3 NBA Draft prospects who would really help the 76ers

Zach Edey

Zach Edey was the best player in college basketball this season. Listed at 7-foot-4 and 285 pounds, it’s not hard to imagine why. He is absolutely massive, leveraging that size to great effect on post-ups and on the defensive end. Edey is tailored to dominate at the college level, where the floor is more compressed and fewer bigs pose outside threats. The NBA is a different ballgame entirely.

Even so, pretty much as soon as the second round kicks off, NBA teams should start taking an interest in the 2023 Big Ten Player of the Year. Edey should be able to fill a very specific niche in the NBA, not unlike Boban Marjanovic once did for Philly and continues to do for Houston. He may not be playable in every matchup, but Edey can obliterate smaller defenders in the paint, dominate on the glass, and provide a real deterrence for guards attempting to drive the lane.

Something like 50 percent of the 2023 draft class will probably be out of the league or on the very fringes of NBA basketball in five years. While Edey might not be a foundational building block for any team, it’s hard to imagine there not being some occasional utility for such a dominant interior force with a measure of offensive skill. Even if he’s a 10-15 minute per game change of pace big, that’s great value for a late second-round pick or undrafted free agent.

For the Sixers, Edey would make a great deal of sense if Paul Reed commands too much money on the free agent market. Again, Edey probably can’t be the full-time Embiid backup in every matchup, but he would give the Sixers a source of rebounding and rim protection that’s currently absent in the second unit. Montrezl Harrell may or may not be back with the team next season and Dewayne Dedmon is a one-season, break-in-case-of-emergency rental. Edey is worth a look.