Who is Zach Edey's best historical NBA comparison?

[D.Brasco]

Whether he's a star for today's game or not, who does his game best approximate among past or present NBA players

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[rk2023]

LSU Shaq

[Colbinii]

Al Jefferson

[KembaWalker]

Vernon Carey Jr

[Colbinii]

Vernon Carey Jr

How are they alike in any way?

[KembaWalker]

Vernon Carey Jr

How are they alike in any way?

They are both oversized, archaic back to the basket hook shot and dunk centers that were no good on defense and don’t really have a place in the modern NBA. Edey is taller I guess?

[Colbinii]

Vernon Carey Jr

How are they alike in any way?

They are both oversized, archaic back to the basket hook shot and dunk centers that were no good on defense and don’t really have a place in the modern NBA. Edey is taller I guess?

Edey is significantly taller, larger and stronger and significantly more defensive awareness and proven impact on that end. He has a much more effective back-to-the-basket game.

Edey also moves much better for his size compared to Vernon Carey Jr. Edey had very good combine results last year.

I don't think Edey will be anything close to a star but he is a far better prospect than Vernon Carey Jr. Really weird comparison, honestly.

[KembaWalker]

How are they alike in any way?

They are both oversized, archaic back to the basket hook shot and dunk centers that were no good on defense and don’t really have a place in the modern NBA. Edey is taller I guess?

Edey is significantly taller, larger and stronger and significantly more defensive awareness and proven impact on that end. He has a much more effective back-to-the-basket game.

Edey also moves much better for his size compared to Vernon Carey Jr. Edey had very good combine results last year.

I don't think Edey will be anything close to a star but he is a far better prospect than Vernon Carey Jr. Really weird comparison, honestly.

Not really at all, they will have the same outcome. Vernon Carey left as a young freshman, lost a bunch of weight and only practiced 3s because everyone told him being a post up center is bad. Edey is a senior, will be told by everyone that being a post up center is bad, will start shooting 3s, won’t be playable defensively. They’ll be in the g league together for a long time

He’s absolutely nothing like Al Jefferson, if anything. As someone who saw him at his best. Als post moves were a billion times more advanced than anything Edey can do

[colts18]

Enes Kanter

[Colbinii]

They are both oversized, archaic back to the basket hook shot and dunk centers that were no good on defense and don’t really have a place in the modern NBA. Edey is taller I guess?

Edey is significantly taller, larger and stronger and significantly more defensive awareness and proven impact on that end. He has a much more effective back-to-the-basket game.

Edey also moves much better for his size compared to Vernon Carey Jr. Edey had very good combine results last year.

I don't think Edey will be anything close to a star but he is a far better prospect than Vernon Carey Jr. Really weird comparison, honestly.

Not really at all, they will have the same outcome. Vernon Carey left as a young freshman, lost a bunch of weight and only practiced 3s because everyone told him being a post up center is bad. Edey is a senior, will be told by everyone that being a post up center is bad, will start shooting 3s, won’t be playable defensively. They’ll be in the g league together for a long time

Nah, Edey is a significantly better passer and is significantly longer and larger. He has better lateral movement for his size than Carey.

He’s absolutely nothing like Al Jefferson, if anything. As someone who saw him at his best. Als post moves were a billion times more advanced than anything Edey can do

Al had better moved but Edey is much better at drawing fouls. Edey uses his size extremely well to position himself in the post where he needs to take 0-1 dribbles and then relies on his positioning and size to finish.

Al clearly had a deeper bag, but that isn't the point. Both are relatively black holes who don't scale well on talented teams, both have clear weaknesses defensively and neither were good enough outside of offensive paint touches to impact a basketball game.

Seems like a modern-day Al Jefferson to me.

Again, I'm not comparing them stylistically, I'm comparing them on how they impact a game and where their shortcomings are.

[KembaWalker]

Edey is significantly taller, larger and stronger and significantly more defensive awareness and proven impact on that end. He has a much more effective back-to-the-basket game.

Edey also moves much better for his size compared to Vernon Carey Jr. Edey had very good combine results last year.

I don't think Edey will be anything close to a star but he is a far better prospect than Vernon Carey Jr. Really weird comparison, honestly.

Not really at all, they will have the same outcome. Vernon Carey left as a young freshman, lost a bunch of weight and only practiced 3s because everyone told him being a post up center is bad. Edey is a senior, will be told by everyone that being a post up center is bad, will start shooting 3s, won’t be playable defensively. They’ll be in the g league together for a long time

Nah, Edey is a significantly better passer and is significantly longer and larger. He has better lateral movement for his size than Carey.

He’s absolutely nothing like Al Jefferson, if anything. As someone who saw him at his best. Als post moves were a billion times more advanced than anything Edey can do

Al had better moved but Edey is much better at drawing fouls. Edey uses his size extremely well to position himself in the post where he needs to take 0-1 dribbles and then relies on his positioning and size to finish.

Al clearly had a deeper bag, but that isn't the point. Both are relatively black holes who don't scale well on talented teams, both have clear weaknesses defensively and neither were good enough outside of offensive paint touches to impact a basketball game.

Seems like a modern-day Al Jefferson to me.

Again, I'm not comparing them stylistically, I'm comparing them on how they impact a game and where their shortcomings are.

You know who else drew a ton of fouls in NCAA? Vernon Carey Jr. over 7 in 25 minutes as a freshman. That’s what Edey was getting in 32 min as a junior till his jump this year

[Colbinii]

Not really at all, they will have the same outcome. Vernon Carey left as a young freshman, lost a bunch of weight and only practiced 3s because everyone told him being a post up center is bad. Edey is a senior, will be told by everyone that being a post up center is bad, will start shooting 3s, won’t be playable defensively. They’ll be in the g league together for a long time

Nah, Edey is a significantly better passer and is significantly longer and larger. He has better lateral movement for his size than Carey.

He’s absolutely nothing like Al Jefferson, if anything. As someone who saw him at his best. Als post moves were a billion times more advanced than anything Edey can do

Al had better moved but Edey is much better at drawing fouls. Edey uses his size extremely well to position himself in the post where he needs to take 0-1 dribbles and then relies on his positioning and size to finish.

Al clearly had a deeper bag, but that isn't the point. Both are relatively black holes who don't scale well on talented teams, both have clear weaknesses defensively and neither were good enough outside of offensive paint touches to impact a basketball game.

Seems like a modern-day Al Jefferson to me.

Again, I'm not comparing them stylistically, I'm comparing them on how they impact a game and where their shortcomings are.

You know who else drew a ton of fouls in NCAA? Vernon Carey Jr. over 7 in 25 minutes as a freshman. That’s what Edey was getting in 32 min as a junior till his jump this year

Right...so Edey has shown actual development and growth in college to a level as a foul drawer that surpasses Vernon Carey Jr and that's somehow a negative?

You do realize not every player develops on the same curve. Development isn't linear.

Like you said, Vernon Carey Jr lost weight, changed his approach to the game and was no longer impactful as a basketball when he got to the NBA.

No team is going to put Edey on the perimeter and make him shoot 3's. Charlotte attempted to take a player who had clear strengths and weaknesses and force him to ignore his strengths as they developed him, and he failed.

[Texas Chuck]

Boban. Skilled offensive players who dominate with size and skill. Both have severe mobility issues defensively. Some may cite Edey as being better but he almost certainly won't be at the next level with all the PNR spamming. Probably not as skilled a scorer as Boban, but most natural recent comparison.

[HadAnEffectHere]

He's Yao Ming with longer arms and people don't want to say this because it makes them depressed that so much time has passed and so much change has happened that Yao would not be able to play in the NBA anymore.

Comparing him to Boban is weird as Boban was never that good at any level and Edey was a ridiculously elite college player.

Like, he won PotY twice and drug a horrible Purdue team to the national championship game.

[Cavsfansince84]

I'll say a more polished Ilgauskas(possibly). Ilgauskas I think could have been something pretty damn special were it not for breaking his feet 2-3x and he was still a 2x all star in spite of it.

[Colbinii]

He's Yao Ming with longer arms and people don't want to say this because it makes them depressed that so much time has passed and so much change has happened that Yao would not be able to play in the NBA anymore.

Comparing him to Boban is weird as Boban was never that good at any level and Edey was a ridiculously elite college player.

Like, he won PotY twice and drug a horrible Purdue team to the national championship game.

Boban is a weird comparison. Boban moves like a snail.

[eminence]

I get it that there's definitionally a best comp, but I don't think there are any good comps here, there's only a handful of guys that physically match up - just too rare to carry serious weight at that height.

[Cavsfansince84]

I get it that there's definitionally a best comp, but I don't think there are any good comps here, there's only a handful of guys that physically match up - just too rare to carry serious weight at that height.

Only Eaton comes to mind.

[D.Brasco]

He's Yao Ming with longer arms and people don't want to say this because it makes them depressed that so much time has passed and so much change has happened that Yao would not be able to play in the NBA anymore.

Comparing him to Boban is weird as Boban was never that good at any level and Edey was a ridiculously elite college player.

Like, he won PotY twice and drug a horrible Purdue team to the national championship game.

Yao Ming had a great jump shot. If Edey had that then he'd be a good comparison.

[penbeast0]

Let's see. Well over 7 foot tall, best player in college in his junior and senior years, relies on a hook shot. I'm going to throw Kareem into the mix, at least offensively.

Will he be Kareem in the pros? No. Kareem was a terrific defensive player, was a better athlete for his era, and played in an era where every team tried to build around a post scorer.

Is it a better comp than Vernon Carey Jr.? Probably.

My other comp was Georghe Muresan who was actually bigger but Big Georghe was much much slower. He made Boban look like Sarr. Textbook post moves, efficient scoring, adequate passer, but everything was just too slow to have a great NBA impact.