Could Luke Kornet be the ideal mentor for Zach Edey?

The college standout has recently been mocked to the Celtics with the 30th pick in the 2024 draft.

It’s a luxury. The Boston Celtics have nine games left in their regular-season schedule—nine almost meaningless games. A couple more wins are needed to secure the best record in the league. And there’s always value in experimenting with rotations, combinations, and different offensive and defensive looks. But for the most part, we fans sit at home twiddling our thumbs.

We’re waiting for games to matter again.

While waiting, it’s hard to find legitimate things to focus on. Two straight losses to the Atlanta Hawks don’t really tell us much — even if injuries hobbled Quin Snyder’s team. The biggest lesson I learned from those two games was that Joe Mazzulla wants to see how Kristaps Porzingis looks when the Celtics switch 1-through-5.

“It was good reps for us,” Mazzulla said. “We went to that on purpose. It was an opportunity to practice stuff that we’re gonna need to get to. We haven’t done a lot of 1-5 switching with KP on the floor. I thought it was a good opportunity to get reps on that and get it on film.”

So, where does that leave us? What do we have to focus on right now?

I’m not about to start diving into potential playoff opponents. Too much can change over a nine-game span, and I think it is disingenuous to try to break down the failings of a team that’s clearly in coast mode.

So, today, I’m taking a look through a telescope and talking about the potential fit of a draft prospect. Mainly because I don’t know where else, or what else to look at. At least not at 10 am on a Saturday, with a raging toothache, waiting for a dentist appointment — such is the plight of doing Brazilian JiuJitsu as a hobby — teeth are often broken or damaged.

Entering the Zach Edey discussion

I don’t know what it is, but the Celtics can never seem to have too many big men. This season, they have four on the primary roster and another in the G-League, potentially waiting to fill the final roster spot. Yet, when you look at the latest mock drafts, and listen to some of the analysts on the airwaves, Zach Edey is the name being far too early linked with the Celtics at the end of the first round.

In his recent mock draft, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report had Edey falling to the Celtics with the 30th pick.

“With the national spotlight on college basketball, the debate over Zach Edey's NBA fit has gotten louder,” Wasserman wrote. “He continues to dominate in the postseason with a skill set that's deemed outdated for today's NBA. But the improved footwork, mobility and conditioning have helped pump new optimism into the possibility that he can move with pro bigs and slide adequately enough when pulled away from the basket.”

Edey is a throwback big man. His post-scoring skills are unquestionable, and his shot-blocking ability is legitimate. And his 7’4’’ size fits right into Boston’s remit for having serious height and length protecting the rim. Porzingis is 7’2’’. Luke Kornet is 7’2’’. Neemias Queta is 7’0’’.

However, not everybody is sold on Edey’s ability to translate his game to the pros.

“People are talking about Edey going in the first round and I’m asking myself if we’re really talking about a situational big man in the first round?” an NBA scout told HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto. “Is he going to be a starter? No. Is he going to be a backup every night? Probably not. He’s Boban Marjanovic in my opinion.”

While others think he could be a genuine backup big if given the time to develop.

“Edey might become the back-to-back Player of the Year,” An executive told Scotto in the same article. “He’s huge and can score down low, but we don’t play that way. He’s someone that I think can be able to step outside eventually because he shoots free throws well. If he gets switched out on the perimeter, however, he won’t be able to stop anyone.”

How would Edey fit?

The Celtics are a top-five team for posting up this season, averaging 7.2 post-ups per game. Jayson Tatum and Porzingis are the usual candidates to work out of the post, while Brown has also worked out of the mid-post on occasion. The problem is that Boston is 27th in the league for attempts at the rim, taking just 26.9 per game.

There’s no doubt that Mazzulla would find ways to feed Edey in the post and utilize his footwork to get easy looks at the rim. The problem is that the Celtics’s offense isn’t built around non-stop rim pressure. As such, Edey would need to learn to survive on the perimeter — much in the same way as Luke Kornet has over the past two seasons.

Look at this clip. This is the sort of offensive possession that Edey would need to become comfortable in, should he find himself on the Celtics ahead of next season. He sets an away screen before flipping his screen and becoming the second screener in a stagger action. As soon as the ball-handler has penetrated off the stagger, Edey rolls into the paint, ducks into a post-up and calls for the ball. From there, it’s a simple hook shot to complete the possession.

Outside of how the play ends (Kornet gets and finishes a lob), this action is pretty similar to the one we just saw from Edey with the Boilermakers: Stagger screen, Kornet as the second screener, wait for the ball-handler to come off both screens, roll to the rim hard.

This is another simple action that can translate to the NBA and has been seen throughout the season from the Mazzulla Celtics. A simple drag screen that gets slipped sending both defenders toward the ball and creating space for the roller. The bigger question will be whether Edey has the passing — or can develop the passing skills to work out of the short-roll in these scenarios.

One of Kornet’s biggest attributes when operating on the perimeter is his ability to make the right read when operating in short-roll actions consistently, and with his positioning/screening. Edey would need to develop a similar nose for the minutiae to thrive away from the basket, especially if he never develops a reliable perimeter shot. Still, if you can space the floor in different ways, there’s certainly a way to survive in an NBA offense as a non-shooting big man.

That leads us to his post-presence. There will undoubtedly be times when throwing the ball into the block and letting Edey go to work will be the best option and most logical route on offense. Those times will be fleeting, though — especially during his formative years as a young pro. So, finding ways to use the post to his advantage will be a must. For me, that should start with him becoming one of the best initiators out of grenade DHO actions in the NBA.

Simply put, a grenade DHO is a hand-off that occurs when a player (usually a big) has the ball on the low post and then dribbles away from the baseline toward the perimeter before initiating the hand-off with a cutter — usually a guard or a wing.

Here is a clip of a grenade DHO from earlier this season, with Neemias Queta and Jrue Holiday finding some success. The crux of the action is that the big man’s defender follows him as he dribbles away from the ball, allowing the hand-off receiver to attack while heading downhill with very little strong side defense to put up some resistance.

Given Edey’s gravity in the post, this would be another way of ensuring his presence would provide some form of spacing and perimeter-based creation without being a shooting threat.

Edey’s size would also allow him to be a screening threat on the perimeter, especially if he could dive into the dunker spot to keep spacing and learn how to mirror the ball-handler as he rolls so that he’s providing a passing outlet in the middle of the floor.

Kornet has developed all of these nuances over the past few years. They’re also why he’s one of the best backup bigs in the league this season. He has found a way to fit his skillset into a modernized big-man role. His example could be the best path forward for Edey to become a legitimate rotational big in the NBA without being force-fed perimeter jumpers too early into his career.

The same can be said about Edey on defense. Now, I agree that his foot speed is concerning, especially if he’s trying to split himself between two players in drop coverage. However, he has shown an ability to contain the ball-handler in the pick-and-roll, and his size makes him a genuine shot deterrent and rim-protector. We saw as much when he played for Canada at the FIBA World Cup last season — and he’s drastically improved since then.

Finally, I want to quickly touch on rebounding. Sam LaFrance — my colleague over at CelticsBlog recently noted how the Celtics rebounding is dropped by almost 25% during late-game situations.

“Boston holds the eighth-best defensive rebounding percentage in the NBA at 72.7% on the season,” LaFrance wrote. “The problem is, any time that they’re in a tight game that number drops significantly. In situations where the score differential is three or less in the final minute, the Cs grab just 54.5% of the boards, which is the 19th-best in the league.”

Edey is among the best rebounders in his class. Perhaps his presence on the bench would give Mazzulla another option if the Celtics needed to control the boards down the stretch.

The draft conundrum

Under Brad Stevens, the Celtics have primarily used their draft capital as trade chips. They seldom select players and usually do so late in the second round. However, with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement and the punitive second tax apron, it makes sense for the Celtics to explore opportunities to add young, cost-effective talent.

Another story is whether Stevens and the front office would view Edey as a talent worth developing. However, with Kornet being in the final year of his contract, and some tough decisions to make about Queta, Boston could be in the market for some additional size.

I would assume Kornet is re-signed and Queta heads elsewhere — which would then open up the G-League minutes for Edey to learn Boston’s system and develop in a similar way to Kornet. It could be a smart move for the player and the team.

The Celtics also have a second-round pick available. I wouldn’t expect them to use both their first and second-rounders this summer. If Stevens likes Edey, he may look to kick his second-round selection down the road and keep hold of an asset that would be valuable during future trade discussions.

Final Thoughts

We often speak about throw-back style centers as though there’s no place for them in the NBA. The truth is, any player entering the league without a consistent 3-point jumper is at a disadvantage — that’s just the way the game has trended in recent years.

Being at a disadvantage doesn’t mean you can’t succeed, though. Look at the season Andre Drummond has carved for himself with the Chicago Bulls. Look at Kornet with the Celtics. Jonas Valancuinas with the New Orleans Pelicans (Ok, he shoots some 3’s but not too many) — if you can find other ways to provide spacing, are humble enough to fill a role and work to excel in the role, and find yourself in the right situation, things can absolutely work out.

Whether the Celtics would be the right situation for Edey remains to be seen. But, from where I’m sitting, having him learn how to thrive as a non-shooting big from Kornet wouldn't be the worst idea in the world, especially if the Celtics picked him up with the 30th pick in the draft.

What do you think?