I am.”
The Purdue product measured in at nearly 7-foot-4 without shoes at the NBA Draft Combine. He also ended up with a nearly 7-foot-11 wingspan. That size, combined with his skill and timing, made Edey one of college basketball's best shot-blockers last season.
That skill, plus his ability to control the glass, is what Edey plans to bring initially into the NBA.
“A team would be drafting me for who I am,” Edey said. “I think I can get there but right now they’re not drafting me for, like, pick-and-pop shoot 3s. Right now, they’re drafting me to get in the paint, get rebounds, protect the paint. Obviously, you saw in my shooting drills I can shoot. I can do stuff like that if you ask me to.
“But it all just comes down to what the team asks me to do at the end of the day.”
